[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:17] Jen, call the roll, please. Mr. Casiano. He just stepped out of your right back. Mr. Smone. Yeah, Mr. Serio. Here. Thanks for your short. Yeah, Arizona. Here. We're going to start off with an invocation from Marguer resident and a master sergeant. Also, pastor, Mr. Gary Wilder, and then after that, we're going to go into our plagues of allegiance, which will be done by Emmett Garberino. So Mr. Wilder.
[0:53] Good evening, everyone. Let us pray. Father, we come to you now in the name of Jesus. We thank you for this moment, this opportunity, that we can come together, Father God, and just to, first of all, lift you up in everything that we do.
[1:07] Father, we invite your spirit into this session tonight. And we ask you, Father God, that you would just continue to guide the leadership of this city, our mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, Father God, give them what they need to lead this city in the right direction.
[1:20] So, Father, we ask you to let you anoint to be a pun them, guide them and protect them,
[1:25] Father God, and everything that they do.
[1:27] We pray for all of our city leaders, Father God.
[1:29] We pray for our police, Father God, is there out there protecting us each and every day
[1:32] our fire, department, and all the ones that are out there on the front line protecting us
[1:37] in this city.
[1:38] So, Father, we pray and ask that you just be with this session tonight that every decision
[1:43] made, not be made by human minds, but let it be made by your Spirit, Father, so it would
[1:48] be led in the right direction.
[1:49] We thank you for everything that you're doing in and around us, Father, and we just thank you for everything that you're going to continue to do.
[1:56] To let this city be a beacon on the hill that other cities will see what market is doing to take it to the next level in you.
[2:03] We thank you for this time. We thank you for this moment as we exalt and praise and magnify your holy name.
[2:09] And we claim the victory now as we stand on your covenant, stand on your will and on your way. For in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[2:16] and, thank you, as well.
[2:18] And now we're going to have Emmet Gavarrina from,
[2:22] for a second.
[2:23] Come down to the podium, Daniel.
[2:25] I'll come down there with you.
[2:28] What's
[2:38] the pleasure of allegiance?
[2:43] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
[2:48] and to the Republic of Administration.
[2:51] What nation, what do you call,
[2:53] Intervisible will live in the domain.
[2:56] Thank you very much, Ellen.
[3:00] You guys can see it. That's good. Thank you guys want to thank Amick for leading the pledge tonight. He's also going to be our athlete of the month.
[3:08] So Amick, this is for you. I love the pledge. City of Marguerite. Congratulations.
[3:14] Congratulations.
[3:15] I'm going to serve for Todd and Christmas and again.
[3:31] Don't go too far.
[3:37] Come here, Emmett, you're still here.
[3:39] All right.
[3:40] For those that don't know, once a month, we do our athlete of the month.
[3:43] In this month, our winner is Emmett.
[3:46] Gabriino.
[3:47] Let's share it for Adam.
[3:48] You just
[3:52] grab the info.
[4:02] So Emmett, who are you here with tonight?
[4:07] Mom and dad want to come up.
[4:08] What do you got the whole family here?
[4:09] Come on up, guys.
[4:10] I'm gonna tell you guys a little bit about Emmett,
[4:12] and why he's the athlete of the month.
[4:14] And we do this once a month, guys.
[4:15] We honor an athlete of the month.
[4:18] There's no age range.
[4:22] It could be whoever, as long as you're a Marguerite resident.
[4:25] And tonight we're fortunate.
[4:26] Hey, guys done.
[4:27] Do I have a Marguerite over here?
[4:28] And I'm gonna tell you a little bit about him.
[4:29] For the past three years, Emmett has been involving
[4:32] his baseball skills under his current coach
[4:35] with the City of Marguerite.
[4:36] His eagerness to learn, strong motivation and high confidence, not only enhances his
[4:42] skills as baseball player, but also establishes Emmett as a reliable teammate. Others can
[4:48] depend on Emmett in addition to baseball. Emmett plays hockey, and is an excellent student
[4:52] at Margate Elementary. Let's hear it from Emmett guys.
[5:02] Emmett, the team is here as the...
[5:04] the hooks and that's the 10-year-old age. Can you? You coached that? You're out there, right?
[5:11] I see you. Yeah. All right, and then we got some great prizes for it.
[5:19] You have a point,
[5:20] plus point from the police department, the city of Margate, and you have a bag of goodies in here.
[5:25] Let's see if we got this one. You already got your carnival passes, that correct?
[5:31] You have your fire department, athlete of the month, T-shirt.
[5:37] You have a $10 one more gift card,
[5:39] and four passes to our water park,
[5:41] Olipso Coat, you ever been there?
[5:43] It's gonna be very new this year,
[5:45] so I hope you guys enjoy it.
[5:47] You also have a water bottle,
[5:49] courtesy of the Marguerite Police Department.
[5:51] Some pens and pencils, and you got
[5:53] this little firefighter guy here.
[5:55] Marguerite, it's very cool.
[5:59] So Emmett, congratulations on this award.
[6:01] You want to say anything in it.
[6:03] How's your tenets of states, anything you want?
[6:05] You don't look like a shy guy, tell us.
[6:08] How's baseball going?
[6:09] Good. What position do you play? Shortstop picture, catcher, and burst face. Very good.
[6:18] You've probably had about 16 games already? Yeah. Gone defeated. Very nice. Very nice.
[6:27] Anything else you want us to introduce? Who's here with you? Who did you got?
[6:30] I got my Blizzard Dylan and my sister Charlie. And who are these? Your sisters and brother?
[6:42] You guys want to say anything you guys good. Well guys, congratulations. I'll see you guys out there. Hope you guys
[6:51] enjoyed spring break is coming up. Maybe you have a game Saturday. I don't know, but have a great spring break and I have a lot of fun.
[6:57] I appreciate it. Thank you.
[7:04] We also have a letter from our state representative, Steve Hamsowski, congratulating you and also Emmett
[7:11] I've got a arena, the studio market.
[7:16] Congratulations on the athlete of the month.
[7:19] Signed by me, vice mayor Erwin Schwartz,
[7:22] Commissioner Norserro, Commissioner Simone,
[7:24] Commissioner Casiano.
[7:26] Congratulations, and have a great season, guys.
[7:30] Now we're going to give it a try.
[7:40] Thank you.
[7:42] Thank you.
[7:43] Hi.
[7:44] Yes.
[7:46] We're glasses.
[7:48] I'm going to have a pair.
[7:50] All right guys now we're going to do something else we do we just start it and I should
[7:55] skip the order here.
[7:56] If this is our 50th year resident so if I can have Kevin Ward come on down Kevin, is
[8:03] he here?
[8:13] I read the bio today you've been here since 68?
[8:15] Yeah.
[8:16] Don't look that old but I'll give it to you.
[8:18] You look great.
[8:19] All right I can tell you a little bit about Kevin.
[8:23] Kevin Ward's roots were planted and marigaded in 1968 when as an infant his parents moved
[8:28] to the city and as a child he attended Atlantic West in Margate Middle. Two institutions
[8:34] that remained pillars of the city. Today, Kevin resides in the same house he grew up
[8:39] in and said the most noticeable change to the city is how the city has grown while
[8:44] remaining a working person's city. Some of the city's events you will find Kevin enjoying
[8:49] or the sounds of sundown and the annual winter festival. Kevin, thank you for being here
[8:55] for 50 years. We love all the tax money you gave us, so we appreciate that. I always forget this.
[9:04] I put it in the same spot, so I don't lose it. We have a $50 bill for you for the 50th,
[9:11] being the market's 50th year resident, and also we have a certificate of recognition, a letter from
[9:17] Christine Humcowski, our state representative, and also a certificate of recognition to Kevin
[9:22] award for the City of Marigay for 50-year residency. Find by me, the Vice Mayor, and the commissioners.
[9:27] We really want to say congratulations. Thank you for staying in Marigay for all these years. Great job.
[9:32] Is there anything you'd like to say?
[9:34] Are you sure?
[9:35] That's about to go over.
[9:36] Alright, I appreciate that. Thanks for having me.
[9:39] Thanks for having me.
[9:49] Thanks for having me.
[9:49] Thanks like it.
[9:51] Okay.
[10:02] We're going to go into employee recognition. It's just time I'll hand it over to the City Manager.
[10:06] Of course.
[10:07] Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everybody.
[10:08] I don't think we have any of the employees on a list here tonight.
[10:11] If you do, flag me down please, and we'll call you up.
[10:14] First on the list is Keith Toby, Parks and Rec, celebrating 30 years of service.
[10:19] Next is Chad Ryan, police sergeant, celebrating 20 years of service.
[10:24] Marissa Otero, crime analyst, 15 years of service.
[10:27] Joseph Seward, environmental and engineering services with 10 years of service.
[10:32] Laura Jimenez, police officer with five years of service and
[10:36] Luke O'Loughlin, Service Worker 1 in D's with five years of service.
[10:40] And then, O'Mayne Dennis, Human Resources Generalist, he's celebrating five years of service
[10:45] with us.
[10:46] I'll be at he's been deployed over the last year and a half as he's in the reserve.
[10:51] So we thank all these employees and we especially thank O'Mayne for his service to our country.
[10:56] Thank you.
[10:57] All
[11:03] right, next we're going to go into public discussion.
[11:05] If anybody would like to speak on any item that is not on the agenda, you will have three
[11:11] 30 minutes to come up and do so, so at this time we're going to open up public discussion.
[11:18] No?
[11:19] Anybody on Zoom?
[11:21] For public discussion?
[11:24] Good evening, Julie Jones.
[11:26] I would just like to thank Mike Jones and the whole Parks and Recreation Department for
[11:31] the awesome spring cleanup they put on.
[11:33] It was extremely organized and very successful.
[11:36] Thank you.
[11:37] Thank you, Ms. Jones.
[11:44] Okay.
[11:44] Next is going to be our city manager, our actually commission comments to start with Commissioner
[11:50] I just
[11:54] want to thank everyone for being here and
[12:00] let's get on with it.
[12:01] We have important things to talk about tonight.
[12:03] Good.
[12:05] Commissioner Simone.
[12:09] I'd like to once again thank all our employees for their wonderful years of service and their dedication to our city.
[12:16] And also Broward County Library is giving away free solar eclipse glasses to card holders of the library and preparation for the solar eclipse.
[12:27] that's coming on April 8th.
[12:30] So you have to show your library card
[12:32] and it's first come, first serve.
[12:35] But our library here in Marigay
[12:37] is on the list to also pass them out to our residents.
[12:42] That's all I have.
[12:43] Thank you.
[12:44] Thank you.
[12:44] Commissioner Sarria.
[12:46] Good evening, everyone.
[12:47] Just one announcement.
[12:49] We're finally gonna be doing
[12:50] our teddy bear drive snuggle buddy for a child in need.
[12:55] My police and firefighters collect teddy bears.
[12:58] I found out using their own money.
[13:00] So I wanted to do something to help them out, kind of make it a community effort.
[13:05] It's an event that I'm hosting with the support of all of the commissioners up here.
[13:09] So thank you for allowing me to do that.
[13:11] I hope to see everyone there.
[13:12] It's going to be Saturday, April 16th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
[13:16] It's going to be at the Culver's in Wawa, we'll have police and fire truck there.
[13:21] If you bring a new and unused teddy bear, you'll receive either for the children or adults free ice cream from Culver's and a free coffee from Wawa.
[13:32] So again, that's going to be April 6th from 11 to 1. That's it, Mayor. Thank you.
[13:37] Thank you. Vice Mayor.
[13:39] I think other than the fact that it is nice to see a full audience regardless of reason.
[13:45] Thank you all for coming and I'll close any other comments.
[13:50] Thank you.
[13:52] I apologize for my voice, but I had a baseball game last night.
[13:55] Did they win?
[13:57] What do you think?
[13:58] That's why you were screaming.
[14:00] I just want to make sure.
[14:01] Might be getting another call, Kale.
[14:05] Okay.
[14:06] I just have two things.
[14:07] There's going to be a workshop coming up for addressing the firefighters, the addition of
[14:15] three men, a possibility on a track, three men on a rescue. If anything, you want to add to that?
[14:21] I have a date.
[14:23] Commissioner, I've got you.
[14:24] I just want to show you guys that forgotten mention, you have an 8th, you've got it.
[15:00] 9.05, there's 10,000 eggs that are gone. They're all gone. So make sure you're there. Also, I got a call from Margate Elementary. Once a year for graduation for the fifth graders, they do a party eclipse of code. I was always under depression, and maybe I forgot, but I thought it was a free event that we did for them, but I don't think it is. No, I think that there was a, I don't know when, but we implemented that. It was $5.00.
[15:29] was a person, I think.
[15:31] So they asked me, I know we opened it up to all the schools
[15:33] and I think Margaret Elementary was the only one
[15:35] that really did it because the other schools needed busing.
[15:39] So they were conveniently, they could just walk over there.
[15:42] So I asked the city manager if we can put it on
[15:44] possibly for the agenda for the next meeting
[15:46] to see if we can wave the fee.
[15:48] I know it might be during the construction time as well.
[15:50] So they might be without a pool,
[15:52] the big, the kitty pool I'm assuming, right?
[15:54] Would that be the only thing?
[15:55] I have to talk with Mike Jones
[15:57] to see how construction is staged in there. I don't know if it'll be worth them going there or not.
[16:03] Okay, but you know, I've been there a couple of times where they do use the like the basketball
[16:12] area, the picnic area because they have a food and stuff. So I don't know if they've
[16:16] they're really looking for the water rise if they can't get them, but they're just looking for a place
[16:20] to have the car. I think it's getting there, it's going to be the problem. So since they're right there,
[16:26] they walk there so we could find out Kale it's going to be even usable and then we can get back to
[16:33] them and let them. I was going to say that the resident reached out to me as well and I was on
[16:37] that same impression. I spoke to Kale about it. I have no problem waving the fee. If they're
[16:43] support for that my only concern was that I don't based on the date. I don't know if the park is
[16:48] going to be ready or not, but it is ready. I have no problem. Do you know how many students it is?
[16:54] I think $175 total, it was somewhere around $1,000, so it's probably about $180, 200 people.
[17:05] Mayor, if it's your wish, the commission can give me consensus tonight if you all want to waive those fees and I can report back next meeting whether or not it's going to be a usable facility for them or not.
[17:16] Okay, is the park going to be on a normal circumstances would that park be open anyways?
[17:22] Where do they open it up just for them? It would be it would be a private event just for them. I
[17:28] Still have no problem with it
[17:30] Yeah, it's during a school day as well. So I don't think anybody's really there. So
[17:35] But you will have a life card. Yes
[17:37] Are you guys okay with that?
[17:42] Okay, cool. All right, that is all I have. We're going to go to the consent agenda item.
[17:48] No, there's nothing on it.
[17:50] Yeah, the agenda is for it. Oh, city manager's report.
[17:55] Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everybody. Nothing to report to me.
[17:58] David, you good? Jen, everything good?
[18:01] Thanks.
[18:03] Thank you guys for coming. The looks at it.
[18:07] Okay, item number five, consent agenda.
[18:10] Thank you, Mr. Mayor, David Tulsa City Attorney.
[18:13] These items are on your consent agenda this evening.
[18:17] Item 5A is the motion to approve the City Commission Minutes for the February 7th, 2024 Regular City Commission Meeting.
[18:25] The February 21st, 2024 Regular City Commission Meeting, and the March 6th, 2024 Regular City Commission Meeting.
[18:33] Item 5D is a resolution of the City of Marguerite Florida authorizing the approval of the change order to the
[18:40] The Coral Gate Tank Rehabilitation Project Resolution No. 23-094 to include an additional scope of work and an additional amount of $145,000 providing for an effective date item 5c is a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Marguerite Florida, authorizing the addition of four seasonal part-time lifeguard positions to the Parks and Recreation Department subject to the necessary budget amendment, providing for an effective date.
[19:04] Item 5D is a resolution of the City of Commission of the City of Marguerite Florida, authorizing the addition of the position of maintenance worker 1 to the Public Works Department, providing for the vacant service worker 1 or maintenance worker 1 position to be filled and funded at the same time, providing for a budget amendment, providing for an effective date.
[19:21] These items are for your considerations, part of the consent agenda this evening.
[19:25] Thank you, what's the wish of the board?
[19:27] Second.
[19:29] Question.
[19:30] All the roll.
[19:31] Mr. Casriano? Yes. Mr. Somon? Yes. Mr. Serio? Yes. Vice Mayor Short? Yes. Mayor Rosano? Yes.
[19:40] Okay. Item six is the as a resolution for the approving of the appointment for the board members and
[19:46] I think we're going to start with as a matter of which one. I'm getting back to the question.
[19:51] Go ahead. Thank you. Maybe I was there was a not a lot of applicants and I know there were some
[20:00] last minute with draws as well. So I was wondering, I'd like to make a motion to table this to a time
[20:07] certain. Both of them? Yes. And I'm going to add because it wasn't realized that some of the
[20:17] resumes weren't attached, so that some applications had nothing because it was a resume that nobody got
[20:24] to see. And I had asked that today we just get them so they haven't seen them yet.
[20:29] This idea, other than the fact that there may be a bunch of people sitting here who are up
[20:33] for appointment, up to you, but it would be hard to do some of this without now seeing the
[20:40] resumes because the attachments weren't there.
[20:45] I have no problem with that. I mean, is there
[20:47] anybody here for the board? If you guys don't mind, if we still have whoever wants to nominate,
[20:54] if not, you could just say, we'll wait till next meeting or whatever. You guys want to do that
[20:57] since they're here? Or do you want to just table the whole item? I have no pro, I'd still like
[21:02] to table it, but I would certainly want to hear what they have to say. We can ask some questions
[21:06] and then they don't have to show up at the next meeting. If they can't make it, we'll have already
[21:10] have spoken to them. Okay. So at least, you know, they did take the time to come here tonight.
[21:14] That was my other concern. So let's, so let's not table it so we could talk to them and then
[21:21] the side of the table as well. Sure. You can always withhold the rest of my motion from now.
[21:27] And let's, if we, the mayor is okay, we can listen to them.
[21:31] That's sure. Is there any board members that would like to come up that can't make it next
[21:35] meeting? Or people who have applied who are not necessarily board members would like to be board members.
[21:40] And I know you have two resolutions. So if you'd like me to read the first one,
[21:45] We're the first ones so you know which board we're talking about first. Yes. Okay. So this is a resolution of the city of Margate Florida
[21:52] Approving appointment for the position on the Margate Planning and Zoning Board for term commencing March 20 of 2024 through March 19, 2025
[21:59] Providing for an effective date. Thank you. Okay. So is anybody here looking actually anybody that is here now that wanted to be on the board?
[22:08] is it is why?
[22:09] Tony Osier.
[22:10] Sure.
[22:11] There's anybody that would like, say a few words in Tonyo?
[22:16] Tonyo.
[22:17] That's his name.
[22:19] I know.
[22:20] I know.
[22:23] I know.
[22:24] I call him something else.
[22:26] Well, I know.
[22:27] I call you something else.
[22:29] I call you something else too.
[22:31] Tony Osier.
[22:32] I know.
[22:32] I call you something else too.
[22:36] Tony Osier.
[22:38] last year, as always, I'm at the service of the city to be of any help I could be.
[22:42] I'm a 50-year local resident.
[22:45] I drove to Coconut Creek High School in 75 and 76 down these same roads that we were
[22:51] driving today, 25-year homeowner in Coral Bay, and I was at all the meetings for your plan
[23:02] development of downtown, which I told you is not to do, and they did, and I was at all the
[23:09] meetings for the bicycle trails that I asked you not to do, and thankfully you didn't, and I very
[23:18] much was involved in the signage at Coral Landings 2 and Best Buy came in, so I've been coming to
[23:26] For instance, 2003, I don't know from my service.
[23:30] Appreciate it. He's ready board. Tony, you would be perfect.
[23:33] He only picked for one. I don't know.
[23:34] I was only going to ask Keith Tony.
[23:35] Yeah, you only checked. I believe one box, which is planning and zoning.
[23:39] I was only going to ask you how are you feeling?
[23:43] You look good.
[23:44] Okay.
[23:50] Let me see.
[23:51] Who else coming down?
[23:55] Thanks for coming out, sir.
[24:03] Hi, Mr. Sanchez.
[24:05] I know you know me.
[24:06] I don't know if you have any questions.
[24:09] I applied for both, whichever I do decide that I could serve
[24:13] the best, I will be happy and able to. I will be here at the next meeting as well.
[24:19] I also stay there for a minute. I know sometimes, and I know the answer, but she's standing there,
[24:25] I know sometimes people don't see all questions, and the particular box you didn't see was the one
[24:31] that asked if you've ever been arrested.
[24:35] If you've ever been arrested. Oh no, thank you. I just wanted
[24:39] Because that was the one box.
[24:41] The one box you didn't check.
[24:44] Maybe the computer didn't click.
[24:46] And Elsa, you've served on the board recently, right?
[24:49] I served two years ago on the board or board of adjustments.
[24:53] I believe what did I appoint you to that?
[24:55] I believe so.
[24:56] So just because we don't agree on everything,
[24:59] I still felt that you would do well on the board
[25:02] and I would consider you again.
[25:04] Thank you.
[25:06] Thank you, Elsa.
[25:06] So, is there anybody else that would like to speak on behalf of being a board member that possibly will make it?
[25:18] Hi, I'm Shakina with the Daisy Major.
[25:21] I'm currently on the board. I'm enjoying my time.
[25:24] I am enjoying serving the community and I hope to be able to do it for a second year.
[25:30] Awesome. First I want to say thank you for being on the board.
[25:32] I know it hasn't been that busy for the last year.
[25:36] I think it's going to be picking up again.
[25:39] I hope to see you back there.
[25:41] Thank you so much.
[25:47] Is there anybody else?
[25:50] Good
[25:54] evening, everyone.
[25:55] My name is Eugene Eckley.
[25:56] I'm new to your community.
[25:58] I hope to be of service.
[26:01] I have an extensive background in planning.
[26:06] Operations planning, contingency planning, emergency planning.
[26:11] Both at a local level and at a federal level.
[26:14] and also in corporate positions that I've held.
[26:18] If I'm appointed, I would consider it a privilege
[26:22] and apply the effort that I think you need
[26:25] to make it a success.
[26:26] Nice to meet you.
[26:28] Where did you move from?
[26:29] I was in town where I've three and a half years.
[26:32] You moved up awesome.
[26:34] You moved up town.
[26:35] The choice.
[26:36] Yeah, glad to be here.
[26:38] Nice to meet you.
[26:39] Thank you.
[26:42] Is there anybody else?
[26:46] Absolutely.
[26:47] Okay, so for that resolution the planning which one was it the planning and zoning out motion to table I'll second it and that's till the April 3rd meeting.
[26:59] I think time certain, right.
[27:03] Okay.
[27:07] So
[27:09] time's certain, okay? Yeah, just the April 3rd meeting. Okay. All right. There you go. Great. Next to the next commission meeting, right? They're going to give you a time.
[27:22] Well, if applications close two weeks before they're closing right now. Right. So we need. Oh, right. I'm going to have the same applicant pool.
[27:29] So it'll be the second meeting to open the applications back up to people two weeks April 17. Okay. Okay. All right. Is there a second? Is there a second? I did. All right. Call the roll.
[27:40] Mr. Casano. Yes. Mr. Smone. No. Mr. Osterio. Yes. Vice Mayor Schwartz. Yes. Marathon. I don't mind doing it now, but.
[27:54] I will, but it's going to be a useless road, but I'll say no.
[27:57] I wouldn't mind.
[27:58] Does anybody bring it back up?
[27:59] No, I wouldn't mind.
[28:00] I mean, I think we got qualified applicants.
[28:03] And I'm sure we'll get more qualified, but I respect the people coming here.
[28:08] You only want to do the number of people who are here that you actually have a completed application.
[28:13] I'm fine with that.
[28:15] I don't know if I can bring it back up though.
[28:24] If you vote in favor of the motion, you can make a motion reconsider, because the motion will pass.
[28:29] You need to vote yes, in other words, he's telling me to bring it back up.
[28:31] Can I do that as in there?
[28:32] I'm going to have to get out of here.
[28:34] I'm trying to do as clean as possible.
[28:35] Either way.
[28:36] So even seconded, you don't have to pass.
[28:40] Okay, I will vote no.
[28:43] So the motion pass is three to two.
[28:49] We have a motion for reconsideration made by Commissioner Caggiano, who was on the prevailing side, but you just need a second.
[28:57] So now you have a second to reconsider the motion to table.
[29:02] All right, we're going to call for a vote.
[29:04] Mr. Cagiano? Yes. Mr. Simone? Yes. Mr. Serio? Sure. Yes. Vice Mayor Schwartz? Yes.
[29:13] Mayor Rosanna? Yes. So now the motion to table is back on the table. Oh come on. So if the
[29:21] maker of the motion wants to remove the motion from the table, we just did that. No, no, now you're
[29:26] So, I'll pull my motion.
[29:31] Perfect.
[29:32] Okay, so the motion to table is no longer on the table.
[29:35] I have the resolution before you.
[29:37] If you would like to make a motion to appoint certain members to the planning and zoning board,
[29:46] you can with the understanding that the full resolution would need to come back to you
[29:53] probably at your April 17th meeting to nominate other individuals, but you can
[29:59] certainly...
[30:00] Point individuals tonight. All right, so we can appoint some. We don't have to fill the entire thing because some of these applications were not correct. That works. Okay. All right. So we'll start with the commission. I'd like to enter a name for planning and zoning. To a gentleman. I think we're doing board of the just. No, no, I'm sorry.
[30:27] I read them out of order in the agenda. I apologize.
[30:29] I read it in order.
[30:32] I know how to read.
[30:35] Okay.
[30:37] Yeah.
[30:38] I read them out of order.
[30:40] So we are on item 6B.
[30:42] I apologize.
[30:43] Okay.
[30:44] So this is planning on zoning.
[30:45] Okay.
[30:46] Okay.
[30:48] I have a name I'd like to insert for planning and zoning.
[30:52] A 50 year resident.
[30:54] A person who I disagree with so often.
[30:56] but he also, as Antonio Shadouba, Elsa, he doesn't come unprepared, so I'm going to insert the name Antonio Spavento and hope that he plays well in the sandbox with the others.
[31:12] Antonio is my friend.
[31:15] I want to shock everyone here.
