Another Disclosure Delay, Past Tomorrow Night’s Council Request for More Money?

The person who requested financial information from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department in early July with results outlined in an earlier post “Ask about Police Finances, Get Demand for Personal Appearance at Police Headquarters” , and also from the City’s Finance Department received a response from Councilwoman Patsy Kinsey dated Saturday evening.  It contained only the forward of a quote said to be from CMPD Attorney Mark Newbold.  The response was forwarded to citynewswatch as well and is below. 

·       Tomorrow, Chief Monroe will go before Council to ask for $600,000 to ask for remodeling money for CMPD facilities.

·       A couple of weeks ago, Chief Monroe wrote that he and Curt Walton were giving a highly-taxed, 1% lump sum compensation to CMPD employees (not a raise) with a letter stating he wished there were more to give…

·       This was just after giving out some big actual raises to the Brass that support the Chief…

·       And City Manager Curt Walton doesn’t want to talk about that, either (see story here )

Dear Ms. Kinsey, with regards to all others,

Thank you for forwarding the quote from Mr. Newbold's response to you.  However, I need to point out that the accuracy of the content of his quote is just not correct.

“Information responsive to (writer’s) first request was forwarded to (writer) on August 2, 2011. Captain Cunningham who oversees our public relations office received another e-mail expanding/clarifying his requests on August 3, 2011.  I anticipate that the Department will respond to his request for additional documentation within one week.”   (Mark Newbold)

A reading of the correspondence between the various police department employees, including the Board Member of a "CMPD charity" receiving public funds, the finance department employees, and the references to conversations during which the requests were extremely clear and which dated back to early in July do not support Mr. Newbold's comments.  I hope that incorrect notion will be corrected. 

It also seems, then, that Mr. Newbold's comments read in isolation as they are here, are intended to both overlook and justify in some way the very inappropriate behavior by employees of the City of Charlotte, including the Office of the Chief of Police, when requesting information about the financial actions of the Police Department of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department.

I still expect to have a response regarding the intimidating demands to provide personal information and a personal appearance at Police Headquarters in order to get a response to questions regarding the financial receipts and spending of the Police. 

The fact that there has been a promise of an about face (and I say promise, because information still has not been provided) does not negate the activities which have occurred prior to this date. 

I also hope that the full Council and Mayor will be discussing the issues of the conduct of the Police Department, the conduct of the Finance department who either chose or was also intimidated into not revealing the information, and the spokesperson for the City who supported all of this.  

I also hope you will take a hard look at the financial information which has been requested, because it seems one obvious conclusion could be there is a very hard push not to let anyone see this public information about how our public money is really being spent.

Thank you for you continued involvement in this matter.

UPDATE:  Upon learning the Police Chief planned to go before Council the evening of August 22^nd to ask for nearly $600,000 while still claiming to be so confused they can not assemble what amounts to simple cash flow statements for their department , another letter was sent to all members listed below to enlist their more direct intervention to get to the bottom of what has been going on with all issues—and not to issue any more money for special projects before all other monies and activities are accounted for.  Please join in asking for this accountability.

 

SENT TO COUNCILWOMAN KINSEY, ALL CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, MAYOR FOXX, CITY MANAGER CURT WALTON, CHIEF RODNEY MONROE, AND OTHER CMPD PERSONNEL BEFORE START OF BUSINESS ON AUGUST 22, 2012:

Dear Ms. Kinsey and all others,

I have been informed that there is a Charlotte City Council meeting tomorrow evening and that Chief Monroe intends to ask for $600,000 to do more remodeling.  This request is immediately following statements of lack of funds to give raises to officers, and of course, claims that no one in the City of Charlotte has a handle on the true financial picture of Police Department activities.  I would add to the letter below that in no way should this additional spending request be approved before all matters cited below are cleared and discussed publicly. 

I would ask and encourage you to use the time scheduled August 22nd with Chief Monroe appearing before Council to ask some deep questions regarding all of the activity and the financials cited below.

Thank you again for your attention.