In a City Council meeting that was short on agenda items was anything but on drama.

Jim Winters, a former detective with the East Ridge Police Department, blamed the current leadership of the ERPD for bungling its “investigation” into the burglary of his truck at his Ten Oaks Drive home last week.

During the “communications from citizens” portion of the meeting, Winters told the Council that he has lived in East Ridge since 1969. He had been the victim of six burglaries over the years, three of which he believes were done by the same person. During a Feb. 20 burglary of his truck, an officer spent three minutes taking a report. Winters said he asked the officer if investigators would be coming by his house in an attempt to lift fingerprints from the vehicle. Winters said that the officer told him that the department didn’t do that kind of thing anymore.  A detective followed up with the investigation on Wednesday, Winters said, and the detective told him that the department relies on computer programs to solve cases.

Winters continued by saying that he encountered ERPD Chief J.R. Reed on the day of the burglary and that Reed was talking with a neighbor of his down the street and unaware of what had happened at the Winters’ residence.

“He (Chief Reed) doesn’t know what’s going on in the city,” Winters told the council. “When I was in the department, we solved 10 times the crimes they do now. The department is depending on computers to solve cases and not doing the legwork.”

Winters said he and his wife were considering moving out of East Ridge.

Mayor Lambert thanked Winters for his candor, but that Winters was “painting (the situation) with a broad brush.”

Mayor Lambert said that he would give Chief Reed the opportunity to respond to the criticism, which prompted Winters to say that Reed had applied for the Chief of Police position in Cleveland, Tenn. and that “if his (Reed’s) heart isn’t in it, get somebody else.”

Chief Reed explained to the council that the department does not use software to solve its cases, that it is “another tool in the box.” He said that Capt. (Tim) Mullinax is over the Criminal Investigation Division and that he was not sure why the detective who made the comments to Winters did so. He went on to say that under his watch Reed had hired 13 police officers and had in the recent past promoted more officers to the position of detective. Training, Chief Reed said, has been intensified in an effort to improve the efficiency of the department.

“I’m sorry that Mr. Winters is unhappy,” Reed told the mayor and council. “I try to stay on top of what’s going on, but I don’t know the details of every crime that happens.”

Winters then asked Mayor Lambert for an opportunity to respond Chief Reed’s remarks. The Mayor denied Winters’ request.

Nevertheless, Winters rose from his seat in the audience and again began berating the lack of leadership in the department. Winters made a comment about the mayor having to “put him in jail,” before leaving the council chambers.

Mayor Lambert apologized to those in attendance and said he should have “stopped (Winters) sooner.”

“In my six years as mayor that is only the second time I’ve had to gavel anyone down,” he said. “Most people are respectful of the venue. I’m very disappointed.”

In “old business” the Council once again took up the issue of the state grant to be used to build tennis and basketball facilities, and a dog park and walking track in Camp Jordan. The specific resolution before them on Thursday was to authorize a $5,000 payment to an engineering firm to do a topographical survey to meet requirements of the grant. The issue had been tabled from the last council meeting.

A discussion ensued about possibly turning the grant back to the state and starting over. Confusion reigned over what the  vote was about: Was it about paying a bill to an engineering firm, or was it concerning abandoning the grant? It was brought up that the engineering firm hadn’t performed the topographical survey yet, so was a resolution really needed?

Mayor Lambert carefully explained that first the resolution needed to be taken off the table before any action could be taken. That was accomplished. The council voted to reject the “change order” to spend $5,000 on a survey in Camp Jordan. Then the council directed staff to essentially start over with another grant process. The new grant would be for tennis, basketball and dog park facilities to be constructed somewhere in the city other than Camp Jordan.

Amanda Miller, the ad-hoc grant specialist for the city, was directed to start the process over with state officials, who she explained would be receptive to the city’s alterations.

“I feel like we’re playing ‘who is on first’ right now,” Miller said. 

According to Wikipedia: “Who’s on First?” is a comedy routine made famous by Abbott and Costello. The premise of the sketch is that Abbott is identifying the players on a baseball team for Costello, but their names and nicknames can be interpreted as non-responsive answers to Costello’s questions. For example, the first baseman is named “Who”; thus, the utterance “Who’s on first” is ambiguous between the question (“Which person is the first baseman?”) and the answer (“The name of the first baseman is ‘Who'”).

Mayor Lambert said he did not want anybody on the council to come back at the next meeting and say “we want it in Camp Jordan.”

The council once again revisited the issue of hiring additional staff in administration.

Councilman Jacky Cagle and Vice Mayor Marc Gravitt balked at making any decision because of a lack of information concerning a job description and salary for a new hire.

Interim City Manager Mike Williams elaborated on the situaiton by saying that a person who had been working in codes enforcement was moved to a receptionists position as a disciplinary action. That employee’s pay had been reduced. The former receptionist was moved “to the back” and was “taking up slack” in human resources and finance.

There was discussion about how much money the person disciplined was making as a receptionist after having been demoted.

That was too much for Gravitt. “I’ve got problems with paying a receptionist more than what some of our police officers are making,” he said.

Gravitt said “in the real world” people who get demoted get a pay cut.

Interim City Manager Williams said the city has no policy providing for such. “I’m just working with what I’ve got,” he said

Councilman Denny Manning made a motion to table the issue, which passed, 4-1, with Councilman Larry Sewell casting the dissenting vote.

The council decided to bid out work to make improvements on much of the city’s IT infrastructure. The firm eBryIT, whom the city had done business with for many years, had quoted the city $40,000 to upgrade aging infrastructure. After some discussion, Councilman Manning made a motion for the city to bid out the job which passed unanimously.