[31:16] I was waiting. I'm going to second it just so that I can hear what he says and then disagree with but I'll say well, let's hope we agree on whether we disagree and if we disagree with him, let's hope that he gives us something that's worth looking at. Change your mind. I say jokingly but even though I disagree with people, I certainly take back things that they said.
[31:39] I'll tell you what, I'll referee the sandbox.
[31:54] I'm sorry, I don't know how to say your last name.
[32:04] Okay.
[32:08] So just because I pulled the table so that we can vote for some of the people that are here,
[32:13] but not am I able to hold my appointment for now and make it at a future meeting?
[32:21] I don't even want if you make it now for someone who's not here, their name is still on the list and if we're going to do it, we can do it even if we don't have them here.
[32:31] They wouldn't have been here if we did it tonight.
[32:34] They said yes to you.
[32:36] All
[32:39] right,
[32:47] I'll just do it now.
[32:53] Right now, she's mismajor, but it's of off the day, too, because I can fit Mrs.
[32:58] off a day, too.
[32:59] Not good with pronouncing names, but I've seen you here at the meetings before,
[33:03] and I know you served on the board previously.
[33:05] She's on it right now.
[33:06] So, right.
[33:07] So.
[33:08] I'll second that because I can say your name.
[33:15] I'm going to put back on Mohammed Suleiman, who's a board member and also a plumbing inspector.
[33:26] Somebody second that.
[33:28] Oh, thank you.
[33:30] That's easy.
[33:32] That leaves me.
[33:33] We're on planning zoning, right?
[33:35] You are.
[33:38] Oh, also.
[33:39] Shopped everybody.
[33:40] Get ahead.
[33:41] Elsa Sanchez.
[33:44] I'll second that.
[33:46] Okay.
[33:47] That's one board.
[33:47] So for the record for the planning and zoning board, which is item 6B on tonight's agenda, you have Antonio Spavento, Eugene Eckley, Shakina, Wapadejo, Major, Muhammad, Suleiman, and Elsa Sanchez.
[34:00] All right.
[34:02] So we vote as a slate, David.
[34:06] Okay.
[34:07] All right.
[34:09] So we're done with that.
[34:13] So many made a motion. You seconded each names.
[34:16] You know, okay, now now we'll go to the
[34:20] You said we go.
[34:22] Call the roll call the roll call the roll.
[34:23] Just second in.
[34:25] And we do it this way.
[34:27] Call the roll.
[34:27] We did it this way.
[34:28] Now we have to vote on this.
[34:30] Yeah.
[34:31] Mr. Casiano.
[34:32] Yes.
[34:33] Mr. Simone.
[34:34] Yes.
[34:35] Mr. Serio.
[34:36] Yes.
[34:37] Vice Mayor Schwarz.
[34:37] Yes.
[34:38] Yes.
[34:39] Thank you everybody.
[34:40] That's probably the easiest board appointments we've done in the years.
[34:48] We're going to do the Board of Adjustment, right, which is item 6A, which is a resolution of the city of Margae, Florida, proving appointments for the Margae Board of Adjustment for a term commencing March 20, 2024, the March 19, 2025, but right before an effective date.
[35:02] Thank you. All right, we'll start with Commissioner Cajana.
[35:07] I'm going to go with Aaron N. Wright.
[35:21] I'm going to go with Joey Brando.
[35:26] Oh, yeah, was there a second for everybody?
[35:30] I'll second for Joey.
[35:31] All right.
[35:32] That was Joe Brando.
[35:33] Yeah.
[35:34] Okay.
[35:35] Commissioner Arserio.
[35:38] What was the name of the gentleman that came up and spoke with the planning experience?
[35:42] He was picked up.
[35:43] on the left.
[35:51] As Eugene been picked. No.
[35:56] No. Yes. Oh, you changed. Oh, yeah,
[35:59] in equity. Yeah.
[36:05] Sloan Robbins. There's not one to be reappointing.
[36:10] Because it's on the list here. Yeah. You could wait. Yeah, I'll wait on this one.
[36:18] And I'll decide at the next meeting. Thank you. All right.
[36:22] Vice Mayor. All right, since there is one more member that does want to be reappointed,
[36:27] I will submit your name of Barbara Farias.
[36:34] Tell me one second. Second.
[36:41] Okay. Um, you know, I'm going to hold on to my vote because I was
[36:45] going to not be afraid, but I saw his application expire. So you're going to hold yours as well.
[36:53] all hold mine as well. So we'll have three and then wait until next year. If you want to
[36:59] vote on the three tonight, you can. That's fine. So you have motion is second for
[37:05] Aaron N. Wright, Joe, Brenda, and Barbara Ferris.
[37:12] Seconded. Call the room.
[37:16] Mr. Cagiano? Yes. Mr. Smone? Yes. Mr. Arsario? Yes. Vice Mayor Schwartz? Yes.
[37:22] Yes. Marathon? Yes. Is it supposed to be this easy?
[37:29] Yeah. And then we'll come back on the
[37:31] 470. The other two will come back next for Board of Adjustment. Right.
[37:35] Correct.
[37:37] Okay. Next, we are going to go to item 7a, discussion and possible action. With
[37:47] that being said, I
[37:52] know there are people here that want to speak on the side of
[37:54] the more commissioners here that want to speak on the item.
[37:57] Chief, I'm going to allow you, if you want to speak first, you want to welcome
[38:02] to come speak. And then commissioners, you can play however you want after that.
[38:12] Good evening, Joe Galaska, Chief of Police. I'd like to begin by offering my sincere
[38:16] apologies to anyone I may have offended with previous text messages due to my
[38:20] choice of words.
[38:23] Approximately a year and a half ago, I communicated with somebody who might believe to be a friend.
[38:27] I deeply regret any unprofessional remarks I made about others.
[38:31] It's important to note at the time I had been in the role of chief for about six months,
[38:35] and still learning a lot of the nuances of the position.
[38:38] It's worth considering that I was speaking to someone whom I believed I could confide in,
[38:43] as they incurred me to vent to them.
[38:45] However, I now understand the lines can become blurred, especially after spending decades working closely
[38:50] closely with colleagues, you begin to feel like friends.
[38:53] The hard reality is that they are employees first.
[38:58] As chief, I recognize the expectations of professionalism are high.
[39:02] I take full responsibility for falling short in that regard.
[39:05] I want to clarify that my expressions of frustration were not reflective of my professional decisions.
[39:11] I never allowed my personal feelings to influence my actions.
[39:15] In fact, despite the incident, I promoted an individual in question.
[39:19] to trust them with important projects, such as our peer counseling and critical stress management program.
[39:25] Regarding recent events, it's unfortunate that some individuals have chosen to exploit the situation.
[39:30] I urge those who are quickly judged to consider the facts before making assumptions.
[39:37] So here are some facts that are not opinions a few, to demonstrate the allegations that I have bias against female employees.
[39:45] There is a movement along the law enforcement for females in the occupation called 30 and 30 and that's trying to get 30% of female employees in law enforcement by 2030 because currently in the nation there's 12%.
[40:04] Ashley Moody put an article out that Florida is doing better than that.
[40:08] And she had indicated that, she encouraged women to join the law enforcement ranks to help Floridians keep Floridians safe.
[40:18] According to the Department of Law Enforcement, the record 7,410 sworn female officers in the state make up 16%.
[40:30] Before my tenure, we were at 17% female employees.
[40:36] During my tenure, we were up to 21% female employees.
[40:41] Out of the 22 officers I've hired since I've been as chief, was nine females, which is 41%.
[40:49] Promotions in December 2021 for sergeants, there were six promotions, three of them were females, that's 50%.
[41:00] In May of 2022, Lieutenant's exam, there were five applicants, two female, three male, another female was promoted, that's 33%.
[41:12] And then in September of 2023, there were two male officers, one female officer, and one male officer was promoted on that one.
[41:22] So the facts and the percentages don't lie that my hiring practice and promotion practice does not have any bias against women.
[41:37] How to adjust a broader issue?
[41:39] When I assume the role of chief of police about two years ago, it was not a seamless transition.
[41:47] I was handed a broken department, broken culture, riddled with issues.
[41:52] Transforming the culture of police agencies is a gradual process that requires time, resources, and support, and unfortunately, despite my repeated requests, I did not receive the necessary assistance I needed to successfully implement the changes I wanted to make.
[42:06] I want to emphasize that I'm not here for personal game, but rather because I'm committed to making a positive difference in our community.
[42:13] Despite the challenges and setbacks I remain steadfast in my determination to affect change, whatever I cannot do it alone.
[42:20] I need your support and cooperation to move forward.
[42:23] I believe with your support and willingness to listen to my proposals, we can gradually transform the culture of our police agencies for the better.
[42:30] The decision to continue pressing forward rests with you,
[42:35] but I am hopeful that together we can make a lasting impact.
[42:41] What this incident also has showed me throughout the period of time that this has been going on is it outlined a lot more dysfunction that we even realized was there.
[42:51] So, there is a lot of work to be done, and I'm more than willing and ready to continue
[43:00] to try to make the positive changes that I've been trying to make for the two years I've
[43:04] been here.
[43:06] But I was not handed the keys to a brand new Mercedes, I was handed the keys to a lemon
[43:10] from a junkyard.
[43:11] So I'm trying to help me establish something, this is a step back, and often there's a step
[43:16] back in a step forward when you're trying to make change.
[43:19] But I'm committed to trying to do the best I can, as I always have for the city.
[43:24] Thank you.
[43:35] The other is three lights lit, so we're going to start off with Commissioner Simone.
[43:45] Thank you.
[43:50] This situation is very difficult to talk about publicly, but is required by the charter amendment
[43:56] that was passed in 2018 where the commissioners are responsible for hiring and firing the chief of police and also the fire chief.
[44:08] The investigative report has brought severe doubt about the leadership skills of chief Galasca.
[44:16] Many disturbing character flaws have been brought to light to make delivery of the responsibilities entrusted to a police chief
[44:26] and effective. The safety of law enforcement personnel, city employees, residents and businesses
[44:36] are in jeopardy without stable, trusted leadership. The reputation of Margate is stained.
[44:46] Rebuilding trust and respect can only be achieved with new leadership.
[44:54] Let's look at facts, there was an outside unbiased
[45:00] Investigation conducted. It revealed evidence to substantiate a female lieutenants claims of harassment and hostile work environments. Text messages from the chief violate of conduct and the city's professional conduct and respectful workplace policies. His conduct ultimately creates a potential liability for
[45:31] the city in the future.
[45:35] Text messages raises concern regarding potential gender bias within the Margate Police
[45:43] Department and again has a potential of creating future issues for the city.
[45:50] The chief stated that he will never trust 7.7 out of 12 under him.
[45:58] He doesn't trust the people to run the lieutenant's tests.
[46:01] It makes derogatory statements about others.
[46:06] There is no chain of command with regard to complaints within the department.
[46:12] The investigators stated that the commission expanded the scope of the investigation.
[46:18] She would confirm the veracity of a statement the chief made to a sergeant texting, and
[46:26] I quote, he had to promote her.
[46:31] There are three findings of untruthfulness by the chief.
[46:36] One was a video incident where he stated the production crew asked for a male officer
[46:43] that was confirmed by the production crew to be not true.
[46:49] Number two, text messages to a sergeant relay a different perspective than he answered
[46:57] on a female lieutenant being promoted.
[47:00] Number three, the female lieutenant according to the chief was having performance issues.
[47:08] However, her direct supervisor denied such claims.
[47:14] This isn't the first time complaints of a hostile environment and retaliation have surfaced.
[47:21] There were similar complaints when he was interim chief.
[47:27] The investigator recommends an additional investigation be conducted due to potential
[47:33] gender bias within the department.
[47:36] Two separate votes of no confidence overwhelmingly passed throughout the command staff and officers.
[47:43] Re-reports, all naming, cheese involvement, and various disconcerning ways.
[47:53] There have been three reports.
[47:57] The training on the city's policies and procedures was August of 2023.
[48:04] The training was entitled, workplace harassment and bullying, managing threats to respectful
[48:10] work culture. And the second training was diversity in the workplace. At least one text message
[48:19] sent September of 2023 from the chief was just one month after this training. Those were the
[48:29] facts taken from the investigative report. Facts don't lie. In my research, police chief magazine
[48:39] had an article about essential qualities of effective leaders.
[48:44] The Police Chief Magazine listed integrity as an essential attribute, and I quote,
[48:51] the strong morals and honesty demonstrated by a leader with integrity will enforce
[48:57] the agency's mission statement and the community's expectations of professional policing.
[49:04] Without integrity, there is little hope for trust and legitimacy to be perceived by the officers or the community."
[49:16] Traits that have come up consistently in researching the characteristics of a chief must have to be a chief, must have to be a good leader listed the following.
[49:29] integrity, ethics, support of transparent, inspiring his or her people to achieve, compassion,
[49:42] self-awareness, courage, respect, honesty, accountability, and team building.
[49:52] I have no ill will towards the chief.
[49:54] I had left the running of the department up to the chief.
[49:59] A chief should be a board, a board in all words and deeds.
[50:07] He sets the standards for others to follow.
[50:10] It is not to say mistakes don't happen, but these behaviors are serious, repetitive patterns.
[50:19] On truthfulness is a lack of moral character. Not a mistake. No excuse on that. I know of many men,
[50:30] not to mention women, who, if the verbiage in the text were about a female family member,
[50:37] they would not sit guy idly. Let me ask some serious questions to ponder going forward. Number one,
[50:47] How does the department come back from this, with this chief at the helm?
[50:54] Number two, how do you expect there to be unity and trust within the department?
[51:00] Number three, how do we expect our police to have the confidence to continue to put their
[51:07] lives on the line every day when they don't feel supported by each other or the chief?
[51:14] Number four, how do you dismiss the chief violating his own police department standard
[51:22] of conduct and the city's professional conduct and respectful worst workplace policies?
[51:32] Retention is vital to a police department.
[51:35] How many of our officers are or will be actively looking elsewhere should the chief remain.
[51:42] and what does that do to the reputation of our city?
[51:47] If the chief is retained, there is no doubt going forward,
[51:51] there will be a lot of anger and retaliation on many different levels.
[51:57] This resentment will cause safety issues and liability to the city,
[52:03] residents and businesses.
[52:05] This is a fractured unit.
[52:09] Many of you here tonight, I know, are supporting one person, not the entire police organization.
[52:18] These men and women who sacrifice for us, us each and every day, need to know we respect
[52:25] them, their decisions, and they have our support.
[52:30] They are the ones on the front lines with firsthand knowledge.
[52:34] that department needs accountability and discipline from a leader they can trust to protect them.
[52:42] Many of our police don't want to come to work. They fear retaliation. They need an environment
[52:49] where they can feel safe and protected. There needs to be an overhaul of the promotion process
[52:56] as a broken system, particularly on the oral exam part.
[53:02] The chief convinced the commission to be allowed to go to the 60% of the grading process
[53:08] on the oral exam.
[53:10] What I did not know at that time is that the oral exam board of how the oral exam board
[53:17] is conducted is made up of the chief and officers he promoted to the title of major.
[53:23] The oral exam portion needs to be conducted by an outside entity where it is completely
[53:31] unbiased and not subjective from your peers.
[53:36] I cannot and will not support the chief to stay.
[53:41] I hold the title and position of chief and higher esteem and standard.
[53:47] He is accountable to a higher standard.
[53:50] I respect and support the members of the union's recommendation of immediate resignation.
[53:59] The damage is irreparable.
[54:02] We need new leadership.
[54:05] We have a responsibility to protect all police officers and the department, all employees,
[54:14] residents, businesses, and the reputation of our city.
[54:18] I have read the city's code, city code of ethical conduct, and I would like to quote it.
[54:29] All city employees are expected to conduct themselves on an off-duty and a manner which
[54:37] does not erode public confidence in the city or bring the city into disrepute.
[54:45] I have read the City Employment Guide and the guides on bias policing.
[54:52] I would like to pass them out to each of you.
[54:54] I know a lot of you probably have not read them.
[54:57] When I saw them in the report, I took it upon myself before they investigate.
[55:05] And I have highlighted in here if you'd like to give it a quick hand or some things that
[55:12] but I think are important to this discussion tonight.
[55:29] There's, sorry.
[55:30] That's why I'm sure it isn't a public vote.
[55:33] Should I have one on, yes?
[55:37] Should I have two different ones on the bias policing?
[55:45] Yes, I do.
[55:49] And also, I am passing out the City of Marigate Employment Guide with the areas on ethical
[55:57] standards, professional conduct.
[55:59] You did say on and off duty, right?
[56:02] I did.
[56:02] It is in here.
[56:03] If you would like to see it right here on the very first page.
[56:05] No, I just, I'm going to ask you about that in the memory, but that's okay.
[56:12] Respect the workplace and technology use and security.
[56:15] and also the last page is an employee acknowledging form showing that all
[56:20] employees need to read and understand these employment guides.
[56:29] Thank
[56:37] you.
[56:38] Thank you.
[56:40] Um, vice mayor, you're next.
[56:42] I'm.
[56:45] I just want to make sure that.
[56:50] Everybody got.
[56:51] Give my copy.
[56:53] Okay.
[56:56] You're all different.
[57:02] You're all.
[57:04] That's.
[57:05] Right.
[57:06] just went back. Okay. Okay.
[57:10] All right, vice mayor. Those of you who know me know I rarely write
[57:15] something down. Today I did.
[57:19] And not speaking for anyone else, I will tell you that over the last
[57:23] week and a half, although I haven't lost the pound, I haven't eaten. I haven't slept. This is,
[57:29] this for me is a big deal. So I'm going to read you what I wrote so that I say exactly what's been
[57:35] going on in my mind for quite a while.
[57:38] Today, regardless of which side you're on of this issue,
[57:40] it's a sad day for the city of Margate,
[57:42] its residence and its police department.
[57:45] First, we are faced with deciding an appropriate
[57:48] disciplinary action for what was an egregious,
[57:51] thoughtful, and offensive text message,
[57:53] which while an expression of free speech
[57:56] should discuss each and every one of us
[57:59] who has a mother, a sister, a wife, a female child,
[58:03] or a female friend. The chief is just spoken to that, although I told him delaying such an apology
[58:11] for three weeks in my mind adds to the outrage. I believe that the City Commission will come up
[58:18] with an appropriate discipline action for that. Unfortunately, there is more that needs to be discussed
[58:24] tonight. He goes without saying that when Joseph Galaska was appointed chief, he inherited a
[58:31] Department with problems that he was aware of, and although I think we thought that his
[58:37] was a temporary appointment, I didn't believe that the commission—I don't believe
[58:42] that the commission received any complaints that would indicate that many of the old issues
[58:47] so existed. Unfortunately, I now know that that's clearly not true.
[58:52] The text messages on coverage during the independent investigation have opened up a pen
[58:57] and or as box of other systemic and toxic issues
[59:01] within the police department.
[59:02] Since the investigative reports were released,
[59:06] I've been contacted by and spoken with
[59:09] both male and female members of our department,
[59:12] each of whom independently relates
[59:14] into instances of cronism, gender bias,
[59:18] infighting among upper management ranks
[59:21] and a general lack of respect for the chain of command.
[59:25] Many believe that their complaints fell on deaf ears within the department and we're not fully investigated.
[59:31] The female officers that asked to meet with me several of whom have been with the Margate Police Department for more than two decades
[59:39] said they did so to prevent their female complaint.
[59:45] They did so to prevent their other, they met with me to prevent other female officers from having the same experience they did
[59:53] and discuss being given less than favorable assignments
[59:56] that their male peers with less experience.
[1:00:00] We're not given. They told me of opportunities that they had to work harder for simply because
[1:00:05] they were women. And in one spoke of an instance where a female had to prove she could take the
[1:00:13] bruises that came along with the job to gain respect. As a female I realized that these issues
[1:00:19] are not unique to the Marguerite Police Department. This is where I live and serve and try and make
[1:00:25] a difference on the days. As a female, it's a problem.
[1:00:30] Chief Colaska has had an almost 30-year career with the department. The last two-and-a-half
[1:00:36] years is chief. I know that he's tried to make a difference, but I also know that the
[1:00:41] department is broken, that morale is at its lowest, and there is a need for a cultural change
[1:00:46] that cannot be ignored any longer. I've been told that if there is no change, we may see
[1:00:52] a mass exodus of over 20% of the young members of the department who have watched the previous
[1:00:57] chief's resume be replaced by a new regime and believe those of them which make up the majority
[1:01:04] of the rank and file have been ignored and abandoned. So with this in mind, I also met with
[1:01:11] Raj Skurven, president of the PVA union and I heard him and he heard me. We are all aware that
[1:01:18] There are no confidence vote conducted by the union members and the letter, Mr.
[1:01:23] Sturvin, sent to the commission as a result of that vote.
[1:01:27] I wanted to know how to make this better for everyone, and I proposed the compromise.
[1:01:33] Those who know me know how I always try and do that when I'm up here.
[1:01:36] I spoke with Chief Colasco last night and discussed this idea with him, and
[1:01:41] I'm now going to share it with the commission.
[1:01:43] I propose that aside from the disciplinary action to be taken regarding the inappropriate
[1:01:49] text messages, we give the chief six months to bring meaningful change to his department
[1:01:54] with our support to weed out the problems that he inherited, inspire confidence among
[1:02:00] the men and women of this department that stand on their accomplishment and not their friendships.
[1:02:06] As I said to the chief, it's lonely at the top for a reason, and he can have no personal
[1:02:11] friendships among the ranks that he shares his personal feelings with.
[1:02:16] This is also what I proposed to the Union President, and he agreed it was possible.
[1:02:22] We need to learn from our mistakes and never repeat them.
[1:02:27] I would also like to ask Mr. Skervin to come up and speak now, but before I look to an end
[1:02:34] of this with an amicable and palatable solution for all sides and an opportunity to change
[1:02:39] to the right direction. And one last thing, for those of you who think, I care whether
[1:02:45] or not I get a union endorsement, let me be very clear. I've never gotten it from me.
[1:02:52] I've won. I've lost. I've won. I've lost. I've won. I've won. With or without that, this
[1:02:58] is about my city. Although I live in the last 40 years, this is not about whether I win or
[1:03:05] I lose. It's about being able to go to sleep tonight, wake up in the morning, and like
[1:03:10] what I look at in the window, in the mirror. It's about healing a fracture of this department
[1:03:16] that goes long and deep and finding some way to do it. Quite frankly, even six months,
[1:03:23] that isn't done. I vote to bring somebody in from the outside because I can tell you right
[1:03:28] now, I will never vote to promote from within because that's not systemic change. That's
[1:03:34] It's just deepening of chasm we already have.
[1:03:38] You need somebody who has no alliances, no friendships, and no desire to do anything,
[1:03:44] but make our city better.
[1:03:46] And with that, if it would not be a problem for you and Mr. Scurvin would like to get up
[1:03:51] and say something.
[1:03:52] I would.
[1:03:53] Can I ask, can I ask you a question?
[1:03:55] Sure.
[1:04:01] I didn't have as big of a writing as you had.
[1:04:05] Mine is going to be real quick.
[1:04:06] You didn't do it at 6.15 before we,
[1:04:11] I think, that we should suspend the chief for a month without pay.
[1:04:20] I think we need department-wide in person as opposed to computer,
[1:04:27] diversity training, and harassment training,
[1:04:31] and the chief needs a letter of discipline in his,
[1:04:34] in his jacket. Listen, I want to make sure we haven't
[1:04:38] understanding what he did. The trust he put in others. Well, it
[1:04:45] taught him a lesson. Bob Mollie has a line about your best
[1:04:52] friends can be your worst enemies because they know your
[1:04:54] secrets. So only they can reveal them. Well, this is not
[1:04:59] a friendship. And I just think when you wait over a year and a half to do something, you're
[1:05:07] doing it for a reason. So if we can maybe have this break up a little soon at this conversation,
[1:05:18] I'm going to say a month suspension without pay, department wide, diversity, harassment training,
[1:05:26] whether it's discipline in his jacket and I'm hoping that a month's pay cut will teach him
[1:05:34] what I tell people all the time. What are you writing this stuff for? It's going to come back
[1:05:40] to hit you. You had a bad day, you wrote a bad thing and it's going to come back and hurt you.
[1:05:47] Are you agreeing with my six months? I'll agree with six months.
[1:05:59] I guess it's like pornography, you know, when you see it, and I think, and I think in six months, well, you know what, I did it, I did it, okay?
[1:06:20] change? You know what changes to me?
[1:06:26] Your heart is far. I wasn't expecting to have to
[1:06:28] make an analysis. That's hard to follow. I think changes, recognizing the fact that your
[1:06:36] friendships change, possibly the people you rely on change, and that you know what? We
[1:06:42] should not be the last people to know. And I recognize that charter doesn't give us the right to
[1:06:48] do anything other than higher, higher, and disciplined, because the chief works for the
[1:06:54] city manager. So let me say to the city manager that if this comes to you as it should based
[1:07:01] on the hierarchy, you sure as heck better tell it does, because we shouldn't be sitting
[1:07:07] here having this conversation after the fact or after two and a half years or after two years
[1:07:14] before that that I had the pleasure of reading those books shouldn't happen so if it means
[1:07:19] that during your weekly meetings you have to say to each department how's it going and
[1:07:25] if you need to talk to me my door is open because I'd rather you do it than the members
[1:07:29] of the staff come in and if it means you have to enter Vene because that is your role
[1:07:34] your role and you do so but I sure as heck would expect them to be briefed weekly if necessary
[1:07:42] daily if you have to because as much as I will tell every member here or already has my telephone
[1:07:49] number it hasn't changed in 40 years. I don't have a problem getting a phone call and clearly I don't
[1:07:54] have a problem keeping people's names anonymous but if it has to get to me because it didn't get to
[1:08:00] you to get to me we have a problem. We all understand what I just said. Pretty clear to me and so if you
[1:08:11] Hello, I think commissioner sorry. I wouldn't speak. Yeah, I was going to ask if maybe the commissioners can speak and then I would just like to believe he's
[1:08:19] the union rep is here. I believe the investigators here as well.
[1:08:24] All right, so Mr. Scarver, do you like to come up?
[1:08:28] Well, I was going to ask you to speak first.
[1:08:31] I'll, I'll, I'll uphold my comments till I hear from Mr. Scarver.
[1:08:34] So if you have some, I'll say, I'm done. Yeah, right now I'm done.
[1:08:41] What do I start? First of all, as Commissioner Simone said, this is not personal.
