Barry Levinson
Mayor Whitaker prior to the vote by Council to appoint David Hendricks as our next police chief called him Chief Hendricks. Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse Bruce Whitaker?
It is also a very strong Indication that Mayor Bruce Whitaker and the rest of the City Council already knew that nothing said by the public commenters would or could alter their votes. Yes he was their selection behind close doors but shouldn’t there be a final decision made by council after hearing from the public at the Council Meeting. If you have decided amongst all of you that nothing anyone said at the Council Meeting would change your minds then what Is the purpose of the public comments other than a dog and pony show.
Dog and Pony show ringleader Bruce Whitaker
Question No. 1: If you did decide among yourselves that no comments at city council would sway your vote is that not a Brown Act Violation mayor Whitaker?
Question No. 2: Why wasn’t the vote for a new police chief postponed until all five council members were in attendance?
Another indication of the dog and pony show was the reading of two letters by Jennifer Fitzgerald and Greg Sebourn welcoming Mr. Hendricks as our new Police Chief prior to the final vote by the council. We are then told that Fitzgerald’s and Sebourn’s approval of Mr. Hendricks do not count as votes due to their absence from the meeting. I think it is a slap in the face of the community that such an important decision would be made with 40% of the council absent. I guess both Sebourn and Fitzgerald did not care that they were not giving the public a chance to persuade them not to vote for Mr. David Hendricks. The Fullerton City Council’s arrogance is there for all to see once again.
They all ignored the facts that Long Beach PD has a very troubled and disturbing history of major problems including millions of dollars paid out from lawsuits generated by bad behavior such as excessive force by several Long Beach Police Officers and it was stated by a public commenter that all of them that were identified for the record were still on the force. The fact that Mr. Hendricks was in charge of internal affairs for the Long Beach Police Department and he spent his entire police career with that department only makes these facts more disturbing. Does he believe that it makes sense for the city to approve multi-million dollar settlements for the bad acts of certain police officers and then allow them to remain in the force? I am sorry but that is the definition of a corrupt and broken system. That milks the innocent public dry of millions of dollars that could be much better used for infrastructure or properly maintaining our parks. This is the status quo apparently in both the Fullerton and Long Beach Police Departments. Police officers commit bad acts, we the innocent public/taxpayers are held financially accountable but not the officers who are guilty of these acts. I guess when are Human Resources Director stated that one of the things they liked about Mr. Hendricks was that he was a good fit with Fullerton Police Department maybe they were thinking that both departments have made the public pay out millions for their employee’s bad acts while the employees in actuality usually only get an extended paid vacation i.e. paid administrative leave. Again we the innocent public is held to account but the officers usually get off scot-free. Where is the fairness to the taxpayer in such a corrupt system of dealing with the financial consequences of these lawsuits? What a totally broken and corrupt system and not a peep about this by our Mayor Whitaker or any other of our council members. This is just another example of how our city council has once again totally failed us as our elected representatives.
The spirit of Pat Mckinley is alive and well
This shows the contempt the city of Long Beach, Fullerton, and other cities have for its citizens. You have millions of tax dollars going to pay for wrongdoing by police who in many cases are still on the job. The taxpayers, not the police who commit these bad acts pays the victims in some cases millions of dollars and then we as taxpayers have to continue to pay for their salaries and benefits after we the taxpayer not the officers have to pay to make the lawsuits go away. And they have the nerve to be called public servants. Are you kidding me! We the taxpayers are used and abused by those cities that demand that we pay for the public servants’ misconduct.
After two public speakers Sean Paden and David Curlee made important and relevant comments specifically about the millions of dollars paid out by the City of Long Beach in the past few years alone due to police misbehavior and the issue of Mr. Hendricks getting his college degree from an unaccredited college, this is what Mayor Whitaker incredulously stated immediately after they were finished. Bruce Whitaker was quoted as saying as follows: “I DON’T KNOW IF ANYTHING NEEDS TO BE ANSWERED FROM PRIOR TWO COMMENTERS?
Council had not discussed these extremely important issues at all. Yet Mayor Whitaker states that he doesn’t believe either of these issues needs to be addressed by the city council members or the city attorney or the city manager or by any other city employee. How about Mayor Whitaker you require the person you are about to give the highest paid Fullerton employee total compensation package by tens of thousands of dollars to answer both of these questions sir? You Mayor Whitaker and the rest of the council are a complete disgrace to our community. Not a whimper by Whitaker or any of them about giving out a five-year contract. Back in 2012, Whitaker spoke out against giving Dan Hughes a five-year contract. Question: Was your initial objection to giving Dan Hughes a five-year contract genuine or political grandstanding? I ask this relevant question since this time phony Whitaker was totally silent. I guess now that he wants to run for higher office he is perfectly fine with five-year contracts and totally ignoring all the problems within the Long Beach Police Department. WHAT A GUY AND FURTHERMORE, WHAT A POOR EXCUSE FOR OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE!
It appears that two of most ardent of Bruce Whitaker’s supporters, Sean Paden and David Curlee have become a political liability to Mayor Whitaker at this late date. Maybe now both Sean and David finally may realize that Whitaker used them. Even if they now understand they were used by Whitaker, the timing is very unfortunate as both of them helped Whitaker to get reelected to a third term on the city council.
Appointed Mayor Bruce Whitaker deserves to be recalled from the Fullerton City Council and to never be placed in a position of authority either elected or appointed ever again. But instead of doing the right thing, he will be busy running for Newman’s State Senate seat. What a guy!
#1 by Anonymous on July 29, 2017 - 6:53 am
Why did we give a contract for such a long time to this man?