[1:08:50] Chief Galasca has worked for this city a long time. He's a resident and personally he's a
[1:08:56] really nice guy. I'm sure there's going to be people that are going to come up and tell
[1:09:00] you how great he is. I'm not questioning that at all. Without question. When I ran the
[1:09:08] first time and he wasn't chief, he had my signs in his yard when I was running for election.
[1:09:14] I can easily, easily defend him 100%, but I think I'm trying to do what I believe
[1:09:22] is right.
[1:09:27] We usually agree most of us up here, sometimes we don't, it's not personal against any one
[1:09:32] of you either.
[1:09:36] I'm not here to talk about this or that.
[1:09:38] I'm talking about strictly the facts and what was in the investigation.
[1:09:44] Based on some of the comments I've already heard, I hope it's not going the way I think it's
[1:09:50] going to go. But if it does go a different direction than what I believe or commission or some
[1:09:55] own beliefs, I'm going to respect that decision. I'm going to respect my colleagues. I might not be happy
[1:10:00] about it, but I'll respect it. And if the chief comes back and I don't know how he can,
[1:10:07] and I'll explain why in a little bit,
[1:10:09] but I'm gonna be professional in work with them.
[1:10:12] I'm a professional in the private sector.
[1:10:15] I have clients screaming,
[1:10:16] custom yawning at me.
[1:10:17] I never lose my composure
[1:10:19] and I always conduct myself in a professional manner.
[1:10:22] Now, if someone cusses at me in the hallway,
[1:10:23] I'll tell them off, too.
[1:10:25] Like someone confronting me the other night.
[1:10:27] But professionally, I remain a professional.
[1:10:29] So chief, if you're here, no hard feeling,
[1:10:33] no, I meant whatever the future holds,
[1:10:36] I will continue to work with him in a professional manner.
[1:10:41] So I'm going to dive in, first of all, the charter allows us to hire fire to spend.
[1:10:48] That's something that the residents chose to do.
[1:10:51] I know you were against it.
[1:10:53] I wasn't here.
[1:10:54] I did support the initiative, but I didn't bring that up.
[1:10:57] It was here.
[1:10:58] It was voted on when I first got elected.
[1:11:03] We had a previous police chief, I don't want to mention their name, but they did things
[1:11:09] things that were wrong. These things were from 10 years ago. We get about two years or
[1:11:14] years. These two things were from 10 years ago and they weren't achieved. I'm not dismissing
[1:11:19] what that person did. They were wrong. But we've got to be consistent. So when I hear comments
[1:11:26] like, well, these are from two years ago or this, that or whatever, we had no problem terminating
[1:11:31] a chief that did things from 10 years ago.
[1:11:37] So I like to try to be consistent and be, if I'm going to treat that person like that,
[1:11:43] I'm going to take these issues and treat them similarly.
[1:11:48] You know, I've heard just from reading comments or things, you know, like there's conspiracy
[1:11:54] this, conspiracy that that, you know, the city manager was behind this or I was behind this
[1:12:01] or commissioner Simone and I were behind that commissioner everyone knows we don't agree on 95% of things
[1:12:08] so the day that commissioner and I Simone and I conspire on something is probably the day health
[1:12:15] freezes over okay as far as the age of the text I hear well people held them back for personal gain
[1:12:26] Okay. Let's look at the history of the city, though. Okay. We had a firefighter several
[1:12:33] years back that came forward, had mental problem issues, mental health issues. Basically, railroad
[1:12:41] it is career. Can't even be a firefighter anymore. Then we had another first responder that developed
[1:12:49] an alcohol and drug addiction and was actually using drugs on the job.
[1:12:56] And you know what happened?
[1:12:59] You want to know what their reasoning was for not coming forward because we rewrote the last person.
[1:13:06] So yeah, people are scared.
[1:13:10] They're scared to come forward. And we've got an overwhelming
[1:13:14] vote of no confidence, which is not easy to do. I know it's easy to throw that term out,
[1:13:21] But to actually successfully have a vote of no confidence, I mean, I've been here, people
[1:13:30] have been here longer than me, but I don't think this has ever happened before.
[1:13:33] This is not something that you could just, oh yeah, vote of no confidence.
[1:13:41] So they're scared to come forward because even with a vote of no confidence, even without
[1:13:46] range of the apartment it seems like it's just going to fall on deaf ears.
[1:13:52] I've heard that it's
[1:13:54] because it didn't get raises or promotions. This is nothing to do with that.
[1:14:01] Say it again.
[1:14:03] I heard that this was about raises and promotions. Mr. Scarver will answer that when he comes back.
[1:14:09] I don't know, I, listen, I'm just, this is what I see online, I hear, I read, okay?
[1:14:22] So, where are we at?
[1:14:23] Chris?
[1:14:25] Yeah, raising promotions.
[1:14:26] Let's talk about the length of the text.
[1:14:28] If you read the reports, which, I got to be honest, I'm not sure a lot of people in here
[1:14:35] read this all.
[1:14:37] Some of these texts were, is latest September,
[1:14:42] the first complaint regarding the chief and
[1:14:45] There were some before, but I'm talking about this topic came in in November just a month or two later, two months later to the city manager.
[1:15:00] Okay. We all knew about it. All right. You can speak during public comment, please. Thank you.
[1:15:09] I was on the chief side. Okay. When this complaint first came in, I said this is just another, he said she said I'm tired of the nonsense. And there was consensus because I know kale asked all of us. And a letter was sent back to that officer rejecting the investigation.
[1:15:27] said, basically saying you got to come forward with evidence, we're not going to go off a
[1:15:33] hearsay.
[1:15:35] Then in December the complaint came back with screenshots.
[1:15:46] We were on break for the
[1:15:48] winner. We came back in January and 5.0 voted to have a third party investigator.
[1:15:56] It took about
[1:15:57] a month and a half to do the investigation. So to say like these texts are two years old and this
[1:16:03] that, some of them were as late a September and going through the process, this is where we are now.
[1:16:10] So to say that they were being held on to for all these years, I just don't buy it.
[1:16:20] I've heard conspiracies that, well, the investigators, you know, making it up. The investigators
[1:16:25] a lawyer. They're an officer of the court. They're not going to jeopardize their career and an
[1:16:29] ethics complaint with the Florida bar to lie about something.
[1:16:37] And the chief admitted that he sent
[1:16:40] the text. Undeniably, he sent them.
[1:16:46] I've heard that I've heard that these texts are taken out of
[1:16:52] context. So I'm going to ask the clerk to put some of these messages on the screen. Oh no, listen,
[1:17:00] And this is what it is.
[1:17:01] We're not going to put this under the rug.
[1:17:04] So they are graphic.
[1:17:06] And if anyone does not want to hear it or see it,
[1:17:08] you can, I'll give you a moment to leave.
[1:17:12] OK?
[1:17:13] It's not loud, though.
[1:17:14] This is something that our chief of police sent undeniably.
[1:17:19] And I'm not going to just sweep this under the rug.
[1:17:22] However, you could have rejected the name because I can't
[1:17:25] read it from here anyway.
[1:17:26] You could have rejected the name on the word.
[1:17:29] This is all public record.
[1:17:30] OK.
[1:17:30] Okay, and I will apologize to the person sitting here who's going to have to see that
[1:17:38] again.
[1:17:39] We'll live through it two years ago, and work out a six month agreement.
[1:17:46] It's ridiculous.
[1:17:47] Okay.
[1:17:48] You know what?
[1:17:49] The six month was to allow somebody to leave the department.
[1:17:53] This is no win-win no matter how you do it, but to leave the department attempting to
[1:17:57] do something that should have been done for a long time, and then just plainly leave the
[1:18:01] department. But what are you talking about to do? What? What's he going to do? There's,
[1:18:06] I don't know, it's time to clean a house. First of all, he can't just clean house. There's
[1:18:11] union contracts. And that's why the union might get up and say there are ways to do some of these
[1:18:16] things because regardless of whether a union member I would assume there's a certain amount of
[1:18:20] ethical conscience here. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, I'm wrong, I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I don't want,
[1:18:28] Our purview is not the individual officers. That's not in our authority. Do I believe some of them should be
[1:18:37] reprimanded and broke policy? There is policy in there that if they are aware of these things, they're supposed to report it.
[1:18:44] So it doesn't sit in festival, but that's not something that I have the authority or you or anyone else up here, other than Kale to deal with.
[1:19:00] So, you know, if the messages aren't going to play, I'll read them.
[1:19:04] It's not on my screen.
[1:19:11] I would like them up because I'm not sure that the public, you know, the public sees things like,
[1:19:18] we got to support, do they know what they're supporting when they see these messages?
[1:19:24] Well, maybe they don't, and you can read them and let us know what we're really talking about.
[1:19:29] Well, let's see. It says, I've heard that these messages are taken out of contact.
[1:19:35] Contacts, which one? Well, like for instance, either you sucked someone's
[1:19:40] DICK or you did not. LOL, that's pretty funny, but you know it's true. How do you take it out of context?
[1:19:50] Is it true? Listen, who are you referring to? And who are you referring to? And who is it?
[1:19:56] I said that I'm not going to disrespect anyone up here.
[1:20:00] But you're using this.
[1:20:01] Using it, this is what, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, guys stop, stop, stop, hold on.
[1:20:11] Listen, this is real life, city business, not what you heard on Facebook or read somewhere, okay?
[1:20:20] This is what our chief of police wrote in a text message.
[1:20:24] Maybe he was a friend.
[1:20:25] But you know what? He's a city employee and he said a Mali was chief,
[1:20:31] okay? So that's one of them
[1:20:35] You're talking about using a male over a female to handcuff someone. You're calling another officer a pussy
[1:20:42] You're telling in another thread here that
[1:20:46] So and so and so and so can go suck each other
[1:20:51] It's it's disgusting. I don't understand how we're even debating this if this was any of
[1:20:57] person. If it was me, y'all, we'd be dragging me out of here right now, and you know it. And I'm
[1:21:03] not mad at anyone here. There's people here that have supported me. There's people that I work
[1:21:08] with, work for, okay? And I'll still respect all of you regardless, okay? So, but I want everyone to
[1:21:18] know when they wear that pin or they come in here and wear blue, you want to support the police?
[1:21:25] Listen to them. You, calling out here, you said to listen to our employees. You said it at multiple meetings. Listen to our employees.
[1:21:40] Oh, well, so we could pick and choose. So I am listening to our employees, okay?
[1:21:53] I would like, and I'm not going to make the motion now.
[1:21:55] But at some point I will, I don't, it's probably not going to go anywhere.
[1:22:00] I was trying to get a compromise and a voice of reason here.
[1:22:04] You know, if it was me and I knew I had all the votes, I would terminate with cause.
[1:22:09] It's easy.
[1:22:10] It's right here in the investigation reports.
[1:22:13] There's also a criminal complaint that is with the FDLE and the state attorney.
[1:22:20] They have it.
[1:22:21] They're looking at it.
[1:22:22] So you talk about the chief coming back, I have a feeling, a strong feeling, we're going
[1:22:28] to be up here again.
[1:22:29] It's going to probably be worse, and we got another complaint today.
[1:22:35] At some point you've got to do what's best, as you said, for the city.
[1:22:39] What's best for the city is for the chief to resign, and he's not going to do it.
[1:22:45] But I'd like to see him, his contract terminated, no cause, ten weeks.
[1:22:52] Thank you for your service.
[1:22:54] I just don't see how the city moves forward.
[1:22:58] When you've got a majority of the department and command staff that don't have confidence
[1:23:04] in him,
[1:23:07] others, I mean, the chief of police has to work with other departments.
[1:23:12] There's other females in this part in this city, and it's just, it's not the right thing.
[1:23:24] Look, I'm just speaking what I think is the right thing to do.
[1:23:28] So again, I'm going to respect the wish of the commission and try to work in a professional manner.
[1:23:35] But I know that I can sleep at night, sticking up for the men and women that are sitting up here that put their life on the line for us.
[1:23:44] And you know what, because they're professionals, they may not be able to clap and cheer and come up here like everyone else.
[1:23:50] So I feel like I have to be a voice for them.
[1:23:54] And I'm sure I'll have more things to say or ask as the union and the investigator come up here.
[1:24:00] I appreciate everyone listening to me.
[1:24:02] And again, it's, I'm just doing what I think is right.
[1:24:06] And this is probably one of the hardest things in five plus years I've been up here that I've had to deal with.
[1:24:11] I'm sure it's not easy for any folks.
[1:24:14] So that's it.
[1:24:28] For the record, I'm Rod Scurvin,
[1:24:30] President of the Robert County PBA,
[1:24:32] and I represent the men and women
[1:24:34] of the Marguerite Police Department.
[1:24:37] We have contracts with the officers,
[1:24:38] sergeants, and tenants.
[1:24:41] You have recently made the position of Major,
[1:24:44] which are out of our purview,
[1:24:47] but they are still members of the Robert County PBA.
[1:24:51] It brings me no pleasure to be here
[1:24:54] tonight to say anything disparaging about chief Galaska or anyone else in this room.
[1:25:03] In fact, every conversation that I've had with the chief has been pleasant and I felt
[1:25:11] at the time productive.
[1:25:17] In fact, I was not even going to come here tonight and speak until I was made aware that it
[1:25:25] was being represented that this was a union ploy to get higher wages and better benefits.
[1:25:34] And I can only assume, Mr. Mayor, that came from a conversation I had with you.
[1:25:38] Correct.
[1:25:39] And I have no idea.
[1:25:41] Let me stop you right there on refreshing memory.
[1:25:44] No, let me continue, please, since it's my problem.
[1:25:46] No, no, just on that, because I want to make it clear, when I spoke to you on the phone, about the letter you had sent.
[1:25:53] I said about the no confidence vote and you said that it was more of the chief could
[1:25:58] not get us what we want. And I said, what do you mean by that? He said he's not able
[1:26:02] to negotiate our contracts to get these guys upper more money and be in the top one third
[1:26:10] of the county. You said that they were in the bottom third.
[1:26:12] They are.
[1:26:13] Okay, so you admit the conversation we had.
[1:26:16] Let's not, but that's not what I said and that's not the context in which that came about.
[1:26:20] No. Mr. Scurvin, did you also say that the next Union negotiation, you were going to come in, offer something to the city.
[1:26:26] If we didn't take it, you were going straight to Impass.
[1:26:30] I said, I said we're going to give you two meetings and we will go to Impass.
[1:26:33] You said one.
[1:26:34] No, not one.
[1:26:34] I said one.
[1:26:35] Mr. Scurvin, I'm not making this up.
[1:26:36] Well, apparently you are, sir.
[1:26:40] I don't mind, Mr. Scurvin.
[1:26:42] We had a conversation.
[1:26:43] I agree we did have a conversation, but apparently you've misunderstood several facts in that conversation.
[1:26:48] And would you like to let me complete my statement to the rest of the commission?
[1:26:53] Thank you, I appreciate that.
[1:26:57] Like I said, I was not even going to come to this meeting, and so my conversation with the mayor
[1:27:02] was misrepresented online, and I feel bad for the people that came here tonight thinking
[1:27:08] that this was a union ploy.
[1:27:10] In fact, you should know the union did not even get involved with the voter no confidence
[1:27:16] And until after the independent investigation was complete, the union did not call for
[1:27:23] that independent investigation, the commission did, and I believe, Mr. Mayor, you voted for that.
[1:27:30] I had to.
[1:27:31] You have to?
[1:27:33] Go on by our turn.
[1:27:34] You're saying you didn't want to?
[1:27:35] We had to vote to move the investigation.
[1:27:38] I asked a question at the meeting, and he said we had to do it according to FDLE.
[1:27:42] We had to do it.
[1:27:43] I'm glad you did do it because the findings, as we're pointed out, were astonishingly bad in
[1:27:52] reflections of the Chiefs Actions.
[1:27:56] One of the very few things that the Broward County PBA does not get involved with and
[1:28:02] provide attorneys for, for our members are those kind of complaints, hostile work environment,
[1:28:08] or anything of that nature, that falls under federal purview, not us. I had nothing to do with the investigation.
[1:28:19] It was after the investigation that the members called me unendingly, begging me, begging me to be a voice for them because they were in fear of retribution.
[1:28:33] Women, multiple females of this department feel oppressed and afraid to come to work
[1:28:42] because of what might happen to them.
[1:28:46] They cannot come to work and act like every other male in this department does.
[1:28:52] They have to work twice as hard and receive every
[1:29:01] chore that should be beneath them that
[1:29:06] gets given to them. If they're senior officers, senior lieutenants, senior sergeants, they
[1:29:13] are given menial tasks that should be going to junior people. It is incredibly rare
[1:29:22] for a command staff picked by the chief that's sitting to vote a no confidence against their
[1:29:32] boss that's unheard of and you should take note of that. Not only the officers of this
[1:29:39] department, the sergeants of this department, the lieutenants of this department and the
[1:29:46] majors of this department voted no confidence. You cannot ignore that and say it's a union
[1:29:55] Employee, there's something wrong in the city of Marguerite.
[1:30:00] This chief, I met with him when he was in the intern and getting the permanent job. I was more than willing to sit down and help him. We knew that the department was broken, we agreed the department was broken, and we knew it might at the end of the day be a losing cause for him to fix. It was a monumental task. Unfortunately, not only do I not think he fixed it, I think he made it works.
[1:30:30] on this is a month that we celebrate in America as women's history month.
[1:30:40] I hope you realize that and what's happening to the women in 2024 of the Marguerite Police Department.
[1:30:48] What's happening?
[1:30:51] Read the report, I guess you haven't read.
[1:30:52] Read the report, our chief just gave us, that doesn't mean nothing right.
[1:30:56] I applaud the fact that he came and apologized, not that part, but he's not going to fix it at this point.
[1:31:03] you will. I will help any way I can. How did you help? But I can't. You just said that
[1:31:10] they've been screaming. They can't go to work. They're afraid to go to work. What have
[1:31:14] you done when they were telling you this? They came to me after. This vote after this
[1:31:21] investigation.
[1:31:24] I don't know why you're looking at me with doubt. It's your own employees
[1:31:28] that are begging you for relief when you're done so
[1:31:35] you can ignore them. I hope the rest of the
[1:31:37] commissioners do not. I'm not here to bash the chief in any way shape or form chief. I'm not
[1:31:45] here to bash you. But this is not about Joe Galaska, the neighbor, the brother, the father, the
[1:31:55] baseball coach. This is about Chief Galaska of the Margate Police Department.
[1:32:03] And what
[1:32:04] I just saw on the screen, I had not seen before. I had heard there were Texas that were
[1:32:09] extremely offensive, demeaning, and that should require immediate action by you as elected
[1:32:19] officials. But that was the first time I saw them.
[1:32:33] Stop. If
[1:32:39] any of you, and I think it was mentioned,
[1:32:42] if it was any officer that said that about the chief or any other supervisor, they wouldn't be
[1:32:51] here. I'd be fighting for their job back. There was unquestionable.
[1:32:56] And I don't think you can disagree
[1:32:58] with that.
[1:33:01] And I don't know how you can look at any woman in this room with
[1:33:07] a straight face and say
[1:33:08] that's not a problem. And, sir, a month, I find appalling.
[1:33:16] I'm sorry, sir. I just find
[1:33:18] that appalling that that's a month and everything's okay after what was done and said.
[1:33:23] And
[1:33:25] I agree with the vice mayor that in six months, if we don't see any changes, we make more changes.
[1:33:38] Okay. I applauded that. I applauded that.
[1:33:42] Okay, because after the last meeting we had here, I went home.
[1:33:52] And my niece was looking at the printouts of what we saw somebody's.
[1:34:01] And my niece asked me, what would you do if it was Sophia's name?
[1:34:04] My daughter's name there. I said I'd go for the guy's throat.
[1:34:08] and she said well are you gonna do this and I think that this is
[1:34:19] a middle
[1:34:20] ground there has to be there has to be something done this is unacceptable I
[1:34:30] just don't think it deserves a firing but it deserves it deserves punishment
[1:34:39] It deserves a whole lot of stuff, I
[1:34:46] just can't fire them on this.
[1:34:49] But believe me, I have a daughter, I have a niece, they will look, and this has been
[1:34:54] one of the harder decisions I've had to make up here in seven years.
[1:34:58] Mr. Mayor, I appreciate your passion, you know, it's not passion.
[1:35:02] Well, it comes off as passion.
[1:35:04] It's fairness.
[1:35:05] What?
[1:35:06] I don't know about that.
[1:35:06] I think everybody up there has a diversion of fairness.
[1:35:09] Okay.
[1:35:10] You've seen very passionate about yours in defending the chief and that's fine.
[1:35:15] I don't have a problem with that.
[1:35:16] I really don't, but in my view, what's fair to them?
[1:35:21] What's fair to her?
[1:35:24] Look at her and tell me that what you're saying you think is fair to her for what's been
[1:35:28] done to her.
[1:35:31] She's been humiliated in front of the whole department.
[1:35:34] She's a lieutenant.
[1:35:38] How does she supervise some of these people now?
[1:35:39] Now,
[1:35:42] how does anybody in that command staff have confidence in the chief that he's a good
[1:35:46] leader moving forward?
[1:35:48] How do the officers, the street level officers knowing how he's talking to sergeants about
[1:35:56] a lieutenant have confidence in what the chief thinks about them?
[1:36:02] It's broken.
[1:36:06] The promotional process that was brought up, that's a good old boy system.
[1:36:10] That needs to go and those are the things I'm more than happy to sit down with any of you the chief, the city manager, anybody and to help fix.
[1:36:26] I'm not here to cause a bigger problem. I'm here to help fix the problem that is existing within this police department.
[1:36:37] It's infected the entire police department and
[1:36:42] there's no easy fix and this chief has
[1:36:44] had over two years to try to fix it and I don't think he has and I don't see how he will
[1:36:49] move him forward.
[1:36:55] Thank you. So then just so I am clear because I have broken this up into two
[1:37:03] different parts. There is nothing that would ever make me think that was put in print on any day
[1:37:11] of the week by anybody at any time would be okay. There are no words that I can use for how
[1:37:19] disgusting I find that to be. So I separated that clearly saying there will be a consequence
[1:37:27] because if my son who did that after I washed his mouth out with soap, I'd smack him on the top
[1:37:32] of the head so we never forgot it. That's my personal opinion. I looked at and tried to say
[1:37:39] There's a systemic problem with the department period.
[1:37:43] He may have inherited it, it clearly didn't get fixed,
[1:37:46] but I will tell you that I believe quite frankly,
[1:37:50] some of it's from the command staff straight down
[1:37:53] because as I've said before and I'll say it now out loud,
[1:37:56] the outs became the ins, the ins became the outs
[1:38:00] from the other and everybody in the middle is sick and tired of it.
[1:38:04] And that's what I think I see here.
[1:38:06] The people who really were never on either side and just came to work to do their job.
[1:38:12] And they're the ones to look up and say, this is a horrible place to work possibly because
[1:38:18] I don't see an end to it.
[1:38:20] So are you then saying to me that giving any sort of chance for six months that I don't
[1:38:26] know that anything can be done?
[1:38:28] But I also look at a 30-year career, but in some way, shape or form, I would rather see
[1:38:34] We end on a better note than what's happening tonight, your thoughts.
[1:38:44] You know, and speaking with the people that, at least some of the people that were affected
[1:38:51] by the comments, the actions, the culture of what's going on right now, I've spoken to them
[1:38:58] about several options.
[1:39:01] We're not here to humiliate anybody like they were humiliated.
[1:39:05] I don't want that.
[1:39:06] But I don't think that's professional in any way and I'm here to be professional about
[1:39:11] the problem we have and like I said I'm here to help you fix it if I can.
[1:39:15] And that's what I'm trying to find the way to do.
[1:39:22] I think if you assure us that you will take this up in six months, that's a possibility.
[1:39:30] Obviously, I think the men and women that were affected would prefer he be terminated tonight.
[1:39:37] That's their preference, and I think that that is justified.
[1:39:40] I think you have every right to do that.
[1:39:42] And I think it's almost a stretch not to do that,
[1:39:45] other than we're trying to save some face
[1:39:47] for the city of Margate in this police chief
[1:39:49] that's been here for 30 years.
[1:39:53] But I will say this,
[1:39:58] in no way shape or form,
[1:40:00] do I think he is going to change the culture
[1:40:02] of this police department in six months.
[1:40:04] And if we were to meet again in six months,
[1:40:08] I will be here again.
[1:40:09] And it will be a stronger conversation.
[1:40:13] I won't be here to fix it at that point.
[1:40:16] I'm going to tell you, I'll go on record saying,
[1:40:19] if nothing changes, I won't vote to retain.
[1:40:24] I agree.
[1:40:26] I have a comment.
[1:40:27] Go for it.
[1:40:31] What do you consider change?
[1:40:33] Because we had a third party investigator,
[1:40:37] investigator, who's here?
[1:40:39] So, let me interrupt you before you go in on that,
[1:40:41] because this is important to your topic.
[1:40:45] Two things that I didn't mention.
[1:40:47] You say there was mention that there is gonna be an exodus.
[1:40:51] There is gonna be an exodus.
[1:40:52] And I can tell you firsthand why,
[1:40:54] because people are coming to me asking for me to help them exit.
[1:40:58] And I'm gonna do that, because they shouldn't be working
[1:41:01] in this environment when other departments, they can flourish.
[1:41:04] That's one.
[1:41:05] No. Two. I by no means mean this as a threat, but you have more complaints coming. There's more text messages coming and there's more embarrassment coming to the city.
[1:41:16] And you're okay with that.
[1:41:18] I'm not okay with what you're doing to try to fix this problem.
[1:41:23] How do I fix text that were already censored? How do I fix that? I can't retract somebody else's text.
[1:41:29] Okay, so your check, can we check everybody's phone, everyone in the department?
[1:41:32] I don't know what you're asking.
[1:41:34] There will be official complaints filed.
[1:41:36] You'll get the information, you'll have to do more investigations.
[1:41:40] And when this investigator, if you give her the green light to continue on, the can of
[1:41:46] worms has been open, sir.
[1:41:47] Okay.
[1:41:47] It's been open for a long time, Rod.
[1:41:49] Nobody's done anything.
[1:41:50] That's the problem.
[1:41:51] Well, I think we're here tonight to do something.
[1:41:54] Right.
[1:41:54] How long have you been representing this union?
[1:41:56] A little over two years.
[1:41:58] Two years.
[1:41:58] It was a disaster when we got it it was a total disaster yes a total disaster
[1:42:03] You even told me on the phone you love the chief think is a great guy
[1:42:06] What have you guys done to try to fix this? I know us when I found out about it
[1:42:10] I got a list of stuff here that as policy makers we could try to fix
[1:42:15] but as far as
[1:42:17] If he stays more text are gonna start coming this isn't gonna end no one's gonna win
[1:42:22] It's already no one's winning. Wait. It's not about winning. So Rod what is it about then?
[1:42:27] So when you come for the union negotiation, you guys get your money, the next sheet comes
[1:42:31] in, everything's good.
[1:42:33] Is that the win?
[1:42:34] That's not the win.
[1:42:38] You're combining two different topics, and let me talk about two different topics.
[1:42:43] We spoke on the phone.
[1:42:44] You told me, out of your mouth, he doesn't negotiate for us.
[1:42:48] I said, do chiefs negotiate.
[1:42:50] You said they always do.
[1:42:51] They absolutely.
[1:42:52] We have chiefs negotiate in other cities all the time, let's sit at the table.
[1:42:55] But he doesn't.
[1:42:56] And that's the problem. That was one of the problems you told me.
[1:42:59] I said he couldn't convince the commission, the electeds, to get better benefits to keep and attract new people to the city of Marguerite.
[1:43:11] Correct, now we agree.
[1:43:13] I didn't say that that's why this investigation took place.
[1:43:16] You told me that was part of it.
[1:43:18] No, absolutely not, sir.
[1:43:21] May you rest in peace, the officer who passed away, Monday morning.
[1:43:24] I was told.
[1:43:26] Chief Galaska never even met the family.
[1:43:29] Chief Galaska wasn't going to the briefings.
[1:43:32] There's gonna be, I didn't.
[1:43:33] I didn't tell you that.
[1:43:34] I'm not saying you.
[1:43:35] I don't know what you're talking about.
[1:43:36] I'm not saying you, but I'm saying.
[1:43:36] I'm just gonna be a no-confidence vote.
[1:43:38] I was told that Monday morning,
[1:43:40] then come to find out,
[1:43:42] had the stuff that I was told
[1:43:43] wasn't even true about the chief.
[1:43:45] Chief did go meet the family.
[1:43:47] So now, your union people here are being told,
[1:43:50] chiefs checked out.
[1:43:51] He hasn't been to the family.
[1:43:52] He hasn't done this.
[1:43:53] I am not, I wasn't told that.
[1:43:55] I don't know what you're talking about.
[1:43:58] You went after him.
[1:43:59] You went after him when he was vulnerable,
[1:44:00] and you're going to continue doing it.
[1:44:01] You just said it.
[1:44:02] I just said what?
[1:44:03] What you just said made no sense to me
[1:44:05] because I didn't have any of those conversations.
[1:44:07] So, of no confidence vote, doesn't have to go before you?
[1:44:10] Absolutely.
[1:44:12] Okay.
[1:44:12] I was told Monday there was going to be no confidence vote.
[1:44:15] Okay, there was.
[1:44:16] I think you guys just run it, correct?
[1:44:19] Yes, sir.
[1:44:20] That's it.
[1:44:20] We just, we provide the action.
[1:44:23] action. Yes sir. That's it. Okay. It's not as speaking as it works out. Okay. Is there any other
[1:44:30] questions for me? I'm sorry for interrupting you. No, it's okay. I was just asking what the change is.
[1:44:35] I hear it's not going to change. The outs become the Indians out. You need someone from the outside at
[1:44:42] this point. Okay. But going back to the change because everyone's like all conspiracy conspiracy. So in
[1:44:50] six months, we have more complaints and more proven text messages and more this and more
[1:44:56] that.
[1:44:56] We're going to dismiss that too and say, well, you know, it's all corrupt, it was just
[1:44:59] a
[1:45:00] Another conspiracy, you know, you never heard me say, I'm just saying public people, things, comments, I read everything, I don't comment, but I read a lot. Okay.
[1:45:11] For the record, I didn't read anybody's response on anybody's Facebook page.
[1:45:15] I read everything. I was not to do that. I read everything. I decided this was for me to decide what I was going to do.
[1:45:22] I just I don't know what the change would be.
[1:45:26] The change would be that people start to see an improvement in the morale and the desire
[1:45:32] to come to work, and if that doesn't exist, how's that going to exist if more stuff's
[1:45:37] coming?
[1:45:38] You have that?
[1:45:38] I don't care.
[1:45:39] I don't care.
[1:45:39] I'm working on this stuff.
[1:45:41] I've got that.
[1:45:41] SDLE and state attorney.
[1:45:43] Let me interrupt you.
[1:45:44] You can't stop it.
[1:45:45] You can't stop it.
[1:45:46] You can't stop it.
[1:45:46] You can't stop it.
[1:45:46] You can't stop it.
[1:45:47] That report, first of all, is under investigation.
[1:45:49] And it's an opinion report.
[1:45:50] There's nothing about the last concern.
[1:45:52] Fairness.
[1:45:52] And it's basically questioning the report that was done two years ago.
[1:45:59] So you're waving it like it's like all the information is here.
[1:46:02] It's not there.
[1:46:02] I can't go into the information that's on it.
[1:46:05] If you actually read the whole thing and click all the links, it's the methods that they
[1:46:10] were done and the tactics that were used.
[1:46:13] So listen, I'm going to make a, because I want it on the record where I stand, I want to
[1:46:22] and if I can get a second so we can vote on it.
[1:46:25] Second.
[1:46:27] All right, now we're going to the discussion.
[1:46:29] Joanna, I just want to say a couple things to you.
[1:46:31] You sat there and you praised and read your five pages
[1:46:33] as normal.
[1:46:34] You handed out your 50 sheets of copy, write it,
[1:46:37] highlight it, things.
[1:46:40] You talked about on and off duty, correct?
[1:46:44] The more out, they did the ethics.
[1:46:45] They should be a former chief.
[1:46:51] Do you know the report?
[1:46:52] That was done with the former chief.
[1:46:53] you familiar with it? You don't know? I did not read it. I did not read it. So you made a decision
[1:47:01] on a chief without even looking into the investigation without even going by any information. I'm not going
[1:47:07] to read a bunch of things that contain explicit, you read these? You read these? You have no problem
[1:47:16] reading these? They're not the same kind of report. What a penis in the hand is a different than a
[1:47:21] then a text
[1:47:25] and for you and for you to come after me for what I say guys there
[1:47:46] was a report there was an investigation done by our former chief pages and
[1:47:50] pages of pictures nothing to compare to this the reason what I'm saying is
[1:47:53] her little spiel she did she kept she was the only one to vote to keep the
[1:47:59] former chief the only one you're the only one however some text messages said
[1:48:08] whether they're true or not you're gonna crucify the chief after being here for
[1:48:14] 30 plus years never said though Tommy I mean so it's not true then it doesn't
[1:48:20] matter if it's true or not, but it doesn't matter if it's true or not.
[1:48:22] I think that stuff.
[1:48:23] You're right.
[1:48:24] You have to separate this person.
[1:48:27] You're going to get a raise it.
[1:48:28] Put all that aside.
[1:48:29] Look at the text.
[1:48:31] So in other words, if somebody texts something and it's not true, you need a basic decision
[1:48:35] on that.
[1:48:36] But Chief said those words.
[1:48:38] He said it.
[1:48:39] We're not saying the words.
[1:48:40] The text.
[1:48:41] It doesn't matter if he shouldn't be talking about employees, a female like that.
[1:48:45] Whether it's true or not, I'm not here to decide if what was meant to be true.
[1:48:50] mentioned was actually true or not.
[1:48:52] The fact is that's something that the chief of police said,
[1:48:55] and you know that if one of us up here said it,
[1:48:58] I'm not saying anything I want to feel.
[1:49:00] If I have an opinion, I'll say it.
[1:49:02] Everybody knows that.
[1:49:03] I have no problem with that.
[1:49:04] Why don't you do the right thing?
[1:49:06] We'll do the right thing.
[1:49:08] Consider to be the right thing.
[1:49:10] We're full of it.
[1:49:11] That's why there's no compromise there.
[1:49:15] I heard two of you talk about being fair and doing compromise.
[1:49:18] I think that, so I think that he should go.
[1:49:21] So it's all right.
[1:49:23] I hold on.
[1:49:24] I had the floor.
[1:49:25] I was still speaking.
[1:49:26] Hold on.
[1:49:26] One second.
[1:49:28] Everyone of us agrees here.
[1:49:29] Our system is broken.
[1:49:30] Yes.
[1:49:31] Everyone agrees.
[1:49:32] There's a hostile work environment that carried over from the last thing.
[1:49:36] And I talked to the city manager.
[1:49:38] We have to address some of these problems as a commission.
[1:49:42] I think the,
[1:49:44] the testing needs to be revamped.
[1:49:46] I don't agree with it.
[1:49:49] I think the anti-fragrization has to come into play.
[1:49:52] We have probably nine 10 Navy couples that are police officers.
[1:49:57] That could cause a potential problem.
[1:50:00] So there's certain things we need to do as a commission.
[1:50:03] I know Commissioner Serio has his motion, it was seconded.
[1:50:10] The public is going to come up, but I just don't want you guys are going to be able to speak one time.
[1:50:13] So if we come back to it and there's another thing.
[1:50:16] I don't want to hear it again.
[1:50:17] What do you want to do?
[1:50:21] Technically, they're allowed to come up and speak.
[1:50:23] I don't want to hold any way from not speaking.
[1:50:25] But I don't want to be here too.
[1:50:26] I don't mind being here, trust me.
[1:50:29] What's that?
[1:50:29] It can be amended if that's not what you want.
[1:50:33] I just give one comment regarding the motion.
[1:50:38] In 20, I just want to, this relates to the motion.
[1:50:41] In 2023, the Florida legislature,
[1:50:42] the legislature, you know, passed a new statute which provides the chief of police with an opportunity to speak following receipt of a notice of his termination.
[1:50:55] So if there is any motion to terminate, that motion needs to recognize the fact that there's a statute in here and that he needs to be given to your next meeting to come back with the ability to speak in response.
[1:51:11] that doesn't mean that you can't vote tonight and make his termination effective at 1159 in the date of your next meeting.
[1:51:19] But you just need to provide him with that opportunity to come back before the termination is effective.
[1:51:25] It's a hearing.
[1:51:26] It's not a hearing.
[1:51:27] No, it's not a hearing.
[1:51:28] I guess probably the easiest way to do this is if somebody wants to amend it, amend it now, so we can be on a level playing ground.
[1:51:36] So my recommendation would be, with respect to the motion made by Commissioner
[1:51:43] Osario, that he included a provision that the termination would be effective as of 11.59 p.m.
[1:51:51] On April 3, which is the date of your next meeting, and that during this period of time that
[1:51:57] the chief would be on leave with pay.
[1:51:59] Okay.
[1:52:02] That's my motion.
[1:52:07] You left.
[1:52:08] I will.
[1:52:10] I will.
[1:52:10] Okay.
[1:52:11] All right.
[1:52:12] Thank you.
[1:52:13] Are you on?
[1:52:16] Yeah.
[1:52:16] I am on.
[1:52:17] Because this has nothing to do with the Sean Vestigation.
[1:52:21] So you mudding the waters.
[1:52:23] It doesn't have a lot to do with it.
[1:52:24] No, it doesn't.
[1:52:25] No, it doesn't.
[1:52:26] We all had carried over.
[1:52:28] By bringing up that has nothing to do with my investigation on this.
[1:52:33] How can you sit up here, and condone this kind of behavior?
[1:52:39] Commissioner, how can you listen to these women,
[1:52:42] pouring their hearts out, telling you what was wrong,
[1:52:47] and you're going to recommend six months?
[1:52:50] It's not going to be fixed, it's damaged, it's broken.
[1:52:53] This has been on the news.
[1:52:55] The city's reputation is stained.
[1:52:58] I don't condone what he said.
[1:53:00] I would never condone.
[1:53:02] and Commissioner, he would go after their throats,
[1:53:05] but yet suspend for one month.
[1:53:09] How can you go after somebody's throats
[1:53:12] if it happened to your child
[1:53:13] and not recommend anything more severe?
[1:53:18] Because I had this step back and give a deeper thought.
[1:53:25] You know, the chief had the opportunity,
[1:53:27] and I wasn't gonna say this,
[1:53:28] but the chief had the opportunity
[1:53:30] to come up to every single one of us and apologize and say something to the
[1:53:35] effect of I am so sorry.
[1:53:40] Yes did he initiate it or did you?
[1:53:46] I did. I initiated it.
[1:53:50] Okay. He should have come up to each one of us individually and apologize and
[1:53:56] said I am so sorry for what happens. I don't know what happens. I I regret
[1:54:02] We're doing it, but I love my job.
[1:54:06] I love the city of Morrigate.
[1:54:07] I will fight to keep my job.
[1:54:09] What can I do to make this right?
[1:54:11] That never happened actually.
[1:54:13] How do you describe up to every female that he said it to
[1:54:17] before he came up to us?
[1:54:19] And I told him yesterday, when I asked the question
[1:54:22] which surprised me the answer, did you apologize?
[1:54:26] And the answer was I'm gonna do it tonight,
[1:54:28] and I said, why now?
[1:54:30] I'm not before because I know what I would have done it. I know that if this would be me
[1:54:35] I would have stepped back and said, you know what? The system's broken. I inherited something broken
[1:54:41] I'm for the good of the city and the people who work for it. I
[1:54:45] Would be walking away and let somebody heal it. That would be me. That's always been me. That's I can't make somebody
[1:54:52] that. But that's what I would have done.
[1:54:58] How do you, how do you, how do you accept, and I'm
[1:55:02] going to say it? I've been nice. I've used the word untruthfulness, but now I'm going to say it.
[1:55:08] How do you accept lying? How do you accept lying from the chief of police? It has the three lies in the
[1:55:17] report? Were you not, did you not listen to what I, I, I absolutely listened to
[1:55:23] everything? Well, how do you, how do you, how do you accept that from the
[1:55:28] chief of police? How do you expect, how do you expect him to have respect from the
[1:55:33] rest of the unit? When you know the man does not tell the truth,
[1:55:43] not severe.
[1:55:47] I think
[1:55:47] these people have trust in him. I'm trying to make the punishment fit the crime. I think the
[1:55:55] punishment does fit the crime, then I will tell you that I have never met a man who in a locker room
[1:56:00] would mix disgusting remarks about females. The stupidity here is about judgment. The judgment sucks.
[1:56:09] I'm going to go further. Judgment should never be questioned. That's true. And yes,
[1:56:14] Yes, it's a term that I think came up in the 2016 locker room talk, okay?
[1:56:19] Oh, I don't, I don't forgive it.
[1:56:22] I don't forgive it.
[1:56:23] I grew up, I've done it, okay?
[1:56:27] I work on construction, the mayor does.
[1:56:30] I'm sure we all do it.
[1:56:31] Women don't do it.
[1:56:32] But let me tell you something though.
[1:56:33] And I'm not saying it's necessarily okay.
[1:56:35] But there's a difference.
[1:56:37] You don't talk about a city employee to another city employee about city business that way.
[1:56:43] And I'm not saying that that type of talk is acceptable.
[1:56:48] I would not talk in front of my daughter like that.
[1:56:50] I've done it, you've all, and if any guy in here says they have never done it, they're
[1:56:56] definitely lying.
[1:56:57] But to do it about an employee to another employee is crossing a line, it's poor judgment.
[1:57:06] The chief of police and the fire chief, they make decisions of life and death.
[1:57:11] If you can't question their judgment, it cannot be questioned and 100% about the chief
[1:57:21] coming to me.
[1:57:21] I was mentioned in the last meeting while I blasted the chief.
[1:57:24] Let me tell you something.
[1:57:24] I didn't blast the chief for months.
[1:57:27] When the first complaint came in, I never heard a single word.
[1:57:31] It was rejected.
[1:57:33] I was sticking up for him.
[1:57:35] They want to come back again with the text messages, but before we started the investigation,
[1:57:39] I mean, if I was in his shoes, I would have came right away to my boss and said, listen,
[1:57:44] I'm so sorry, or it's not true, or whatever the case may be.
[1:57:49] And you know what, it really bothers me because he is a friend, or whatever, probably hard
[1:57:56] to like someone that wants your job.
[1:57:58] But I considered him a friend, I figured he could come and talk to me, and the same thing
[1:58:03] with the previous lease chief.
[1:58:04] If it was similar, the behavior and what, I'm not comparing the two behaviors as far as the acts,
[1:58:11] but the, after the fact, the other chief didn't come to me either, and it just bothered me.
[1:58:16] It really bothered me that you wouldn't come and try to explain your case.
[1:58:21] Oh, I don't think there was anything to explain the eight and a half by eleven.
[1:58:24] Yeah, all by themselves.
[1:58:25] But again, I saw that it was nothing to explain.
[1:58:29] It was explicit.
[1:58:31] right. But I don't know why our chief didn't do that as well. Again I'm looking
[1:58:40] out for the best interest of the city. There's 60,000 residents there's
[1:58:45] about 25 people here. Most of them half of them disagree with me all the
[1:58:50] time. The other half okay so they've seen it baseball yada yada yada I'm sure
[1:58:55] they never read the reports but I've talked to a lot of people out in the
[1:59:00] community that are disgusted by it.
[1:59:03] And I just don't see how this is going to work.
[1:59:06] We're going to be back here in six months again.
[1:59:10] So, you know, I broke his own department's policies.
[1:59:16] Robber's rules, emotions, calm down.
[1:59:18] They've got it.
[1:59:20] All right, if you guys don't mind, we're going to go to public.
[1:59:22] Yeah, no, that's fine.
[1:59:23] Thank you for.
[1:59:24] Good.
[1:59:25] Yes, Robber's rules.
[1:59:26] The motion's been made.
[1:59:27] It's been said.
[1:59:27] I can say your name, please.
[1:59:28] The public speak.
[1:59:29] Robert, Richard Zucchini and Lakewood Circle.
[1:59:33] Okay, first off, commissioners are Serio and Simone.
[1:59:37] I don't know how you can make a moral equivalent
[1:59:39] between bad unfortunate texts and sanctioned org orgies
[1:59:44] from the previous administration and culture.
[1:59:47] It's not even close while
[1:59:52] poor texts
[1:59:54] do not rise to the level of termination.
[1:59:58] and where was the union leader
[2:00:00] The chief before, under the old chief, when we really had a culture of problems, where was
[2:00:05] that union leadership?
[2:00:09] That's when we needed you. Facts don't lie. The chief has appointed
[2:00:15] a higher percentage of females. Hostile environment? My God, if it was any less hostile, I'd be afraid
[2:00:22] to hear about it. There was a ridiculous culture throughout the force and that has to be corrected.
[2:00:29] It was a cancer running through the force. It's a big job. It's a difficult job and he needs help to get it done
[2:00:35] Look, this entire thing was handled, mishandled from the very beginning
[2:00:40] City manager, I'm a big fan. I'm a supporter. I really like you. I think you do a great job
[2:00:45] But on this issue this should have been a meeting in your office with all of the people before this came out in the press
[2:00:54] before this came and blew up and you should have said to the female lieutenant, I am going to pay particular attention to your career
[2:01:03] and I will make sure that you get career advancements but based on performance, job performance, not based on relationships.
[2:01:14] So, you know, I have so much more to say, I could never do it in three minutes, but this
[2:01:20] is ridiculous.
[2:01:21] This is not a moral equivalent to what happened with the last chief.
[2:01:25] And for all of a sudden to act, so, oh my God, he said something that was untoward in the
[2:01:31] text message.
[2:01:32] But his actions were very, very different.
[2:01:35] He deserves a chance to make it right.
[2:01:37] He deserves to get guidance to make it right.
[2:01:51] Grant O'Donnell, I live in Colody Springs, Boulevard.
[2:01:56] So my whole thing about this, I think the city manager also has some blame in this.
[2:02:02] He should have been with the chief and helping the chief find a better way and better solutions
[2:02:07] when he knew there was already a problem from the last chief.
[2:02:10] And that wasn't done.
[2:02:12] The chief and him need to work together and sit down every month or every week, whatever
[2:02:18] it takes and listen to what's going on into the department. These police officers are
[2:02:23] therefore our protection. We need these guys. I love our police and I cannot fathom the fact
[2:02:31] that one police officer is throwing another police officer under the bus. That is absolutely
[2:02:36] horrible. It should never ever come to that. These guys have to have each other's backs every single day.
[2:02:44] Now, I have to wonder, is there a police officer that works for the city of Margate that might pull me over and he doesn't like something that I said, so he's gonna do something that's wrong.
[2:02:55] Because he doesn't like me, that's crazy that I have to think that.
[2:03:00] If he's willing to do this to the police chief, what's he willing to do to the neighborhood and to the people that are out there?
[2:03:07] And not only should the chief be held accountable, what about the other police officer that did this with the text messages?
[2:03:13] held on to him, and then said, if you don't give my girlfriend a promotion, I'm going
[2:03:19] to release these text messages. That's absolutely absurd.
[2:03:26] I just cannot believe that, and I do think that some of this does fall on City Manager.
[2:03:33] He has to work with the police chief to get things straightened out.
[2:03:38] And going forward, I really hope that maybe somebody from the outside needs to sit in
[2:03:43] when they do hiring, maybe somebody else from the outside needs to sit in on some of the
[2:03:49] department things that are going on, so that this doesn't ever happen again.
[2:03:54] And the women, especially the women, listen, if this happened to my girlfriend, my wife,
[2:03:59] I would be outrageously crazy going after him.
[2:04:03] I'll tell you right now, I would.
[2:04:05] The guy is 30 years trying to help our city, and I don't want to see him lose his job.
[2:04:10] I think that's crazy.
[2:04:12] I think what you suggested with, you know, giving him a suspension, hurt him in his pocket.
[2:04:20] No pay for, you know, if I didn't get paid, a paycheck for a month, that would hurt me.
[2:04:25] And I'm sure he's going to feel it.
[2:04:27] And I hope going forward that he is open to communicating with the female officers and he
[2:04:33] should go to every single one of them and apologize for what he did.
[2:04:36] That I do believe, not to the commissioners, to the female police officers.
[2:04:40] That's who he owes an apology to.
[2:04:42] Not to you guys, you know, and the city manager has to get this on the control.
[2:04:49] It does fall in under him because he does work for the city manager.
[2:04:54] That's all I got to say. Thank you.
[2:05:03] Donna Fellows, I just want to say you all are saying that they have to act professional on enough duty.
[2:05:11] Well, when Sergeant Horn has a domestic violence and is on a police report, I'm sorry, and he
[2:05:20] broke picture frames, and he broke a MacBook computer.
[2:05:25] That's not professional.
[2:05:26] That is hostile.
[2:05:29] So the hostile part came from the home to begin with.
[2:05:34] Now, Chief, he has brought so much good to this department, to the city and to us residents.
[2:05:44] He has brought you a SWAT vehicle.
[2:05:47] He has brought you technical gear for your police technical, special technical things.
[2:05:55] He has brought you the, he's bringing in the red dots for our police, women and men.
[2:06:02] He is bringing in a lot of good to protect our women and men.
[2:06:08] He is not putting them down like that.
[2:06:13] Just a text message, I'm sorry, but I can tell you one incident right here on the City Hall property
[2:06:19] where a commissioner told someone that he hated me.
[2:06:24] And I'm glad because the feeling is mutual.
[2:06:28] and I'm going to let you know you told Anna Grace that yes you did and I'm
[2:06:35] happy with it hate me all you want I don't care but remember your
[2:06:40] residents are your bosses I don't usually hate because it takes too much work to
[2:06:45] hate yeah wow oh my god please it's my time stop so you got to think of the good
[2:06:54] And for Sergeant Horne to take a police vehicle and go lights and sirens chasing his girlfriend down in
[2:07:04] Moor from Margate to coconut Creek and doing that and putting us in jeopardy, he's the one that needs to have his job lost.
[2:07:31] I said, I don't understand why you gave people bullets and put them in your guns, they could shoot you with them.
[2:07:42] These are his texts. I agree with, they are his texts. And the issues that we have with the other
[2:07:50] people, they should be dealt with. All right, they should be dealt with and they should be dealt
[2:07:56] with good. But this still is about the chief and the text. It's not, we need them and at the problem.
[2:08:09] We made this agree on, but the important thing is, is that he wrote them, he sent them out, and
[2:08:20] that should not be forgotten in any of this.
[2:08:28] Tracy Van Winkle, first of all, I would just like to say to Commissioner Assyrio, don't put that off on me that I keep saying, check your department because it had nothing to do with the police department.
[2:08:40] I'll spell it out for you this meeting, okay?
[2:08:44] Check these, check wastewater.
[2:08:47] There you go, now go check those employees, okay?
[2:08:50] Check the management and check those employees
[2:08:51] and see how they're being treated.
[2:08:53] Now that I've spelled it out for you, do that, okay?
[2:08:56] I wasn't talking about the police department.
[2:09:01] We love all of you in the Margate Police Department.
[2:09:05] We love Chief Galaska, we love all of you.
[2:09:08] My grandchildren every single one of them have been raised when they see an officer, they say thank you for your service, we love you, thank you for your service.
[2:09:18] I can't tell you probably on one hand that there have been probably five market officers that do not even respond to my grandchildren and it really pisses me off, but that's okay because some people just don't like kids I guess I don't know.
[2:09:35] but we always do. We love all of you. I am here tonight for my granddaughter that's 15 and she asked
[2:09:44] me to read this because she can't be here tonight. Dear Chief Galaska, I am sorry that I have to
[2:09:51] miss the meeting tonight. I wanted to be here in person but I want the commissioners to know that I
[2:09:57] support you Chief Galaska because you help our city out so much. You and all the other police men and
[2:10:05] women. You care about our community and who knows what will happen if we lose you. Please,
[2:10:13] I see you at every meeting and if something happens, I see you leave sometimes
[2:10:21] when you have to on an emergency. The chief cares so much about our community. I hope you guys and
[2:10:29] and gals on the commission and the mayor make the right decision about our chief.
[2:10:34] He is the best, love, Cheyenne Van Winkle.
[2:10:38] He also changed so much in our city to make it safer.
[2:10:43] That's it, and me and my husband do support the chief and the rest of the police in Marguerite.
[2:10:49] Thank you.
[2:10:49] Okay.
[2:10:55] Robert Cangelosi, I'd like to read something to you.
[2:11:00] Larissa went to the fountain to show Teddy its delights.
[2:11:03] I went into the farmhouse with Morton, who turned out to be the lawyer for the estate.
[2:11:09] He explained he had driven all the way from San Antonio and had stayed there on the farm
[2:11:13] for the last three days to sort out issues among the few relatives who had arrived in pickup
[2:11:18] trucks after the news got out.
[2:11:21] You'll arrive the half hour later and I would have been gone, he said.
[2:11:27] Is that a good book?
[2:11:29] had a bad book? Do you understand the book? You can't. You can't possibly understand this book
[2:11:35] because you only saw a tiny bit that I read. Chief Galaska has been here 30 years. Don't judge
[2:11:42] his whole career on statements that were made off the cuff to a friend. He's got 30 years serving
[2:11:51] you a city. The day you appointed him, he was the best person you could find. He's still
[2:11:57] that same man. He may have made a text that was wrong, but he is still the best man.
[2:12:04] Thank you.
[2:12:11] Good evening, Julie Jones. I did a public records request, and God is good all the time because
[2:12:19] I got a report that I didn't even know existed and I would like to read it to you. On March
[2:12:28] March 8, 2020, I responded to redacted address in reference to a domestic disturbance.
[2:12:36] Upon arrival, contact was made with a male in the front yard later identified by his Florida
[2:12:43] driver's license as Phil Horn.
[2:12:47] Horn said that he and his living girl from the seven years Aaron Blanton had a verbal agreement
[2:12:53] over infidelity.
[2:12:54] Horn further stated that the argument became escalated to the point we began to break picture
[2:13:01] frames and pictures within the residence.
[2:13:04] Contact was made with Blanton in the residence who related that the argument was over infidelity
[2:13:12] and only picture frames and an Applebook computer was broken.
[2:13:17] And it goes on to say that it was just verbal.
[2:13:19] No mayor, I'd like to ask you a question.
[2:13:23] Okay, verbally. Can I knock all these pictures off the wall? I asked the sergeant today.
[2:13:29] He said, no, verbally. Can I break your phone and MacBook? No, this was physical.
[2:13:38] And you see this, this, this is a fraudulent report because it says on here, and I asked
[2:13:43] the sergeant and that's why I went to the police department today. The sergeant said to
[2:13:48] me. I said, does this say not a law enforcement officer? It says they are both not law enforcement
[2:13:54] officers. So number one, if you are going to be going around with your car in another
[2:14:02] city and threatening your girlfriend's dogs, doing this and then sending intimidating messages
[2:14:09] to my phone that FDLI wants to see tomorrow and the governor because the vice mayor is
[2:14:17] very aware that there were toys donated by H.O.A.'s in residence. He put them in his private garage,
[2:14:25] and I personally went to the police chief and said, please do me a favor. Please, the right
[2:14:31] thing is to have them removed because if the H.O.A.'s in residence find out those toys were gone in Miami
[2:14:38] because Hannah Grace sent me a text. They're all going to F.D. L.E. tomorrow of the text, saying that
[2:14:44] they were going to Miami. So horn sends me intimidations because I don't want to be involved
[2:14:51] in illegal immigration that I was asked to get in. No, that's the person that these
[2:14:57] There's a little confidence vote not UK.
[2:15:02] Once again, this is about the chief.
[2:15:07] We can deal with the other situation at a later date, but
[2:15:12] this is about the chief right now. Well, this is also about the credibility of the, I understand
[2:15:17] that, but I'm going to say it again, is the text, sort of text, or the text, or the text. Understand.
[2:15:32] Okay,
[2:15:32] deal with the others later on.
[2:15:37] When I ask you that, it's been going on for a while.
[2:15:40] When is something going to happen?
[2:15:42] Well, I think it's the time.
[2:15:43] I'm not asking you, person.
[2:15:45] No, the time.
[2:15:46] We all agree.
[2:15:47] It's been going on for a while.
[2:15:48] And nothing's being done.
[2:15:50] I'm the kind of person who wants to have a rule that I will talk
[2:15:55] about another time is that if you would get a text like this,
[2:15:58] because you need to report it within 72 hours. You can't be letting, because you know what,
[2:16:06] every single person in this room probably has probably put something in text that they
[2:16:12] wish they could pull back. And the last thing, and I'm not asking for applause. And the
[2:16:18] thing is, is this, is that number one, you shouldn't be doing that stuff in text, you should
[2:16:24] be a whole lot smarter than that, right? But
[2:16:30] it's just it's just it's it's because what
[2:16:35] we're looking at here is things that have just been just boiling and bubbling and just
[2:16:43] stewing and growing. And why? Because it wasn't given in within 72 hours so it could be taken
[2:16:49] care of that. And that's what we need to do. We need to have some kind of a policy where
[2:16:54] that this doesn't, because this could literally go on forever.
[2:16:59] And it could happen to the next person,
[2:17:01] and it could happen to the person who's a major next,
[2:17:03] it could happen to a person who's a lieutenant next,
[2:17:05] it could happen to a sergeant next.
[2:17:07] Who knows what stupid things people put on text
[2:17:10] when they think they're talking to their friends?
[2:17:12] Then they think they're talking to their friends.
[2:17:15] But we can't stop people from being stupid.
[2:17:17] What we need to do is make sure people
[2:17:19] who do stupid things get penalized.
[2:17:22] But we need to put something together with where we can't be looking at this stuff two months later, two years later, it's got to be done ASAP.
[2:17:36] I agree with you.
[2:17:37] If I could just say one thing, I don't disagree with that and I do agree with you, Mayor
[2:17:43] Rosano, on making some policy changes.
[2:17:48] I don't want to seem like, well, first of all, we can't go after anyone else but the
[2:17:53] chartered officers.
[2:17:55] So for disciplinary actions, for other people mentioned, which I do think to some extent,
[2:18:01] they shouldn't, you know, certain people shouldn't be looked at absolutely, but that's not
[2:18:06] in our purview. But what the mayor did bring up, which I do agree with, is certain policies,
[2:18:12] because we do set the policies to prevent this type of stuff in the future. But that doesn't
[2:18:20] mean that I or we get sidetracked from the topic, which is the chief. Right. That's why I've sent
[2:18:25] a couple of times. The credibility of the person on the other end, I understand why people question
[2:18:31] not. But he didn't write those messages and sheathed it. I said, yeah, I agree with it.
[2:18:37] We're chang on a moment to show you how conflicted I am with this. I downloaded the law enforcement code
[2:18:43] of ethics. I'm going to read one of them to you because I will keep my private life unsullied
[2:18:51] as an example to all, maintain courageous calm in the face of dangerous scorn or ridicule,
[2:18:56] develop self-restraint and be consistently mindful of the welfare of others.
[2:19:00] Honesty and thought indeed is both my personal and official, both my personal official life,
[2:19:07] a weak exemplary, you know, obeying the laws of the land and the regulations of the department.
[2:19:13] Whatever I see or hear of a confidential nature, or that is confided to me in my official,
[2:19:20] you walked out, in my official capacity, will be kept under ever-secret unless revelation is
[2:19:29] necessary in the performance of my duty, revelation was not necessary for that.
[2:19:35] So, I'm fair on both sides, those texts should never have been let out regardless of what date,
[2:19:42] what month, what year, or for what reason, because there is a law enforcement code of ethics.
[2:19:49] The only thing that didn't pass out, Joanne, that says that shouldn't happen and it is my guess
[2:19:54] that everyone who is inducted into the service of the law enforcement swears to uphold that,
[2:20:03] not of unright. I assume that that's something that everybody gets that I didn't just find
[2:20:08] it somewhere. So just to show you, I clearly understand, I have seriously read all of this
[2:20:14] stuff and tried to figure out what to do because if it's already here, then it should be said
[2:20:21] that I hear you. I saw this. I'm sorry now Rich. Go ahead. But this goes past the text.
[2:20:27] Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'm saying it says it shouldn't be done. I know, but this investigation
[2:20:32] has more than just the text in it. There's more said there's more substance to it. That's why I said
[2:20:40] there's two parts to me. This is not only about text. This is about conduct unbecoming among many
[2:20:46] people. I'm sorry. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Rich Allie, and all. It's not a good day in
[2:20:55] Margate. I'm just coming up here to just try to soften things up a little bit. And I could say
[2:21:02] this. I hope the man doesn't lose his job. I mean, you smack him on the head, do what you got to do,
[2:21:08] but he's been here 30 years. My goodness, he's crafted to the mongey. If we can just take a deep breath
[2:21:18] and sit back and say, all right, let's get all these facts and figures together and let's try to
[2:21:25] make the best of life with this gentleman who has to work here in the future. By the way, chief,
[2:21:34] If, when this is all done tonight, do you want to work here anymore?
[2:21:39] Do you want to face all this garbage?
[2:21:42] I don't think so.
[2:21:44] If I had that kind of talent, I could probably find another job.
[2:21:48] But then again, he's rooted.
[2:21:50] He knows his job.
[2:21:51] He likes his job.
[2:21:53] He made a lot of mistakes.
[2:21:55] And be careful who your text, folks, watch out.
[2:22:00] That's a death wish for anybody.
[2:22:01] especially if it's texting like that.
[2:22:06] I don't know what else to say, standing up here, I've been in Margie a long time, went
[2:22:11] to a lot of meetings, and I never really faced anything like this tonight.
[2:22:18] Once again, commission, please, don't pick on each other, don't block on each other's faces,
[2:22:25] stay friendly to you because you need your power together.
[2:22:29] like it says we work together we make things great that's the way it is in
[2:22:36] Margie I always thought of that so be careful what you do up there the
[2:22:40] dias it's doesn't look good from down here it looks terrible but stay close to
[2:22:48] this thing and I'll end with this I hope he can get a choice to come back and keep
[2:22:55] is sharp.
[2:23:13] Good evening, Elsa Sanchez. I have been for a week writing stuff up and crossing it
[2:23:21] off and putting it back on again and off again. And it's so hard, so hard to make this.
[2:23:27] My personal opinion, Jesus Galaska, he has responded to different requests from me or our community
[2:23:35] and personal issues in a very prompt, responsible and respectful way.
[2:23:41] For my community, after a couple of years dealing with a lady with Alzheimer's, getting
[2:23:47] lost, and having to have the police bring her home over and over, she ended up going
[2:23:52] in the canal. That's when the chief took charge of the situation and with his help, she
[2:23:58] was placed where she could be safe. On a personal note, issue, event, even though he was
[2:24:06] away, he sent me help from two different officers to guide me and to help me with it. Several
[2:24:13] other requests have been, he has responded very favorably. I believe he cares for the community,
[2:24:21] but I'm yes, there is a but. The bodies, my concern is his department. My concern is his people,
[2:24:29] The people that he has to supervise, the people that have to confide in him, that he has
[2:24:36] to vote a vote of confidence that he did not get.
[2:24:43] And that concerns me very much.
[2:24:46] I think it's a good man.
[2:24:48] I think in many ways he made a many mistakes about doing this.
[2:24:55] But my concern is for the police officers, for the lieutenants, for the officers, for the whole entire department, that they should have somebody that they can trust, that they can feel that they have their support, and he has their support, and that is the part that hurts me, that I don't see that, and that is the part that I am really upset about, sad for me and for the city.
[2:25:25] Thank you.
[2:25:26] Thank you.
[2:25:33] Jill Sarcioni, I am a mom of five children, four of them daughters.
[2:25:40] I have ten grandchildren, six of them girls.
[2:25:44] So do I condone the chief's tax?
[2:25:46] Absolutely not.
[2:25:47] And I think that's probably the only thing we can all agree on here.
[2:25:50] The tax learned mistake and should never have happened.
[2:25:53] But having said that, the man has dedicated 30 years of his life to this city, but his life
[2:26:00] on the line, but his family through stress. And I feel like we're setting him up to fail.
[2:26:08] Up here, we've had some suggestions about giving him a second chance. Our Lee and you mentioned
[2:26:12] six months. But then Anthony, you said a month of suspension, which would give him five months
[2:26:18] if you do both. Oh, I give him six months after that. Okay, good, because he's going to need time
[2:26:23] to fix this. And the idea of saying, well, let's see in six months, what happens if things have
[2:26:29] improved if the culture is better. There's no specific benchmarks. That's what needs to be put
[2:26:35] in place. New policies, benchmarks that are specific so that you can actually judge whether there
[2:26:41] is change or not. Otherwise, you're just setting him up for success and the poor man's got to go
[2:26:45] through this again and again for
[2:26:50] failure. Thank you. We're setting him up to fail and we bring up that
[2:26:54] more texts are coming. It's the same thing. He should not have made these texts. No one will
[2:27:00] argue that. So it's the same offense that we're talking about. So let's settle this once and
[2:27:07] for all. If you're going to keep him, make specific guidelines, benchmarks that are attainable
[2:27:12] and measurable, and give the guy a chance 30 years. As a law abiding citizen, I've had no interaction
[2:27:20] personally with Chief Galasco. But I have witnessed many times his interactions throughout the
[2:27:26] community at many of our events, his interactions with residents, with children and they have been
[2:27:31] exemplarary. And I think that needs to be taken into consideration. Thank you.
[2:27:48] Hello, Stacey Angel, 49-year resident of Margate. So I didn't make the 50 years that you recognized
[2:27:55] earlier. So I've been around longer than Chief Galaska. And I agree with our previous speaker that
[2:28:03] It said nobody can argue that the text
[2:28:04] or something that we'd want.
[2:28:06] Okay, all of us have made comments
[2:28:08] whether they were written or verbal about someone
[2:28:12] that later we should have taken back.
[2:28:13] We should have never said everybody here.
[2:28:16] I don't like them.
[2:28:18] I don't like that, but I like Chief Kalaska.
[2:28:22] Every time I reached out to him when I was at a button at life
[2:28:25] as the administrator there,
[2:28:26] and I had questions about the school zone.
[2:28:29] People driving like 60 miles an hour
[2:28:32] in the morning down Banks Road, cutting people off and I'm sitting there thinking they're
[2:28:36] going to kill somebody. They're going to kill one of the kids. He was responsive to anything
[2:28:41] I asked. Okay. Is he perfect? No, but none of us are. And in all honesty, obviously I ran
[2:28:49] a Christian school so you know I'm a Christian, right? Matthew 18 tells us that we go to the
[2:28:53] person. So when the text started, they should have stopped. Okay. And that needs to happen
[2:28:59] throughout the department. We have a great group of police officers and firefighters, but
[2:29:05] every one of them is human. Every one of them makes mistakes, just like every one of you and
[2:29:11] everybody in my household, we're not perfect. There is going to be times where we do things that we
[2:29:16] regret. Is it what he did? Is it worth throwing away a 30 year career? What do we do to fix things?
[2:29:26] Number one, nobody's mentioned training.
[2:29:28] There needs to be training, not just for him, for everybody.
[2:29:32] And if you have this problem with the police department,
[2:29:35] you have it in every department.
[2:29:37] So we need to sit down and get together and address
[2:29:41] what's going on in Margate.
[2:29:43] You guys are leaders, work together.
[2:29:46] You've talked about policy changes.
[2:29:47] That's important.
[2:29:49] Talk about training, but give chief Alaska the support.
[2:29:53] I heard the union representative and I heard at least one commissioner say it's going to be the same thing at the end of six months.
[2:30:00] That's not the attitude. We're going to give the support, Kale, to help him do a good job if you're going to keep him. Give him a fair chance. I have no problem with reevaluation at six months. And if it's positive there, at another six months, keep track on it. But he spent 30 years serving our community. He spent 30 years here. Do I want him to apologize to any officer that he offended? Absolutely.
[2:30:29] Absolutely, absolutely.
[2:30:31] Do I want anybody not promoted because of gender?
[2:30:35] That should not be the reason.
[2:30:37] Promotion should be based upon performance, okay?
[2:30:42] But he has been fair, he has been honorable, he's served our community.
[2:30:48] Yes, he made a mistake, give him an opportunity to correct.
[2:30:51] Thank you.
[2:30:52] Thank you, Susan.
[2:30:59] Is there anybody else from the public that would like to sign?
[2:31:05] Lauren Baraka, the Maggate resident,
[2:31:12] it's always difficult for me to get up
[2:31:14] and speak.
[2:31:18] I, it's far as the vote of no confidence is concerned. I don't know
[2:31:27] of any of you up here have ever had a well-vote of no confidence potential
[2:31:39] recall done against you, I have to say that I did experience this. And what made it so difficult
[2:31:51] is that people that we had helped through the years,
[2:32:01] they just turned and somebody goes
[2:32:07] And somebody says something and then somebody else says something and somebody else says something and guess what you can almost have had the recall had we not resigned before they tried to do a recall of all lines.
[2:32:25] The biggest mistake here was trusting somebody and putting it in writing.
[2:32:34] It is so called that you think that people are your friends, one day they are your friends,
[2:32:41] the next day they are your enemy.
[2:32:44] And you know what?
[2:32:46] Trust nobody.
[2:32:48] That's the biggest mistake and actually just listening to what's happened here, it makes
[2:32:54] me feel more confident that that is the right decision.
[2:32:59] Trust nobody.
[2:33:01] like, it is so sad. And you know what? I listen to you speak up here and people come up
[2:33:10] and speak and this is not the first blemish on Margate. They could seem like this is
[2:33:17] like the beginning of the end, but there's been other things that have gone on. And other
[2:33:25] people talking about it and other cities laughing about Margate and it has nothing to do
[2:33:31] with the chief. It has to do with I don't know what lots of people have left. So I think
[2:33:38] that everybody needs to look in the mirror and also people that are sitting up there.
[2:33:46] Think about text and stuff that you yourself put out and you're the one that's judging
[2:33:52] others. Think about what you wrote. Too bad I didn't say those.
[2:34:01] Thank you.
[2:34:10] Nicole Collins.
[2:34:14] I'm sorry. One more time into the mic. Sorry about that.
[2:34:16] Nicole Collins. We all agree the Texas. Okay. There's not a one of you here who has
[2:34:23] never said anything bad about any person.
[2:34:31] So whether you said it in a text or you
[2:34:34] You said it face to face.
[2:34:35] You all have done it.
[2:34:37] Every one of us have done it.
[2:34:39] So if I can give him his punishment and let's keep going.
[2:34:42] The stuff coming up, it needs to be all done together as far as,
[2:34:49] as far as the whole training
[2:34:51] and getting the right things, yes, he needs the right training.
[2:34:55] But your union reps stood up here and just said that it was broke and he said when Joe started
[2:35:05] it was broke. So if you knew it was broke then then you should have said hey Joe let's fix this
[2:35:12] but instead you didn't you sat there what did you give them the right tools did you do that?
[2:35:20] No you didn't so you were part of the problem you weren't part of a solution
[2:35:25] shame on you as far as some of you are saying you stand up here and you're professional
[2:35:31] I'm not even going to tell you how last weekend's meeting went.
[2:35:37] I'm talking about my talk and the stuff.
[2:35:39] I said if someone stops me on the street and flicks me off into my face, I'm not
[2:35:44] allowed to stand up for myself because I'm elected official.
[2:35:47] You see me on the street, I will tell you the same thing that you tell me.
[2:35:50] I treat people.
[2:35:51] They treat me professionally in a professional setting.
[2:35:54] I am always remain in my composure, okay?
[2:35:58] And I will continue to work with the Chief if he still is here, which it seems like he's going to be
[2:36:04] And I will have no animosity, and I will continue to work with him
[2:36:08] But yes, when some wise guy wants to confront me. Why is that who is a Margate rent? I don't care
[2:36:14] Okay, you heard him yourself. He doesn't care about his Margate rent. Okay. Let me know
[2:36:18] Don't get in my face. I treat people. They want to treat I say hi to people
[2:36:22] I say hi to people. I don't even like but if you flick me off and you get in my face and you tell me things
[2:36:27] I'm going to say I'm right back to you.
[2:36:29] Sorry.
[2:36:32] Yeah, Nicole.
[2:36:34] Of course.
[2:36:35] And as far as what he didn't come to you guys and say anything, you don't know if his
[2:36:43] attorney told him not to say anything.
[2:36:46] Because if any one of you guys did something wrong, your attorney would say, shut your mouth
[2:36:51] and I'll tell you one to talk.
[2:36:53] So sometimes people's hands are tied and every one of you know that and so does the city attorney.
[2:36:59] Now let's go with
[2:37:01] starts from the bottom or starts from the top
[2:37:04] The way your union record is that it threatened your own
[2:37:09] cheaper police
[2:37:10] How is that going to make his job safe and the way some of you commissioners are talking about him you're threatening him
[2:37:19] How could you expect him to do his job when you guys are making it a hostile work environment?
[2:37:25] So that's from the top
[2:37:27] Figure it out. If you can't fix yourself
[2:37:29] Then you better raise your bars higher because he's got a long haul and you guys need to help him and so you need to help yourselves
[2:37:36] And I stand for the chief not that I agree with the text, but I stand for the chief
[2:37:51] Hi
[2:37:53] Julie Vander Mewen Margate resident
[2:37:55] I had everything written down and planned out, but I'm not going to speak really from this maybe for just a couple of lines, but I have to say I do agree with what everybody has been saying about the texts.
[2:38:12] They were absolutely inappropriate and wrong.
[2:38:16] The man has dedicated nearly three decades of service to the Margate Police Department.
[2:38:26] Throughout his tenure, he has exemplified professionalism, commitment, leadership.
[2:38:32] His record remains largely unturnished.
[2:38:37] The problems that I see being in human resources, where is human resources here today,
[2:38:45] is he had an infected toxic department.
[2:38:53] He didn't fire because he couldn't, because his hands were tied,
[2:38:57] the people that were making this a toxic department.
[2:39:01] That has to be done.
[2:39:05] Something needs to be done to help him do what he needs to do.
[2:39:10] But everybody is always saying that the city manager, and I'm sorry,
[2:39:18] And somehow it did. And that's wrong because you are the CEO of this city. So shame on you for letting it get by you. I'm sorry, but that's how I feel.
[2:39:32] I also feel with the training and with everything else that is needed.
[2:39:43] the leadership in the police department needs the help and everything that has been
[2:39:53] going on has been nothing has been done. I should say nothing has been done to help this
[2:40:00] man correct this department. It was toxic before he got here. It remain toxic and it's going
[2:40:09] to stay this way unless you change it. And it has to be changed. But you're not going to change it
[2:40:17] by firing a man that has been here for 30 years. That is really trying to help Margate. And I
[2:40:25] don't know what else to say except thank you for the 30 years that you have given Margate,
[2:40:34] this department and people that are here because we appreciate you very much. So, thank you very much.
[2:40:46] Thank you.
[2:40:50] Is there anybody else from the public that would like to speak?
[2:40:58] Hi,
[2:41:01] I'm John Donahue. I live in Paradise Garden Section 4.
[2:41:07] A couple of old sayings.
[2:41:09] definition of insanity is when you continue to do the same thing over and over and over and over and over again
[2:41:16] I expect a different result
[2:41:18] The other way to say this is long as you keep doing what you've always done. You always keep getting what you've always gotten
[2:41:24] I don't think this is about chief Kalaska, and I don't think it's necessary about tax. We all make mistakes
[2:41:28] We've heard that thousands of times. We've always done the same thing
[2:41:31] This is about a system that's broken and so what we need to do is
[2:41:35] is focus on fixing the system and not necessarily throwing the man out.
[2:41:42] If you're replacing with the same system, the next guy is going to fail again.
[2:41:48] No question about it.
[2:41:50] I've been involved with a lot of police departments in my career,
[2:41:54] City of Cincinnati, Miami Township East of Cincinnati.
[2:42:01] I've done a lot of work with different police departments.
[2:42:04] And I think one thing we need to keep in perspective here is we don't have problems here.
[2:42:11] I've seen larger cities and you've seen it on news recently.
[2:42:16] We're police officers who are being attacked in the cities and are being killed, stabbed, you name it, disrespected.
[2:42:23] We don't have that culture here.
[2:42:25] We should be thankful for the environment that we're in.
[2:42:28] We really should.
[2:42:31] So let's work together and find common agreement.
[2:42:37] That's the solution to the problems that we have here.
[2:42:40] Let's identify what needs to be fixed and who can fix them and who best to fix it.
[2:42:46] The solution is not just kicking the can down the street for another six months or whatever.
[2:42:53] That's not going to set him up for success.
[2:42:55] us, it's not going to set you up for success, let's work together and find common goals
[2:43:02] where we can all improve as a group.
[2:43:06] Thank you.
[2:43:06] Thank you.
[2:43:14] Good evening.
[2:43:15] My name is Sergeant Anthony Scalfani, and for the early three decades as well, I have served
[2:43:20] the city as a devoted police officer.
[2:43:22] Today I stand before you with solemn obligation to address the false public assertions being
[2:43:29] made by Marisano regarding Chief Galasca assertions that fail to capture the full extent of the truth.
[2:43:36] Allow me to present a detailed rebuttal grounded in facts and supported evidence.
[2:43:42] Contrary to Marisano's portrayal, Chief Galasca has indeed been the subject of complaints
[2:43:47] prior to assuming his role as Chief. In March of 2021, I personally filed a discrimination
[2:43:54] the nation, hostile work environment,
[2:43:56] complaint that then against then Captain Galaska,
[2:43:59] also citing numerous policy, police policy violation.
[2:44:03] This was not an isolated incident,
[2:44:05] rather it was part of a broader pattern of behavior
[2:44:07] that warranted serious consideration.
[2:44:11] Furthermore, in June of the same year,
[2:44:13] the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
[2:44:16] EEOC accepted my complaint and it should be a notice to sue,
[2:44:20] leading to an ongoing federal lawsuit against the city.
[2:44:23] but it's not being disclosed. Yet, Marisana chooses to remain silent on these critical matters.
[2:44:31] Marisana, despite being aware of Chief Kaleska's pending EEOC complaint and ongoing investigation,
[2:44:38] all of you proceeded with his appointment as acting and then permanent Chief of Police.
[2:44:43] The decision was made despite multiple individuals, including Mitch Pileci,
[2:44:47] if a Margate news that dead and form a commission of leap impairment, raising concerns regarding
[2:44:52] the appropriateness of such an appointment among these ongoing investigations.
[2:44:57] even commissioners.
[2:45:00] In a commendable act of transparency at the following commission meeting, voiced apprehensions as she discovered there was an ongoing investigation against then Captain Galasca. In addition, she was highly along with the relationship between Captain Galasca and the individual handling the investigation, then Sajun Kostik. Regrettably, Mayor Rosano and the commission chose to remain silent. Nobody reopened it. This regarding the ethical priority for
[2:45:29] transparency and accountability. The city's response to my discrimination complaint has been
[2:45:35] said in adequate, despite my efforts to bring forth legitimate concerns, internal affairs completed
[2:45:43] a deceitful investigation against Chief Galaska, focused solely on policy, police policy violation,
[2:45:50] neglecting the core issues of discrimination and hostile work environment. That's three years ago.
[2:45:57] 3 years have now passed and the city has yet to conduct an investigation into my discrimination
[2:46:02] in hostile work environment complaint.
[2:46:05] You ignored it.
[2:46:06] You just let it go, like it wasn't there.
[2:46:09] This negligence has allowed the scrimmary practices, personal attacks and manipulated
[2:46:14] promotional exams to persist uncheck, causing a taxing environment within our department.
[2:46:20] This is a good city.
[2:46:22] It's a good department.
[2:46:23] These are good people.
[2:46:24] Notably, everything I said in my complaint three years ago has been proven to be true.
[2:46:31] Read it, pull the public records, yet, Arizona, you choose to remain silent about those.
[2:46:39] You don't bring it up.
[2:46:40] Why?
[2:46:42] You bring up everything else, but you don't bring that up.
[2:46:45] In addition to my lawsuit, another EOC complaint for discrimination and fail you to promote-
[2:46:50] You want to keep, you want to keep going, right?
[2:46:52] I would like to keep going. I need maybe two months to deal with the time to. How much more do you have?
[2:46:59] I have one just this much.
[2:47:03] Good. Thank you.
[2:47:05] In addition to my lawsuit, another EEOC complaint for discrimination and failure to promote was lodged against Chief Galaska.
[2:47:14] Now you have two. Furthermore, there is another ongoing lawsuit against Chief Galaska.
[2:47:19] multiple other complaints for sexist and discriminatory comments that have been previously filed.
[2:47:25] Despite these alarming developments, Mayor Rosano has chosen to remain silent, failing to disclose
[2:47:31] these critical facts to the public or the news media. Furthermore, the city's expenditure of
[2:47:37] thousands of dollars on legal defense to a significant law firm they hired to shield Chief Galasca
[2:47:42] from accountability raises serious questions about misplaced priorities.
[2:47:49] Mayor Rosano,
[2:47:50] Vice Mayor Schwartz, commissioners and residents.
[2:47:53] I present these facts, not as mere allegations,
[2:47:57] but irrefutable evidence of a troubling pattern
[2:48:00] of behavior within the police department.
[2:48:02] The overwhelming vote of no confidence
[2:48:05] from over 75% of our department underscores
[2:48:08] the urgency of the situation.
[2:48:11] Morale is at all all time low.
[2:48:13] All right, thank you.
[2:48:15] The attorney would like to say so.
[2:48:17] I would just say that I would request
[2:48:19] As a commission, not comment or respond in light of the pending litigation.
[2:48:23] Thank you.
[2:48:36] I'm Laurie Moreiro.
[2:48:38] I wanted you to put a face with the name and took a lot from you to come forward with this complaint and even more to stand up here tonight.
[2:48:45] Mayor, you've made a massive public turnout to have the support chief, Alaska.
[2:48:49] However, you're being misled by lies, contrary to what the mayor is saying on social media,
[2:48:54] this has nothing to do with contracts, wages, officers not getting what they want.
[2:48:57] Black male or people not liking the chief as some of you have claimed.
[2:49:00] The truth is you're protecting him because he's your friend and your neighbor, although
[2:49:06] I do not need to defend myself or my actions.
[2:49:09] These messages are not two years old like you want people to believe.
[2:49:12] According to the investigator, these messages referencing me were written in September of 2023.
[2:49:16] That's not two years ago.
[2:49:18] This isn't the first complaint against Joe Gulaski because he's had multiple against him going
[2:49:22] back to when he was a captain.
[2:49:24] As a matter of fact, he was in the middle of being investigated by internal affairs when
[2:49:28] when he was appointed by the commission is in term chief.
[2:49:30] I know this because I was one of the investigators assigned to investigate the allegations
[2:49:34] against him.
[2:49:35] That's another story.
[2:49:36] My first complaint was filed in October of 2021, which was conveniently swept under
[2:49:40] the rug.
[2:49:41] As many of the complaints are, so the public never seasoned or knows about it.
[2:49:44] The bottom line here is that my second complaint was taken seriously and warranted an investigation
[2:49:48] by a third party agreed upon by the commission.
[2:49:51] The findings which apparently were not in your favor were sustained as Sep 4th and the report
[2:49:55] which is public record.
[2:49:56] The independent investigator found that the chief does in fact foster a hostile work environment.
[2:50:01] The second amendment to her investigation states that there's sufficient evidence to support further investigation into gender bias that needs to be voted on by you, the commission.
[2:50:10] The only way she was able to do that was to do it in two parts so that you would have to vote on it.
[2:50:16] It is clear, Mayor, that you're biased in this incident.
[2:50:20] These findings themselves are grounds for termination of the chief, but you clearly don't care about the employees of this city,
[2:50:26] which you have proven with your social media post protecting him.
[2:50:29] And lying about how, why we have come to this point is clear you care more about politics and protecting your friend.
[2:50:35] We're not here to debate whether you think that he is a good coach, a friend, a neighbor, or whatever he is to any of you and he probably is.
[2:50:42] We're telling you that chief Galaska is not fit to lead this agency and the agency has no confidence in his ability and
[2:50:48] that has been proven without a doubt.
[2:50:49] The voter no confidence was called for
[2:50:51] by the members of this department solely
[2:50:52] because of the investigation.
[2:50:54] And the revelation of his true feelings,
[2:50:56] Chief Galasca's true feelings,
[2:50:57] toward the members of the department,
[2:50:59] they called for it, we called for it.
[2:51:01] Women, officers, officer wellness,
[2:51:03] he put it all in there in how he feels about it
[2:51:05] and those text messages and its public record.
[2:51:08] Chief Galasca has now muddied the waters
[2:51:09] for any future promotion, demotion,
[2:51:11] or specific specialty unit assignment within the department.
[2:51:14] He's paved the way for retaliatory lawsuits,
[2:51:16] who's hostile work environment agenda bias
[2:51:18] and LEOC complaints.
[2:51:19] If you vote to keep Chief Klassga tonight,
[2:51:22] a Chief who now has a sustained
[2:51:23] hostile work environment complaint against him,
[2:51:25] along with evidence of gender bias,
[2:51:26] this will not end.
[2:51:28] We will continue to seek the justice that we deserve.
[2:51:30] We as police officers want true leadership,
[2:51:32] which is something Chief Klassga cannot provide to us.
[2:51:35] Allowing Chief Klassga to continue as a Chief of police,
[2:51:38] you will be allowing the hostile work environment
[2:51:40] to continue and create a division between our department
[2:51:42] and the citizens which has never happened before.
[2:51:44] And frankly, that's not something you'll ever recover from.
[2:51:47] I know you're going to attack me publicly and say bad things and my statement, and I'm prepared for it, but this is different.
[2:51:58] I'll do anybody else.
[2:52:04] Hi, Good evening, Jonathan Krajik, Margaret Resident.
[2:52:06] There's an old saying that love is blind.
[2:52:09] Sometimes we have such love and admiration for another person that we can't cope with except in an individual's false or mistakes.
[2:52:16] You need to ask yourselves if you were to find out that a loved one did something that they shouldn't have, how would you react?
[2:52:23] Or if you turn on the news and saw the picture of someone who you love wanted for a crime,
[2:52:28] would you bring yourself to turn them in?
[2:52:30] This should not be personal or a popularity contest because that just maintains the good old
[2:52:35] boy system that we're trying to rid our system of.
[2:52:38] You need to set aside your personal relationship or friendships for the individual just because
[2:52:42] you may be best buds or neighbors.
[2:52:45] He could be the best baseball coach or best neighbor anyone could have ever asked for.
[2:52:49] That's not what we're here for today.
[2:52:50] We're here to decide if we, as a city, are going to condone this type of behavior from any employee.
[2:52:56] Replace the accused name with John Doe, and if John Doe had spoken about a colleague, superior, or subordinate,
[2:53:02] the way we seen in the report and text messages from less than a year ago, what would you expect the consequence to be?
[2:53:09] Last meeting, one commissioner told us what he'd expect to happen if he'd ever sent those type of messages,
[2:53:14] and we're not talking about just any employee.
[2:53:15] We're talking about a department head who's expected to be the pillar of integrity in our city and held to the highest standard.
[2:53:22] If you cannot see past your love for somebody, then place your loved one in the position of the victim.
[2:53:28] If your spouse or daughter was the victim in this case, what punishment would you want for their cues?
[2:53:33] It's a position no one had ever hoped to be in.
[2:53:36] And we wouldn't be here if it weren't for the actions of a city employee who violated police department policy,
[2:53:41] the city's policy on professional conduct, which states all employees are expected to conduct themselves in a manner to promote the best interest of the city department and other employees.
[2:53:52] Positive conduct includes treating all employees with dignity, courtesy, refraining from conduct, behavior, and language deemed offensive or undesirable, or which is contrary to the city's best interest, being responsible and accountable for the employees own conduct.
[2:54:08] Conduct result in an accelerated disciplinary action includes violation of respectful workplace or
[2:54:14] ethical standard policies spread in malicious rumors or gossip in about another employee concerning their personal
[2:54:21] character conduct or conduct and the market police department standards of conduct is
[2:54:26] personal personnel should not engage in gossip detrimental to other personal the public or the department
[2:54:33] veracity, personnel should not know only make false written or oral statements, and job actions
[2:54:39] personnel should not instigate, lead or contribute to job actions that undermine supervisory authority.
[2:54:47] It's time to stop the bleeding and put this to rest before the city's reputation is so badly
[2:54:51] tarnished that no decent play will ever want to work for our city again. They'll know that nobody
[2:54:56] here has their back or will protect them against discrimination harassment. And it's time to do the right
[2:55:02] and noble thing for everyone. Thank you.
[2:55:13] Good evening.
[2:55:15] Scott Sawyer, Sergeant with the Montague Police Department.
[2:55:18] You could speak into the mic.
[2:55:20] Sure. Thank you.
[2:55:21] Put it up. Sorry about that.
[2:55:23] I never wanted to be involved in anything like this.
[2:55:25] I appreciate your time this evening.
[2:55:28] It's embarrassing to stand here and have to go through all of this.
[2:55:33] Get your mental to the police department for sure.
[2:55:38] You know, I know a lot of citizens have come up here and spoken and they all love chief
[2:55:43] Alaska and I have no doubt that chief Alaska to them is a great guy.
[2:55:46] He is too a lot of people.
[2:55:47] I don't think that anybody is disputing he's a great guy.
[2:55:50] It's not a matter of that.
[2:55:51] It's about the type of leader he is and the type of leader that's needed in this police department.
[2:55:58] People talk about, you know, give him six more months.
[2:56:03] What's going to change in six months?
[2:56:05] I don't think a lot of people, the citizens of the city, know how police department operates.
[2:56:09] This operates on a chain of command.
[2:56:12] We had votes, there were three majors who don't have confidence in them.
[2:56:17] Six out of seven lieutenants, who don't have confidence in them.
[2:56:20] I'm pretty certain all 12 sergeants don't have confidence in them.
[2:56:24] Unfortunately, they weren't broken out, but we've certainly had conversations.
[2:56:28] Then a vast majority of the rank and file don't have confidence in him.
[2:56:32] So, I ask you, in six months, what's going to change Commissioner Schwartz when there are three majors who won't potentially follow commands, six out of seven lieutenants, 12 sergeants, many officers, and people say, well, just fire them, right?
[2:56:49] Well, what will be left?
[2:56:51] I understand they won't follow command.
[2:56:52] I don't know.
[2:56:53] I don't know.
[2:56:55] I suppose it's a possibility, right?
[2:56:59] So, so how is he supposed to fix things how will he how is he supposed to fix when you all have all those how is anybody supposed to fix if if well it you just answer the question.
[2:57:10] I'm looking for the answer right you knew the answer let us know bring someone in from the outside.
[2:57:14] Okay, maybe we will right under him so he can still see what's going on and he could be an earful for that person seems like you already have a plan sir because bringing somebody in is not going to solve the problem.
[2:57:24] You're going to bring it? We heard it tonight. Again, I've been policing for 18 years, sir,
[2:57:29] and I actually have worked in several departments and I haven't seen a department so dysfunctional.
[2:57:35] And that starts at the top. It starts at the top. Okay. So a police department works from the top
[2:57:45] and without a leader that's trusted, we have enough problems with outside in the public.
[2:57:53] You need to trust what you have inside and feel safe in there, and if you have a vast
[2:57:59] majority of the police support and voting, no confidence, you know what the answer is.
[2:58:03] So what's going to change in six months?
[2:58:05] What metrics will you be measuring it by?
[2:58:14] Thank you.
[2:58:24] Just give me a second before you speak, because you've asked me.
[2:58:28] You've asked me what would change in six months?
[2:58:31] It would be my hope that friendships would be cut, whether it's upper management
[2:58:37] or not. It would be my hope that it would be a wake-up call, something that should have
[2:58:44] been done two and a half years ago. I'm not foolish, neither are any of the rest. It
[2:58:48] would be my hope that a message was sent loud and clear that you either have this
[2:58:54] amount of time to fix what you should have fixed before, or there's the door.
[2:59:02] I understand you are telling me certain things are not
[2:59:07] for parable with the administration, but then I would also wonder if the rest of
[2:59:15] the leadership on down to a certain point also needs to go, because I would like
[2:59:20] to think that even though there's a protocol and a line that people who saw
[2:59:27] something wrong would have said something regardless of where they were, and if they felt they couldn't speak to the city manager or the people above them, then I would have hoped that those people would have found my phone number, figured when I with my car was in the parking lot and said something to me, because if nothing else, I have a record of being tremendously fair with this.
[2:59:54] This is giving me as much as I had it as it's given you because you work there. You have no eye.
[3:00:00] How listening to all of this conflicts me, you have no clue of the headache I feel right now
[3:00:06] and where my blood pressure is because I don't know how to do a win-win on something that
[3:00:12] has long passed that. Now it's simply a matter of who saves space and how we make the
[3:00:18] department better. Do I know if he's the person that can do that in six months? No, I don't.
[3:00:24] Do I think it's possible? Not even sure.
[3:00:28] But I listen and do I think that 30 years in a job makes it necessarily
[3:00:35] that you've been the rules to make it okay for those things to happen?
[3:00:38] No, I don't either, because it makes me wonder about the 30 years.
[3:00:42] Now, am I aware of some of the things that are out there?
[3:00:45] No, I've never gotten to read them, but I will now,
[3:00:49] because it didn't come across our desk and we're told we can't have this conversation.
[3:00:53] and anyhow, because I assume it's pending, and therefore we can have this conversation.
[3:00:58] It's been eye-opening in the last three weeks about some of this stuff, because you know
[3:01:04] when no one complains, you assume everything is good.
[3:01:08] Just as me sitting there for weekends of my life reading those three volumes after the fact
[3:01:15] of our last chief, after the fact it's a little late, during the fact it would have been great.
[3:01:22] So I think there's a responsibility from people in the department.
[3:01:27] You see something, say something, but if you wait for two and a half years to go by, regardless of whether the text, and I know the text message is way sooner than that.
[3:01:38] But if they're held on, they're held for a reason.
[3:01:41] There's so much wrong with this that I can't figure out a way to heal any of you tonight.
[3:01:51] Because one way or the other, whether it's Get rid of him tonight, the union feels that
[3:01:57] no one's heard them, whether it's keep him tonight. The citizens feel like they've,
[3:02:03] what, see other way around. Get rid of him and the union feels that they have heard him, but
[3:02:07] the citizens will feel that we're not weighing 30 years of work against some of that. Now, do I know
[3:02:15] more, and do you know more than they know, yeah, not more than the union because this is
[3:02:21] all new, but it's a very difficult decision to make. And if you don't think that some
[3:02:26] people have already made it, I get it. Some of us are trying to figure out how this works
[3:02:31] out, good for the people who have been maligned, who have felt that they have not been able
[3:02:36] to move up for whatever reason because of a culture that was inherited. For me, this is
[3:02:45] extraordinarily difficult.
[3:02:46] Depending on who standing up there, I change my mind each time.
[3:02:52] I don't know what to do with this at the end of this.
[3:02:55] The commissioners were in fairness, and I agree with you.
[3:02:59] I understand your passion, but the commissioners, she had her light on commissioners.
[3:03:02] Simone, if you wanted to go, we'll let him go.
[3:03:04] I'll be quick.
[3:03:08] If it sees something, say something.
[3:03:12] I mean, look, someone saw something, they said something, multiple people have said something,
[3:03:17] officers, I'll pause if you guys want to keep talking, I'll wait till you know, and I've
[3:03:22] got all night.
[3:03:25] Why are they going to come forward if you're just going to shoot down what they're telling
[3:03:28] you?
[3:03:29] Why didn't they come forward and tell it to me when it was happening so that it wouldn't
[3:03:33] have been shot?
[3:03:33] They did, and we had an investigation.
[3:03:36] No.
[3:03:36] No, they didn't.
[3:03:38] I read what somebody wrote.
[3:03:42] So he's one of the text messages was from September.
[3:03:48] Yeah, but this is one big one. This is a culture.
[3:03:51] When somebody tells me I'm going to see more.
[3:03:54] I'm going to see more.
[3:03:55] When somebody tells me that now people will finally,
[3:03:58] I asked the union,
[3:04:00] why, if there were such problems going on,
[3:04:04] why didn't we go through HR and use the grievance procedure?
[3:04:08] And the answer I got is people in this profession don't like to do that.
[3:04:12] You know, can I say that people in this profession in Marguerite don't trust your HR.
[3:04:17] They don't trust them because you've stuck up for them in the past.
[3:04:19] No, wait till I press the button and you say who you are.
[3:04:22] But that's your answer right there.
[3:04:23] But you can answer.
[3:04:25] They don't trust HR because they stuck up for the wrong people that were filing sexual
[3:04:29] harassment complaints.
[3:04:31] Okay.
[3:04:31] You need a way.
[3:04:32] You need a way.
[3:04:33] I'm the last person that wants to be up here to speak and stay there.
[3:04:41] You also left tonight.
[3:04:43] Oh, Briana.
[3:04:44] Got it now.
[3:04:45] She said something to me.
[3:04:48] She outranks.
[3:04:48] Hi, right now.
[3:04:49] Here are
[3:04:53] anybody else who want.
[3:04:54] Otherwise, thank you.
[3:04:55] Done.
[3:04:56] OK.
[3:04:57] Okay, now your name and name.
[3:05:01] Phil Horn, City of Marguerite resident,
[3:05:04] and I am currently employed as a sergeant here on Road Patrol.
[3:05:10] Chief Glasca is not a bad person.
[3:05:12] I never release those text messages
[3:05:14] because of his character of who he is
[3:05:16] as a family man, baseball player, anything like that.
[3:05:18] All right, no one here knows the facts.
[3:05:22] None of you sitting in this room know the facts
[3:05:24] because you're all his friend.
[3:05:26] I was part of that group.
[3:05:27] group. I was in the circle. He promoted me. He mentored me. He was my friend. We spoke
[3:05:34] every day of the week. But you
[3:05:42] guys don't know what it's like working here. My new employees
[3:05:46] are miserable. They don't want to come to work. We're working on minimal. The admin upstairs
[3:05:53] is fighting each other daily. And it's coming right down to our new employees. I have a new
[3:06:01] second phase of FTO, and all she hears is screaming and kicking about how miserable
[3:06:06] the officers are in this place.
[3:06:09] So, isn't about him as a person.
[3:06:11] You hear about his leadership.
[3:06:14] You read the text messages.
[3:06:15] Those were said, I didn't save those to blackmail.
[3:06:18] You guys need to look up what blackmail is.
[3:06:20] I have not gained anything from this.
[3:06:24] You guys also need to look up what insubordinate means.
[3:06:28] I'm going to read you something.
[3:06:29] is to finance of authority. It's refusal to obey orders. There's an open door policy
[3:06:36] here with our administration. You can go into any one of their offices and talk to them
[3:06:40] all you want.
[3:06:43] After Sergeant Blanton took her lieutenant oral interview test, she was
[3:06:50] able to express how she felt about that test. And this is what was said. It's very disappointing
[3:06:56] pointing that the other two were informed and I wasn't given the same courtesy.
[3:07:01] The other two was now Lieutenant Bill Schneider, who is my direct supervisor and Sergeant
[3:07:06] Cobain.
[3:07:07] Blame has always pointed to other people.
[3:07:10] Why didn't I pass, she asked the chief?
[3:07:13] Honestly, when I saw the panel, I knew it wasn't going to be impartial.
[3:07:17] That was spoken about today.
[3:07:19] It was the chief and his majors inside that interview.
[3:07:21] They controlled the way the interview went because she passed the same interview on the
[3:07:26] last time and he promoted her twice. Two times she was told that she was promoted to
[3:07:32] Lieutenant and it never happened because there's a friendship problem here. There's a circle here
[3:07:37] that I removed myself from.
[3:07:41] I knew it wasn't going to be impartial. I have a lot to say but I'm
[3:07:45] so angry and disappointed that I can't find the words I want to say at the moment.
[3:07:57] That's what she
[3:07:57] professional and insubordinate.
[3:08:01] You will meet with me and Major Palma on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in my office.
[3:08:07] That is why I released these text messages.
[3:08:10] I gave her power to fight someone that accused her of being insubordinate.
[3:08:15] How is her expressing her opinion on how she felt about his interview process in
[3:08:21] subordinate?
[3:08:27] Those messages are real.
[3:08:29] They were said.
[3:08:32] The women here in our police department do not have a fair shot.
[3:08:36] You need to hire someone that knows how to run a proper police department.
[3:08:42] Stop with the, I'm going to give them 30 days or I'm going to give them 90 days.
[3:08:45] I don't want to see the guy who's his job, but he's not fit to lead this agency.
[3:08:51] Bill, can you sum it up?
[3:08:54] Have a good night.
[3:08:55] Stay there for a minute, Phil.
[3:08:57] No, I don't want to.
[3:08:57] I have a question.
[3:08:58] I don't want to.
[3:08:59] There's so much favoritism and there's so many problems going on.
[3:09:03] here that all you guys want to listen, you guys want to protect your friend, they get it.
[3:09:07] Get out of that circle, it is, it is, it is, it is you haven't coaching with you.
[3:09:12] You're not in partial, you haven't coaching with you.
[3:09:15] They all moved up because of people they knew, and that's what it was.
[3:09:19] There were games played then.
[3:09:20] It's not, there was a problem here, there was a problem in this department, I didn't give
[3:09:24] a statement to Rhea, okay, I spoke to her briefly on the phone, I didn't, you want
[3:09:28] investigation, authorize Reya to do a full investigation.
[3:09:31] I'm telling you right now, you guys won't be having this conversation
[3:09:35] afterwards.
[3:09:36] So we're discussing the investigative report we have.
[3:09:39] That's the preliminary analysis that you held on to.
[3:09:41] They're not even.
[3:09:42] You said a text message.
[3:09:44] We saw you said, hey, you're going to use them.
[3:09:47] Thank you.
[3:09:48] Trust me, Mayor.
[3:09:48] Trust me, Mayor, there's a lot more that you need to hear, okay?
[3:09:51] Stuff involving you.
[3:09:52] But I didn't give those.
[3:09:53] I didn't give those out.
[3:09:55] For what?
[3:09:55] There's stuff involving you in my text messages.
[3:09:57] They haven't been released.
[3:09:59] I don't save messages on my phone or save in a cloud automatically. It's called technology.
[3:10:05] I can scroll right now. I can scroll right now and go back two years.
[3:10:09] I go back two years. These were not saved to blackmail anybody. I did not benefit from this.
[3:10:14] This is causing me nothing, but probably live in the city. I work in the city.
[3:10:19] And now I'm having a hard time seeing the city because I exposed people.
[3:10:28] I'm going to keep going. Okay. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to release my entire phone to everybody. Okay. Good.
[3:10:35] Good.
[3:10:46] I wish I could have asked the questions.
[3:10:49] Good evening everyone. My name is Katina and I'm a sergeant on rope patrol. I've been working in the city of Margate for 18 years.
[3:11:00] And I too like Joe Glasgow as a person, but there are many different ways to lead.
[3:11:07] Leadership is about providing an environment for those under you to learn and blossom
[3:11:12] so that after you leave, the place continues to evolve.
[3:11:17] It's also about taking care of the people in your charge, and this is not being done.
[3:11:25] He does not support the supervisors, which is a big problem.
[3:11:29] Specifically, when he creates an environment that allows officers, which are his friends,
[3:11:34] to jump chain a command because they have a complaint.
[3:11:38] When supervisors try to implement accountability for those officers, so that the community
[3:11:43] receives the proper service from us,
[3:11:51] and also blossoms on camaraderie between coworkers,
[3:11:54] on numerous occasions, if the officer doesn't agree, all they have to do is send him a text
[3:11:59] message.
[3:12:00] He then shuts it down, ultimately undermining the supervisors and causing a lot of confusion
[3:12:05] with how a proper rank and file should go.
[3:12:08] This lowers the bar for overall police work.
[3:12:11] This affects the community.
[3:12:14] And the future of how police should be expected to work.
[3:12:18] He continues to undermine and discredit those under him.
[3:12:22] This is not leadership.
[3:12:23] This is destruction.
[3:12:26] He is not honest and he does not take accountability.
[3:12:30] This has created a tone within the department and instead of inspiring officers to do better,
[3:12:35] it has shut officers down.
[3:12:37] And this kind of leadership creates mass confusion and because there's no trust, it creates a dog
[3:12:44] eat dog world amongst the department.
[3:12:48] This will be tough to repair as an agency.
[3:12:53] And a good leader would not allow this mockery and embarrassment to ever take place.
[3:12:58] That's all I have to say, thank you.
[3:13:00] Thank you.
[3:13:04] Is there anybody else from the public that would like to speak?
[3:13:07] All right.
[3:13:08] You want to take a break?
[3:13:10] All right, we're going to take a break, a 10 minute recess and we'll come back in 10 minutes, meeting recess.
[3:13:19] Good evening, I am Sergeant Crabtree.
[3:13:21] I work for the Market Police Department and I am in charge of the traffic division.
[3:13:25] I just had a few things I wanted to speak about, I'm sorry, I'm late.
[3:13:29] First thing I wanted to go about is I heard a bunch of comments go on about how Chief
[3:13:34] Glasgow has been here for 30 years.
[3:13:36] That is correct, and I commend him for that time.
[3:13:39] However, that was said in a manner that we should take that in consideration of keeping him.
[3:13:45] And personally, I think that that should also prove that he should have known better than
[3:13:50] to do the actions that he did. I also personally prior to the chief being the chief he was a captain
[3:13:58] and I overheard him speaking derogatory remarks about Lieutenant Eller at the time she was my direct
[3:14:07] supervisor and this was in a group setting where he was speaking to a sergeant and I was present
[3:14:14] and he was aware that I was present.
[3:14:16] So he has a history of speaking about people's direct supervisors
[3:14:21] in a derogatory manner to their subordinates.
[3:14:25] Because in my opinion, yes, the contents
[3:14:28] of the text messages are a major issue,
[3:14:31] but that's only one of the issues.
[3:14:33] The other issues are the fact that this,
[3:14:36] he was speaking to Lieutenant Ellers subordinate.
[3:14:41] That was Sergeant Horn.
[3:14:43] She was Sergeant Horn's direct supervisor and he was speaking about her in a
[3:14:48] derogatory manner. And in my opinion as being a supervisor, if I knew that my
[3:14:55] supervisor or my chief was talking derogatory remarks about me.
[3:15:00] Along with the fact that he also made derogatory remarks about several different supervisors in our department to Sergeant Horn.
[3:15:09] This is not an example of a leadership. Everybody has said here that Chief Glasgow is a good guy. He is. He's a very nice guy. I've never had an issue with Chief Glasgow. However, his lack of leadership has affected this department greatly. And it is trickled down to even my level in the fact that
[3:15:29] With the lack of chain of command, it takes away from my authority because my guys or the guys in the
[3:15:39] department feel that they can just go directly to him as if asking for a favor.
[3:15:44] And they know that he will either grant it or he will listen to what they have to say and make
[3:15:51] promises. There's leadership is about communication, clear concise communication, and there's not clear
[3:15:58] concise communication in this department. And you guys want to give him six months to fix it.
[3:16:05] I don't even think an outside person can fix it in six months. However, I do think that only
[3:16:10] an outside person would be able to fix the problems that we have in this department.
[3:16:16] Sergeant Scophani didn't get to finish his speech and so I like to try to finish it for him.
[3:16:20] Morales at an all-time low and the department of our officers and wait, hold on.
[3:16:27] and the department of our officers through other departments is indicative of a deep-seated
[3:16:32] dissatisfaction that demands immediate intervention. Despite irrefutable evidence, the city has
[3:16:38] failed to provide a meaningful remedy leading victims of discrimination and misconduct stranded
[3:16:43] in a sea of governmental inaction. Marisano, will you continue turning a blind eye to the two EEOC
[3:16:51] complaints lodged against Chief Galaska? While you persist in disregarding the two lawsuits
[3:16:56] it's arriving from his discriminatory practices where you overlook look the manipulated
[3:17:01] promotional processes.
[3:17:03] Will you dismiss the pain and embarrassment, disappointment, and despair felt by the men
[3:17:08] and women of the Marguerite Police Department?
[3:17:10] Will you disregard disrespectful and discriminatory text messages?
[3:17:14] And finally, will you ignore the findings of the independent investigation conducted by
[3:17:19] the law form you hired, which concluded that chief Kalaska has created a harassing and
[3:17:24] cell work environment. Despite undemiable evidence, Mayor Rosano and this city have failed
[3:17:30] to take action in providing meaningful remedy, leading victims of discrimination and misconduct,
[3:17:36] neglected and abandoned. I employ Mayor Rosano and the commission to heed the call for transparency,
[3:17:41] accountability, and ethical leadership. It is the incumbent upon us to prioritize the well-being
[3:17:47] of the community and the integrity of the police department over personal loyalties and friendships.
[3:17:52] Let us rise and let us rise above the bias and work together to heal our broken department by removing chief glass can from his position of authority.
[3:18:05] Also, if chief glass cared about the city in this department, he would resign.
[3:18:10] Thank you.
[3:18:11] Thank you.
[3:18:14] Anybody else for public discussion on this item?
[3:18:17] Now, okay, we have a motion on the table.
[3:18:18] when we have come back to the commissioners.
[3:18:20] What's that?
[3:18:22] Is there people on Zoom?
[3:18:26] Is there a lot of people on Zoom?
[3:18:28] I'm going to ask the commission,
[3:18:28] you guys want to hear them from Zoom?
[3:18:30] Is that okay?
[3:18:32] You got it, no problem.
[3:18:34] All right, we're going to open it up to the Zoom calls
[3:18:37] and...
[3:18:38] We have Margate Mardi.
[3:18:40] Margate Mardi.
[3:18:40] It has to have a name on it.
[3:18:42] No, go to the next one.
[3:18:48] You want to speak on Zoom if you can hear us.
[3:18:51] You have to put your name down
[3:18:53] and we'll let you speak, but good.
[3:18:58] That's a person.
[3:18:59] Good.
[3:19:02] Some people don't live here.
[3:19:05] Tell them it's fine.
[3:19:08] Hello.
[3:19:08] Sam, can you hear us?
[3:19:10] Yeah, I hear you guys.
[3:19:11] All right, good, Sam.
[3:19:12] As you guys know, I was a police officer at City of Market
[3:19:17] and I'm super proud of all the officers over there
[3:19:19] for speaking their mind.
[3:19:21] And my career ended because of Joe, it was a hard decision and every day I regret it.
[3:19:30] So if you guys can really understand the officers are in real pain, the reason I left my
[3:19:36] career, I would have been there till this day, you know.
[3:19:40] So that's all I had to say.
[3:19:42] And I'm proud of the Market Police Officers out of there.
[3:19:46] Thank you, Sam.
[3:19:49] Who's next?
[3:19:52] John, can you hear us?
[3:19:58] Yes.
[3:20:03] Unfortunately, you folks have just become nationwide.
[3:20:08] Unfortunately.
[3:20:09] And it's a shame that it's come to it.
[3:20:11] But at this, you guys aren't seeing the biggest picture here.
[3:20:16] What you're seeing is you're having all these offices come forward.
[3:20:19] And you're damned if you're doing damned if you're done at this point, but you're trying to be quite a 30-year career
[3:20:27] With an entire department and you got those you guys have no way to go. You're in a corner and
[3:20:34] essentially
[3:20:36] The right thing here would be to let the chief go
[3:20:41] You're not gonna change this in six months. You're not gonna change it in a year. I
[3:20:47] Mean, that's just fact
[3:20:49] Okay, you kidn yourself. If you think this is gonna go away, you heard that the union
[3:20:55] President or the union rep tell you that there's more stuff coming out. There's more suits that are
[3:21:02] Probably gonna end up getting filed filed against the town. Well the city. I'm sorry. It's you know, it's unavoidable
[3:21:10] You know and the people that are in the room that are for the two second around it's gonna cry to your pockets
[3:21:18] I don't think you guys realize you're gonna end up having to pay for the lawyers to defend him and
[3:21:23] If you guys lose it's still gonna cost you
[3:21:26] You're in a no-win situation here
[3:21:30] You know and at the end of the day you should do what's right the chief made the text messages
[3:21:34] He admitted to it. You should have never done it and if I sit near go on
[3:21:39] Well, you shouldn't have put in writing that's more of us condoning
[3:21:43] That's wrong. You're all wrong.
[3:21:47] You need to fix the problem and the problem is
[3:21:49] achieved. If you've got 75% of your boss gone, we don't want them. There's an issue here and I suggest
[3:21:58] you get rid of the chief. Thank you. Thank you. Who's next?
[3:22:09] Eddie, Margate resident?
[3:22:13] Eddie, do you have a last name?
[3:22:17] Can you hear us, Eddie?
[3:22:21] Yeah, I can hear you. All right, Eddie, just give us your full name, please.
[3:22:24] Is this the steady because the far off?
[3:22:27] I get it.
[3:22:29] Well, number one, I want to apologize
[3:22:30] for not being there because of my health issues.
[3:22:34] But with that being said,
[3:22:37] this whole situation that has happened,
[3:22:41] it's been for seven years since even before Dana Watson.
[3:22:46] You can't expect Chief Glasgow to fix this problem
[3:22:51] in this short amount of time
[3:22:52] and that he's been there, especially with no help.
[3:22:56] I've known Joe for a very long time,
[3:23:00] working with him with Safety Fest
[3:23:02] and through the Cert Program.
[3:23:05] He has been an exemplary police officer,
[3:23:10] captain, and my opinion chief.
[3:23:14] I believe that Vice Mayor Swords had a good idea
[3:23:20] with the six months, I also think a one year would be better because he's not
[3:23:27] going to be able to completely fix the problem in six months. My wife and I
[3:23:33] both feel the same way that a third year career should not end because of one
[3:23:41] bad mistake. I don't know what the other text messages that other
[3:23:47] commissioners are talking about but in my opinion he should have enough time to try
[3:23:54] to fix this. I do appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you're feeling
[3:23:58] well. Who's next?
[3:24:03] Andrea, can you hear us?
[3:24:07] Andrea? Hello? Yeah. All right. Just say
[3:24:10] your name and then go ahead. Hi, Andrea Grunfelder, Marguerite resident. I never thought that
[3:24:17] I would find myself agreeing with Antonio Arcerio.
[3:24:20] I think he's also as surprised as I am, but he's right.
[3:24:24] I mean, Chief Galaska has been the Chief for three years,
[3:24:30] and he hasn't managed to change the culture to this point.
[3:24:34] What makes you think that another six months,
[3:24:36] he's going to be able to make any changes.
[3:24:41] You've heard the union captain get up and say that
[3:24:45] they're going to have more complaints
[3:24:47] and we're going to lose officers if we don't make a change.
[3:24:51] Why risk losing more officers and how are we going to replace them?
[3:24:57] Who's going to want to work in a department that has this kind of culture?
[3:25:03] You're saying that the text messages were sent between friends.
[3:25:09] That may be true. We've all made mistakes. We've all said things that we regret.
[3:25:14] but our actions have consequences.
[3:25:17] If you're at the top of the chain,
[3:25:19] you have the responsibility to lead
[3:25:23] and set the example,
[3:25:25] and you should be set or held to a higher standard.
[3:25:31] I stand with Lieutenant Moreno
[3:25:34] and the rest of the Margate police officers
[3:25:38] who work so hard to protect us
[3:25:41] and keep us safe on a daily basis
[3:25:43] and if they don't have confidence
[3:25:44] and the chief's ability to lead, then why keep him?
[3:25:50] I also think that Mayor Rosano should recuse himself from voting on this issue
[3:25:55] due to his personal relationship with the chief.
[3:25:59] Thank you for letting me have this time to voice my opinion and have a good night.
[3:26:04] Thank you. Guys, just to let you know, Joe lives two houses down for me.
[3:26:08] I've been to his house probably once.
[3:26:09] I've never been out to dinner with them, never hung out with him and his wife.
[3:26:12] That's it. There's no relationship. So I'm going to just clarify that.
[3:26:18] All right, is anybody else?
[3:26:25] A.R., can you hear us?
[3:26:29] A.R.
[3:26:32] On mute.
[3:26:36] All right, next.
[3:26:38] Who's that?
[3:26:43] G. Cremor, you there? It's a joke.
[3:26:48] Z.
[3:26:53] Okay. Anybody else? Now? Nobody else on Zoom?
[3:26:58] Okay. Okay. We have two. What's that?
[3:27:04] All right. We have two commissioners' lights, commissioner Simone.
[3:27:13] I just want to clarify something when I was asked earlier that I read Shaw's reports.
[3:27:18] Okay. During the investigation, I did read the reports.
[3:27:22] When I answered no, I did not. It was to the three volumes that commissioner Schwartz
[3:27:30] This keeps talking about that was after the investigation was closed, but I certainly
[3:27:34] did my homework during the investigation like I do with everything.
[3:27:39] So I just wanted to clarify that for the record.
[3:27:43] And I also would like to make two motions.
[3:27:46] One, in the investigative report, the investigative stated that if the commission expanded the
[3:27:53] scope of the investigation, that she would confirm the veracity of a statement that chief
[3:27:58] made to a sergeant texting quote he had to promote her, I'd like an investigation
[3:28:06] to be expanded on that and also the investigator also recommended an additional investigation
[3:28:15] be conducted due to the potential gender bias within the department. I also would like to go
[3:28:21] with an additional investigation on that point of order for the city attorney. Should
[3:28:30] we vote on this motion first since they're like completely separate, but I do agree
[3:28:35] and I will second that one when that comes up, and I just want more thing because I believe
[3:28:42] the is the investigators still here? Yes. I'm sure I'm sure we're paying her good money
[3:28:47] We need to sit here so I think that we should have her come up as well.
[3:28:50] What?
[3:28:52] Maybe on the second topic.
[3:28:54] She will own what?
[3:28:55] On the issue, Joel.
[3:28:57] First of all, in order for her to move on with the next investigation,
[3:29:00] we're not going to handle that separately because we have a motion on the table right now.
[3:29:03] That's what I'm saying.
[3:29:04] We should do this.
[3:29:05] I'm on the favor of what Vice Mayor Schwartz said originally.
[3:29:10] And if we're going to do that, I think we all need to work collaboratively,
[3:29:14] meeting the union, the officers, the chief, the staff, the commission.
[3:29:20] So I understand where you're going with this.
[3:29:22] You and Simone won another investigation, you want more stuff to come out.
[3:29:25] I get it.
[3:29:25] There's probably a ton more.
[3:29:26] I get it.
[3:29:27] But it's been there, and it's still going to go on.
[3:29:31] This is a never ending battle.
[3:29:32] There's no answer to this, so we're just trying to come to a reasonable answer.
[3:29:37] So right now there's a motion on the table for the chief.
[3:29:44] I was going
[3:29:51] to answer you unless, you know, you don't want another investigation, but unless
[3:29:58] this is addressed.
[3:30:00] The chief, so we can't go that first, David. Yes, that's what I was asking as well.
[3:30:11] Joanne, is she still wrong? I was going to answer you, unless, you know, you don't want another investigation, but unless this is addressed, how is it going to be corrected?
[3:30:24] I don't know if we can correct it, Joanne. I know we could probably be proactive and look forward to new policy and trying to fix the problems, try to make the problems stop.
[3:30:34] but we already heard from the union rap and Sergeant Horn.
[3:30:38] They're going to keep continuing with these messages.
[3:30:40] They're going to keep going and then what happens?
[3:30:42] You get rid of the chief and then all of a sudden they stop.
[3:30:45] But what happens to all the text messages that they do have still
[3:30:47] that affect other people?
[3:30:49] They just go away.
[3:30:51] So it's a no-win situation here.
[3:30:54] We're trying to figure out what is best for the city,
[3:30:56] for the residents, for the police department.
[3:30:59] I don't disagree with you as far.
[3:31:01] I think we should vote on this issue first, but I will second her motion after we vote on this.
[3:31:08] It sounds like it's going to go a different way than her and I are speaking about.
[3:31:14] So we'll address that once the next round comes.
[3:31:17] But I think that if there is some type of probationary period, we do need to...
[3:31:23] I don't want more things to come out.
[3:31:27] It's a bad look for the city.
[3:31:29] But in order to fix problems, we need to know what the problem is.
[3:31:34] So we probably should have the investigation continued so that we can get all of this stuff laid out so that we can set goals and objectives and work with the union and whoever we need to work with to fix whatever the issue is.
[3:31:52] So it's not that I want dirt to come out.
[3:31:54] This is the last thing I wanted to do.
[3:31:57] So if you read the report, the closing statement by the person investigating it said there's
[3:32:07] more problems there.
[3:32:09] She knows that.
[3:32:10] We all know that.
[3:32:11] I mean, how deep do you want to go with this?
[3:32:13] I mean, if we were to remove the chief, would you still want the investigation to go on?
[3:32:18] It's, we're going to have to work together on this, just to give it a little bit of a
[3:32:24] I'm not, there's probably other bad actors in fairness to the chief, they're probably are,
[3:32:32] and it all does need to be looked at. But I don't want to get sidetracked from the original
[3:32:38] motion. All right. I'm going to assume that there's plenty more because I'm under the impression that
[3:32:49] when some of this was done, other people who could have been investigated, or maybe it was a prior
[3:32:56] investigation, but other people who could have been asked their opinion were excluded from
[3:33:03] the scope of the investigation, which I assume would mean other females, other people who
[3:33:10] have issues. So I guess I'm going to ask Mr. Skervin with the union degree to bring all
[3:33:21] the issues as well as some possible solutions to the city manager because I'm not foolish
[3:33:27] enough to think that they haven't come and told you, and if they haven't, then you've
[3:33:32] got a problem. But would you be willing, regardless of what winds up? If you see something
[3:33:39] to say something to him and if not to us, if nothing gets done, because otherwise there's
[3:33:46] some deep-seated things here that regardless of what happens tonight aren't going away
[3:33:50] until they're brought to the surface and something's done about it. I'm going to unfortunately
[3:33:58] rod because I asked you you get to go back up there.
[3:34:03] And then you have to say who you are just for
[3:34:04] the record.
[3:34:07] Rods Garvin, Barred County PBA President. I work very well with Mr. Curtis. I'll be
[3:34:15] more than happy as the complaints come to me to address them with him and or you if
[3:34:21] nothing gets resolved. And are there more that you know? There are more.
[3:34:26] Okay. Does he know that there are more? Probably not. Well, he knows in general that there's
[3:34:31] more coming, I believe, but not specifically. Because regardless, that's really important for them
[3:34:38] and for us because nobody wants to sit here and then here there's more coming there's more
[3:34:46] that you didn't know there are reports out there you never got to see and any of the rest of that.
[3:34:51] Yeah and I think it's important for the investigator to if you're going to delay the action I think
[3:34:59] it is very important for the investigator to have one-on-ones with some of these people and really bring
[3:35:05] it out. You know, I don't like to, like you said, I'm not happy about it, because it's
[3:35:11] just going to bring more mud out to the city of Margate, and that's ultimately not what
[3:35:15] we want, but unfortunately, we're going to have to. It looks like, but I don't think for
[3:35:20] one moment that that mud won't eventually surface. I agree with you. It doesn't really
[3:35:27] matter if it's today, tomorrow, the next day, at some point, human nature is such that it's
[3:35:34] It's very difficult to throw things away or swallow them because we've seen that people
[3:35:38] have saved things.
[3:35:40] We all have something.
[3:35:42] If we're going to fix it as a whole, as this broken system that we keep talking about
[3:35:48] which I truly believe is broken, then we need to flesh it all out and eventually get to
[3:35:54] sleep clean and start cleaning out of the way.
[3:35:57] Each person needs to bear their soul because it's unfair to expect that they're going to
[3:36:00] area to go past it and say, I had something I needed to say, and I never got to say.
[3:36:05] Yeah, we want everybody to have a voice.
[3:36:07] Correct.
[3:36:08] So thank you for that answer.
[3:36:09] And to the city manager, I can then say, can we also be assured that each and every pending
[3:36:15] and future grievance is fairly investigative, and that we know that these are things are
[3:36:22] going on, so I don't have to sit here and hear about them now.
[3:36:26] Yes.
[3:36:27] Then I'm going to ask the chief.
[3:36:28] please come out.
[3:36:39] Exactly what do you figure if given six months you can do?
[3:36:45] Try. I can't promise you six months is going to fix anything.
[3:36:50] I don't think so either.
[3:36:55] Clearly you have had no one I'm hearing because I was
[3:36:58] not under the impression that your majors voted but clearly the people under you
[3:37:04] who I would assume the whole reason of them being out of actually the union
[3:37:09] you need if they're still paying the dues,
[3:37:11] but not what's to be able to tell you to your face.
[3:37:16] This works, this doesn't work, and this is my suggestion.
[3:37:19] If that hasn't happened, you have a clear problem
[3:37:22] with the people beneath you.
[3:37:25] On the other hand, if it has happened
[3:37:27] and you want only disregard it, we got a problem.
[3:37:33] And so, well, again, the charter says,
[3:37:37] I can't tell him what to do with the people beneath you because that's a charter violation.
[3:37:44] I can only suggest you report to him, he reports to us and so there is a chasm of where things
[3:37:57] are and what we know and what he knows and I will repeat what I once said to a former
[3:38:05] city manager. Sometimes I feel like there's a black ops group operating that tells me
[3:38:11] only what they think I need to know when they think I need to know it and to which my
[3:38:16] response is, I don't do stupid well. I never want to sit here and say, I didn't know that.
[3:38:23] I'm supposed to. They're supposed to. And I've heard a lot of stuff today that I can honestly say,
[3:38:30] I didn't know that.
[3:38:32] I'm past stupid text messages,
[3:38:35] because stupid text messages we can't take back.
[3:38:38] I'm worried about the future of the department
[3:38:41] and what I've heard started a long time ago.
[3:38:45] But I also know that you were here a long time ago
[3:38:49] and I would like to think that there weren't
[3:38:51] that many blind eyes turned because of problem
[3:38:55] because it wasn't your problem,
[3:38:56] was on somebody else's problem. Do I know if six months will make a difference?
[3:39:03] No, I don't. But for me, six months is it. And perhaps we call it, would you call it probationary?
[3:39:10] Whatever we call it. Do I think it's separate from that? If you survive this tonight,
[3:39:17] comes a hell of a suspension without pay, or the text messages, you get your life. Because I
[3:39:24] And nobody disagrees with that.
[3:39:30] Let me ask a question.
[3:39:32] So if it does happen, what you're saying, he's given six months.
[3:39:36] The first month, he's going to be suspended.
[3:39:40] The first month, the complaints are going to come in like you cannot believe, it's got no
[3:39:45] defense.
[3:39:47] You're setting them up for failure.
[3:39:48] Then he comes back and he wants to do what he wants to do.
[3:39:52] and it's going to look like
[3:39:54] this guy's going after me now because I said something.
[3:39:57] I think they are ready.
[3:39:59] How do you fix a problem
[3:40:01] when you're hands are tied?
[3:40:05] Well, I'm going to give you one
[3:40:06] of two choices.
[3:40:07] Either we figure out a way for that to work
[3:40:10] or today I changed my vote
[3:40:12] because it won't work.
[3:40:14] You have to be wanting
[3:40:16] for it to work.
[3:40:17] You have to be...
[3:40:19] So when he comes back one month
[3:40:22] from now if he wants to demote somebody and that person has a complaint in about him how's that
[3:40:29] going to work? Sitting home on suspension doesn't stop you from writing a plan. It doesn't mean
[3:40:37] you stop breathing reading your text messages. It simply means that you're sitting home not running
[3:40:42] a department. So if you want me what to wait a month and then give him a suspension? No, no,
[3:40:48] I don't know. I'm saying, if you're going to get into suspension, he's out for a month.
[3:40:52] Right? The texts are going to, we've already heard they're going to keep coming.
[3:40:57] Right. No, no. This is the last time.
[3:40:59] This is a cold. No, no, no. The complaints will come in. He's going to be suspended sitting
[3:41:03] at home. The complaints will come in. We've already been told by the Union rep by another
[3:41:07] officer or sergeant, they're going to keep coming.
[3:41:10] Yeah.
[3:41:10] Many comes back and there's 20 more complaints against him. Now he's like, you know what?
[3:41:15] But I've wanted to move this guy and demote him for months now.
[3:41:19] He's back, he's coming back, and he's told he can't do it because there's complain
[3:41:25] against you.
[3:41:27] All right.
[3:41:27] So my answer is, if you've wanted to move and demote someone for months, I sure self
[3:41:32] suggests you do it tomorrow.
[3:41:34] But you don't wait.
[3:41:36] I think there's merit to what the mayor's saying, but we're not there yet.
[3:41:39] I'm sure we're going to get there because I'm assuming the vote's going to go three, two
[3:41:44] on that termination, but can I throw something in also, but I think it was to go to,
[3:41:50] I wouldn't suspend, I would severely reduce the pay because you know what,
[3:41:57] but frankly we're probably going to get sued and it's going to cost us money.
[3:42:02] But again, I think we're getting ahead of potentially another vote here. I think the motion
[3:42:08] right now is notions right now of determination determination see where that goes and then we can
[3:42:15] you know I I don't want to I don't agree with another solution but I'll respect the board if
[3:42:20] that's the way they go and we'll come up with a solution on the next vote okay I'm sure that
[3:42:26] the chief has spoken with the city manager about some changes that he would like to make
[3:42:31] way before this stuff was ever started before and I think he should be allowed to make those changes
[3:42:37] that he wanted to make before this stuff started.
[3:42:41] Before these complaints came in, he had changes he wanted to make.
[3:42:45] I think he should be allowed to make them.
[3:42:48] I would also hope that I hear clearly that there's no respect for Cheta command.
[3:42:54] That needs to stop.
[3:42:57] Nobody calls up the president of the United States, who's me, and gets through.
[3:43:03] That just doesn't happen.
[3:43:04] I guarantee you that nobody gets to the city manager without going through whomever their
[3:43:12] uppers are and sometimes through a grievance procedure, because that's why what I think
[3:43:17] we have on.
[3:43:20] I think you've heard a lot, I've heard a lot, and I'm not a police officer, so I don't
[3:43:25] necessarily, from a school perspective, we hold people to a higher standard and there
[3:43:33] have been somebody in my office that would have understood way before. Whether you understood
[3:43:40] how bad the situation was or not, you certainly do now. Whether they trust you or not,
[3:43:47] that's something you're going to have to earn. I can't do for you. And whether they will,
[3:43:53] the things that are going on here that are apparently endemic for a long time,
[3:43:57] heal, can help you with that one either. That's peace. Each person is going to have to make
[3:44:02] with you during that time and if it doesn't happen, then my next vote will be for them and I say it
[3:44:09] right here. So if any of them comes to me even in a month and says nothing has changed, and I'll
[3:44:17] bring it back up if I'm on the prevailing side, we won't wait for this next month. I just, you know,
[3:44:25] I know that the public feels one way has not seen some of the stuff or heard some of the stuff
[3:44:31] we'd heard today. I just am so conflicted with this because I'm trying to find a solution
[3:44:38] that probably, as the guy on the rate on Zoom said, doesn't exist anymore.
[3:44:48] For up to me, I'd get another week to think about this and just simply say, here's your
[3:44:53] punishment for the stupid text messages. Sit home and let us figure out what we do afterwards.
[3:45:03] We can, we can discuss that. So. Yes. Yes. And what are those changes? I don't know. I think she's just asking. The issue of a fourth major is that the addition of a deputy chief. Because those are positions that are at the staff that go before the commission. They're not my decisions. And chief and I have had discussions on that.
[3:45:30] There's been time in discussions, there are financial implications.
[3:45:33] Look at that. It's not something that I can just grant and give.
[3:45:36] No, the things that were discussed tonight.
[3:45:40] Is there personnel? Has he spoken to you at all about personnel changes that he wants to make?
[3:45:45] If we're referring to a major personnel.
[3:45:49] I'm not asking for positions. I'm asking, has he spoken to you about in general?
[3:45:53] I, in general, that there are positions that he wants to move around.
[3:45:55] There was a motion that he was going to make and as long as and there was a discussion about the timing of that okay
[3:46:01] Well, I'm saying that is that he should be given the opportunity to make those changes since they were before
[3:46:07] Any of this stuff came out is not not before
[3:46:10] It was there wasn't before no and in fair and in fairness
[3:46:16] To the city manager
[3:46:18] I'm pretty sure he pulled all of us on a lot of this these items
[3:46:22] I know I've been asked a few times about a deputy chief
[3:46:25] I spoke to the chief about it, and I told him I would support a deputy chief with the caveat that I would not hire from within.
[3:46:36] So he gave me the deputy chief, but he won't be the chief of police if he retires, leaves, whatever.
[3:46:42] That's correct.
[3:46:43] I've been asking for that for almost two years.
[3:46:45] So, you know, but can I make this suggestion then, no matter how this goes, we feel he needs help.
[3:46:57] Some of us feel we shouldn't be here.
[3:46:58] How about open up that position of deputy chief and have the commission interview rather
[3:47:05] than it not be the chief's pick, the unions pick, but our pick, if possible, even if we can
[3:47:12] do that.
[3:47:12] But the purpose of the debt-gated chief at this point would be what to do the job you really should have done?
[3:47:21] Well, I'm on both sides here.
[3:47:23] No, because from what I'm hearing is there's two commissioners that want him gone.
[3:47:29] And from what you said, you want to hire from the outside.
[3:47:33] For the next chief, 1,000 percent.
[3:47:36] So why not have that person in the wings in case something doesn't happen?
[3:47:42] It should be a much wider issue.
[3:47:43] It depends on the chief, number one.
[3:47:46] It certainly would be better if we did it.
[3:47:50] But I still don't know, I just don't know how that fixes all of the issues.
[3:47:58] I don't know if we can fix it, but I can tell you this.
[3:48:00] When you have, like I heard, and I'm not going to have to,
[3:48:03] commissioners from Owen say, promotions.
[3:48:07] questions. The way it works in the city of Margette and I don't know if it's just our
[3:48:10] police department, but you can only hire from within. So in other words, promote from within.
[3:48:19] So if you have a sergeant's test, Lieutenant's test, and I think it happened recently, there
[3:48:25] was five or six sergeants chosen. You're basically saying that the first three made it, everybody
[3:48:33] everybody made, everybody moved on.
[3:48:35] So you're basically promoting, you have to promote.
[3:48:38] There's no saying you failed, you're done, you're over,
[3:48:42] or opening it up to the outside and saying,
[3:48:45] hey, we're gonna hire a first sergeant and open it up.
[3:48:49] It's one of the only departments in the city
[3:48:51] that you have to hire or promote from within.
[3:48:54] Is that true?
[3:48:56] I think it is.
[3:48:57] I mean.
[3:48:57] All right.
[3:48:59] So if you're a chief and I'm just saying,
[3:49:02] I mean, if you have bad apples to pick from, where do you go?
[3:49:06] Where do you go?
[3:49:07] The question is, is why is that a must?
[3:49:11] Why is, I don't know.
[3:49:13] A lot of that is governed by union contracts.
[3:49:15] So, getting back to that, that's where the policy has to be talked to and set with the union.
[3:49:22] You know, there's a lot of things like the dates of the text messages.
[3:49:26] We need to put something in place where, like you were saying, a month, two months.
[3:49:30] That's it. We don't want to hear the complaint.
[3:49:31] It happened. You didn't say nothing. Must not have been that important. Let's move on.
[3:49:36] You know, the hiring process, I think the oral part weighing 60 percent, I think that's ridiculous.
[3:49:42] I think you should be based on your testing score. Anybody can get nervous and fail in oral.
[3:49:48] So I don't think that that has such a big weight on it where it could be used as a tool in some areas.
[3:49:56] So the certain things that we need to do, we need to look at,
[3:49:58] But we're going to have to have collaboration with the union.
[3:50:01] It's going to have to be.
[3:50:02] It's not going to work.
[3:50:04] It's not going to work.
[3:50:05] With the complaints, it's kind of too part.
[3:50:08] Personally, I feel like they should be brought forth right away.
[3:50:11] And I believe there's policy that requires it.
[3:50:14] I'm going to read it, too.
[3:50:15] Correct.
[3:50:17] However, they can go outside of here with lawsuits and stuff that just because it happened certain
[3:50:23] amount of time ago doesn't make it go away.
[3:50:25] So it's kind of a two-part thing.
[3:50:27] I mean, they can still take action with those complaints, but as far as breaking policy,
[3:50:34] you know, it is breaking policy if they don't come forward. But again,
[3:50:38] my whole thing is that the argument is that they have come forward in times past, or even now,
[3:50:45] and it's not being addressed.
[3:50:52] Do you want to speak?
[3:50:56] It just bothers me what the answer was when they were asked about the motion.
[3:51:03] And it's taken place after this. That's a very worrisome about the what promotion and
[3:51:10] promotion. Oh, the motion. I've said the motion. Now, that the chief went that the
[3:51:18] chief went to him after this investigation. Chief, can you clarify that? It was, did
[3:51:25] you go after the investigation as for as one to be done over the time? Exactly. But I know
[3:51:28] was the third time that I had brought it up to the third time.
[3:51:31] Yes. And it was before. I don't know if it was during this, but it wasn't because of this. It was because the same issue that kept persisting was persisting. And I wasn't able to correct it.
[3:51:44] So we didn't have anything to do with this investigation.
[3:51:47] the commission. But it doesn't, the chief picks the major is not city manager or the commission.
[3:51:54] Why did you go to the city manager, your reason? Did you have to go to the church?
[3:51:58] Yes, he has to approve it. Okay.
[3:52:00] Okay.
[3:52:05] Are you not talking about the debt?
[3:52:07] Are you talking about the debt?
[3:52:08] No.
[3:52:08] No.
[3:52:11] Are you talking about the debt?
[3:52:17] And then happened.
[3:52:18] Right.
[3:52:19] Again, because I was trying to give a chance for the person to correct their actions.
[3:52:24] Okay.
[3:52:25] So maybe did I clarify it?
[3:52:27] Do you mind?
[3:52:27] No.
[3:52:28] Just a story.
[3:52:29] You changed the story twice now.
[3:52:31] The first time they said he couldn't recall the date.
[3:52:34] I don't recall the exact date the last time that I brought it up with in conjunction with when
[3:52:39] this investigation was going on because it had nothing to do with the investigation.
[3:52:41] But then you said it was before the investigation.
[3:52:43] So you've double talked.
[3:52:45] No, it didn't.
[3:52:46] I explained that there was three times I've gone to the city manager about the same issue over time.
[3:52:51] And I've given three chances for the person to make correct to correct some of the actions.
[3:52:55] The third time I don't remember exactly what the date was in conjunction with this investigation.
[3:53:00] But it wasn't because of this investigation, it was the same issue that was recurring.
[3:53:04] But I just don't see how one thing has to do with the other.
[3:53:07] There's the actions of the chief and then there's the actions of this major who I've heard
[3:53:12] things about two, and probably should potentially be demoted. But one, again, one has nothing to do
[3:53:21] with the other. Can I just ask question? Just kicked in. The complaint we got today was that from the
[3:53:26] major?
[3:53:29] Yes. It was from the major. The major we're talking about. Yes. Put a complaint in today.
[3:53:35] See how this is going to play out? Well, and I met one a couple of days ago, and he never said
[3:53:39] words me about it. Okay. Do you guys see where this is going? I met with him for almost an hour
[3:53:46] and he never said a word to me about it.
[3:53:52] Can you help us run?
[3:53:56] Well, we can't. We have a complaint
[3:53:59] that was fine. That's true. We can't talk about it against our chiefs. All right. All I'm just
[3:54:04] going to say is I spoke to him just a couple of days ago and he never said a word to me about it.
[3:54:08] Yeah, and I made a couple of days ago, not a bunch of days ago, a couple, but that's why aside from the actions that he did with the messages,
[3:54:21] we know they're going to come out, whether they're right or wrong, the apartment's going to continue to be in this disarray, unless we have somebody new come in, and that's why I said before it got to this point to retire and let someone come in and
[3:54:41] take over. How is the new person, how are they going to complain against he or she?
[3:54:49] It wasn't like the shop people are now going after this or vice versa. All that's gone.
[3:54:55] Is it gone? Why not? Why wouldn't it be gone?
[3:55:03] It's still over. There's still issues with the department that we need to investigate and
[3:55:07] Look at, but from the top, there's not going to be,
[3:55:11] how is there going to be favoritism,
[3:55:13] or this one was friends with that one?
[3:55:21] In answer to a question,
[3:55:23] I'm guessing this is from the standard operating procedure,
[3:55:26] 7.3.80, reporting violations.
[3:55:30] Personnel having knowledge of a violation of the standards
[3:55:32] of conduct, general orders, standard operating procedure,
[3:55:36] any official direction by another officer
[3:55:38] or employee shall immediately report the violation
[3:55:42] to a supervisor. And then there's others that say that personnel shall support the policies
[3:55:51] orders directions and procedures of the department and shall not criticize or get rid of my own
[3:55:57] or whatever it is. The department, its policies orders are personnel in speech writing or by expression
[3:56:04] where such interferes with the maintenance of discipline or otherwise undermines the effectiveness
[3:56:10] this of the department.
[3:56:14] There's a lot of stuff out there that I think has not been adhered to.
[3:56:20] I don't disagree with that, but that doesn't then justify the action of others.
[3:56:26] Of course not. I'm just simply saying that a lot of stuff that should have been done
[3:56:30] have been done.
[3:56:33] And I don't really know where you go.
[3:56:37] All right. There's no more discussion.
[3:56:45] We're
[3:56:46] It would be to provide Chief Galasco with a notice of termination, which would be effective
[3:56:51] on 11.59 p.m. on April 3rd, 2024, and he would be on leave with pay until that time.
[3:57:01] In order to allow him the opportunity to provide a response pursuant to Section 166.0494
[3:57:09] for a Florida statute.
[3:57:11] All right.
[3:57:12] And at that time, if something were to change,
[3:57:14] could it change at that point?
[3:57:16] Whoever's on the prevailing side can always make a motion
[3:57:19] to reconsider at the same or the next meeting.
[3:57:23] All right, call the roll.
[3:57:26] Mr. Cajiano?
[3:57:29] No.
[3:57:30] Mr. Simone?
[3:57:32] Yes.
[3:57:33] Mr. Rosario?
[3:57:34] Yes.
[3:57:35] Vice Mayor Schwartz.
[3:57:37] Does maybe count?
[3:57:40] This is a tough one, all right.
[3:57:43] Trust me, I take an aspirin.
[3:57:46] To wind up on the prevailing side, I'm going to say no.
[3:57:49] That's the lame answer.
[3:57:50] No, because I want to see, no means not get rid of it.
[3:57:56] I understand that, but the reason you gave it's...
[3:57:59] No, I read my reasons and I would like to see something change.
[3:58:03] And I would like to give him an opportunity to see
[3:58:06] if he can work with the union and do that.
[3:58:08] But if that doesn't happen, then I'm going
[3:58:11] to bring it back. And that is, that's not a layman's here. That's the truth if it doesn't work.
[3:58:16] What's your vote, Tommy? And the answer is I'm going to bring it back.
[3:58:19] Oh, man. This is the answer. Call you me. All right.
[3:58:22] So, you know, so we got motion fails three to two. Okay. And then the next motion.
[3:58:30] All right. Do you want me to make the motion? All right. Let me get my
[3:58:34] question before you make the motion. Go for it.
[3:58:39] Do we want to talk about
[3:58:41] the recommendations of looking at other issues in the department so that we can set,
[3:58:47] because clearly there's going to be a punishment, probably some type of probationary period.
[3:58:54] But in order to set those metrics, we need to know fully what's going on.
[3:58:59] And there were other issues that were brought up that I'm not bringing them up to it because I
[3:59:05] can't call it back. I'm not on the prevailing side, but at least so that we can set based on
[3:59:11] the findings set goals and parameters so that in six months from now we can say, okay,
[3:59:17] look, we looked at this. This is what the investigator found recommended.
[3:59:22] We agreed, disagreed, set these parameters. And now we have something to
[3:59:28] determine. All right, it's number one and seven months because I'm going to make the motion
[3:59:33] that he is suspended for one month without pay. And then when he comes back, he has six months.
[3:59:39] How about we do the investigation after the seven months?
[3:59:44] No.
[3:59:46] So you're asking for an investigation to be going on while the man suspend it.
[3:59:51] And back, and back.
[3:59:54] Can I make a recommendation?
[3:59:56] We find somebody new to investigate it?
[4:00:00] I don't have a problem with any outside investigator. Okay, I would like to see somebody new investigator in the commission actually interview them and talk to them and do the investigation. I definitely, I definitely want to investigate. I have no problem with an outside investigator in a different one. That's fine. And I, I actually agree with you in that. I don't think he should be suspended where he's not
[4:00:29] here in the office because like you have a good point. I mean, if you're giving him six months
[4:00:34] and he's suspended for a month to whatever it is, then how could he justifiably make the, you know,
[4:00:41] given a shot to make the changes? So I would like to see something where his pay is, maybe he
[4:00:51] comes to work, but his pay is, you know, he uses a month's pay and then maybe there's a 25% reduction
[4:00:58] in his pay during his six-month period, but the point that I'm trying to make is that he's not
[4:01:06] at home. He's still here. He's able to give given the opportunity to make the changes.
[4:01:13] I think drastic pay reductions temporarily, but still is here in the office.
[4:01:22] You don't think one-twelfth of your salary being gone is enough?
[4:01:27] Can I give a recommendation, but basically our past practice for people that get suspended
[4:01:32] is the first two days you don't get paid and then you can dock the rest of it from
[4:01:37] my annual time.
[4:01:38] People take your time.
[4:01:39] You take my time away for the month, so all the time that I have worked, the money is taken
[4:01:43] away, but I'm still here to work.
[4:01:47] That sounds...
[4:01:48] I don't know when to say that's David, is that so?
[4:01:50] We'll let David...
[4:01:51] I don't have a problem with that.
[4:01:53] I know we have a contract with the chief we being the city, so if you're going to adjust the pay,
[4:02:00] then you'd need to amend the contract to reflect whatever that is going to be.
[4:02:04] But if we do it the way the chief is saying, we wouldn't have to change the contract, right?
[4:02:11] You know, you still would.
[4:02:12] But even if you amend the contract, doesn't the contract say both parties have to agree to it?
[4:02:17] Well, that's part of the resolution that you're talking about.
[4:02:20] doesn't agree to it. Well, as far as seconds, if he doesn't agree to it, then that's a
[4:02:26] whole other story. But he doesn't agree to it. I'm going to change my vote. Let me go
[4:02:32] back to something. This is another option, potentials to use leave time. That's right.
[4:02:39] I said, yeah, he talked to leave time for. Could use leave time, and that would avoid having
[4:02:43] Well, what's the value on that?
[4:02:47] We've got to pay money.
[4:02:51] Well, I don't want to get into hypotheticals because each potential lawsuit, who knows?
[4:02:57] And so, facts and circumstances, everything.
[4:02:59] So, you can't play, you know, that type of game that you're dealing with what you have
[4:03:04] here today.
[4:03:05] So, let me ask you this, if you wanted to make changes next few days, would you be able
[4:03:10] to change it?
[4:03:11] as far as, well, it's all subject to union contracts and, you know, all those other things as well.
[4:03:18] To the extent that the employees have been covered by union contract and they have certain rights.
[4:03:26] We were talking about a major before if he wanted to make a change to a major.
[4:03:30] I think it's in the contract that a major can be demoted but he would have to go, he doesn't get fired.
[4:03:36] Right. He returns back to the senator. I guess I don't know the order to rank skies.
[4:03:41] I'm sorry. Lieutenant. Right. That's that's up to him. Okay. If I, you know, so he'd still be able to conduct
[4:03:48] every day business being suspended? No, if he's suspended, he would be awakened in the department.
[4:03:52] So what's the word you want to use, Antonio? Because I pay for a significant temper rarely
[4:04:01] significant pay reduction in his salary.
[4:04:05] Okay.
[4:04:05] Well, can you, would you take that?
[4:04:07] To me, to me, a suspension is your home.
[4:04:11] No, no, I don't want to.
[4:04:12] I understand what you're saying.
[4:04:13] It's in a bad way, but it's almost like home on vacation.
[4:04:15] But the mayor has a good point, though.
[4:04:18] If we're going to tell, give him parameters in six months to correct it,
[4:04:21] it doesn't make sense for him to be home for a month.
[4:04:24] Well, then let's get the correct wording.
[4:04:25] Maybe Dave can help us with the correct wording,
[4:04:27] but I agree.
[4:04:28] I understand what you're saying.
[4:04:29] I believe it's in the union contract.
[4:04:30] Or what's the word?
[4:04:32] If I may, I'm not called.
[4:04:34] What you're referring to a temporary reduction in salary?
[4:04:37] Correct.
[4:04:38] So I'm not making a motion.
[4:04:40] I'm just throwing out for discussion.
[4:04:42] I would say a one month suspension of pay.
[4:04:47] Okay.
[4:04:48] And then 25.
[4:04:49] That's not what he's saying.
[4:04:51] He's asking to use accumulated time.
[4:04:53] That's like telling a kid they can't watch TV.
[4:04:56] And then I'm saying, but I've accumulated 400 hours
[4:04:58] can I use them instead? Where's the discipline part then? If he's not getting paid for a month
[4:05:08] and then... No, but he's not asking not to get paid. He's asking to have that taken off.
[4:05:13] That's what he's asking. But I'm saying something different. What do you say?
[4:05:17] As the commission... Well, what I'm saying is just paid him money, not current money.
[4:05:29] I'm
[4:05:29] six months is up. Can you ask somebody to come to work for a month without pay? No,
[4:05:34] it works. I'm asking you to turn it. Does that exist in any world? I've got a question.
[4:05:40] I hold on for a person with me. I'm dying for the answer. I think that you would end up doing
[4:05:46] is just doing an overall adjustment to a salary, you know, commencing on a certain date,
[4:05:51] because I don't think that you can have somebody do work for the city and not receive a salary.
[4:05:57] So a 75% reduction for one month and then a 25% reduction for the remaining five months
[4:06:05] until we review again.
[4:06:08] We still comes into work.
[4:06:11] We had a officer who I felt was very wrongly treated for picking up a child and moving
[4:06:20] him out of a lunch room and had a month pay from his pay.
[4:06:26] How was that work? Was that person home for a month? Were they working, but had the money that way?
[4:06:36] It's two days that they get unpaid usually from the union contract. It's two days you service suspension unpaid.
[4:06:43] And then the rest of the time they deduct your annual pay or whatever accumulated time paid you have.
[4:06:48] You lose the money that's accumulated in your bank of time.
[4:06:52] I have no understanding of what it has said.
[4:06:55] I have covered using that, so I need some help with this.
[4:06:58] But I have my law partner, Caroline's size has been patiently waiting in the back.
[4:07:02] I know Caroline if you want to come up and possibly help with answering these questions.
[4:07:07] I don't know, thanks of time.
[4:07:10] Thanks of time.
[4:07:14] Thank you, Caroline.
[4:07:18] Thank you.
[4:07:19] If you're serving a suspension,
[4:07:21] you can serve it time-unpaid,
[4:07:23] or you could have it taken from your leave bank,
[4:07:25] so you report to work,
[4:07:27] and that amount of suspension time
[4:07:29] is just taken from your leave bank,
[4:07:31] so ultimately when you separate from employment,
[4:07:34] you're not paid for that amount.
[4:07:37] That's where the suspension park comes in.
[4:07:38] Okay.
[4:07:41] They're clear?
[4:07:42] It's still ahead.
[4:07:45] Yeah, it's still ahead.
[4:07:47] I don't care if you want to talk about the adjustment in the salary and how that might work similarly or with the leave something like that with the chief in his contract
[4:07:55] Well, right, but I mean that would have to be a new
[4:07:59] Employment yes is employment agreement, so that would have to be renegotiated with him. I don't know if you've conducted
[4:08:07] evaluations or if that's up
[4:08:09] Soon, we're that adjustment could be made at that time
[4:08:14] Why wait for an evaluation? We have misconduct. It didn't go particularly my way. But this is where we're at now.
[4:08:23] I'm not saying you have to wait for the evaluation. If I don't know if you've done it yet, you can call for an evaluation and then make an adjustment at that point.
[4:08:32] I think the idea would be to, you know, upon a certain date, you know, that the salary
[4:08:39] be reduced by 75% for the first month, and then 25% for the remaining five months,
[4:08:45] and at the end of the six-month period, you would conduct an evaluation.
[4:08:49] That's what I've heard.
[4:08:50] I am correct.
[4:08:52] Everything's great.
[4:08:53] He gets everything back.
[4:08:55] And if it's not, then it's our commissioner's fortune said bye-bye.
[4:09:01] I'll go with that.
[4:09:05] Listen, Joe, I'm sorry.
[4:09:07] You put those bullets in the gun
[4:09:08] and shut yourself for them.
[4:09:11] This is going to have to make you
[4:09:13] and everyone else know that you can't do this.
[4:09:15] It's not acceptable behavior.
[4:09:17] And I was taking notes earlier
[4:09:19] if I might miss a minute.
[4:09:22] Just regarding what I think
[4:09:24] Commissioner Kajian has said there was also
[4:09:26] comments related to training in person.
[4:09:28] Oh, absolutely in person.
[4:09:29] We just did an ethics diversity thing and it was on the computer where you just sit there. You just push buttons
[4:09:37] No, in this case it's gotta be him. That's right. I said that I wrote
[4:09:43] Department why all right, I miss that person. I miss that diversity training. Okay, I miss that person guys
[4:09:50] We're gonna have to start
[4:09:52] We're gonna have to put a new wheel together. So
[4:09:56] So obviously, if people are writing texts at any time, they're not paying attention to
[4:10:04] their training.
[4:10:06] So we need to get people to pay attention to their training, because it's in the code.
[4:10:13] So let's get people to understand that this can't be happening.
[4:10:18] What I'd also say is we
[4:10:25] can, let's put together what we, what Antonio I believe is saying
[4:10:29] because I agree with him, I agree with what Commissioner Vice Mayor Schwartz and we
[4:10:35] give the chief an opportunity to agree to accept or to not.
[4:10:41] And if he doesn't accept, I would call him meeting the next day and then pay him his money
[4:10:47] and then he goes. He either agrees, he made this bed, he's got a lay in it. Either agrees
[4:10:52] or he doesn't agree. And if he doesn't agree, it's, thank you for being here.
[4:11:00] I have heard that prior to your, the last year's person prior to you, that chiefs prior to them
[4:11:09] might not have been liked, but they were respected. They understood what was expected of them.
[4:11:16] they understood the rules of the game. You have been described as too touchy
[4:11:23] feeling.
[4:11:26] I'm going to suggest that in this amount of time, if it means you
[4:11:30] have to learn a whole new way of doing business, that people understand what's
[4:11:35] expected of them, their superiors understand what's expected of them and will
[4:11:39] not be tolerated otherwise, that the females who feel like they have been the
[4:11:45] underdogs of the department and are trying to pave the way that it's better for the rest.
[4:11:50] Get that respect. And that if there's a promotion that should be, that no one has the nerve
[4:11:57] to say that if a female is promoted, it's because they were afraid we were afraid of a lawsuit.
[4:12:03] It's because they should have been. And at the same point, I would suggest that whoever
[4:12:08] whatever makes up whatever the percentage is on I know we changed it at your suggestion
[4:12:15] that maybe there's I understand that other cities do 10% of evaluations from their
[4:12:20] superiors and I think that should be looked at because you don't get a promotion anywhere
[4:12:25] else where there isn't an evaluation that's seen by someone and we readjust everybody
[4:12:31] knows if you want to crash somebody's career you do it on an oral exam because a true
[4:12:36] You in fall to a multiple choice test has only one answer.
[4:12:42] But I also was under the impression and correct me if I'm wrong, that I thought when
[4:12:46] you did some of these exams, that you had someone from HR, that you had someone from
[4:12:52] civil service sitting there, and that it wasn't just you and your three majors.
[4:12:57] If that's not the case, then we have a problem.
[4:13:00] And it also isn't that the people who are voting have to come within a certain band with that part.
[4:13:09] He has to explain everything that they've never seen that before in my life.
[4:13:13] Yes, basically the criteria is if we each category that the person is scored on have to be within two to three points of each other.
[4:13:21] Or else you have to deliberate to find out why we're not on the same page with this for.
[4:13:26] Okay.
[4:13:26] I would also say that.
[4:13:28] In the case of the last test that happened.
[4:13:30] Why is HR?
[4:13:31] It was HR and who else in that meeting?
[4:13:33] That's not a law.
[4:13:35] Civil service.
[4:13:35] Civil service person.
[4:13:36] Okay.
[4:13:36] Why did they not have votes?
[4:13:39] Is that...
[4:13:40] That was taken out in, I think, 2014, where the Civil Service Board was disabled.
[4:13:47] Before we got here.
[4:13:48] It was cut out, and I think it was a power thing.
[4:13:52] All right.
[4:13:52] So, should we put it back in?
[4:13:54] Probably.
[4:13:54] I think we need to have as many people as special and people who are outside the inside
[4:14:01] Being able sure to make a vote and and and one of the
[4:14:07] People who I spoke with just a couple of days ago
[4:14:09] said to me
[4:14:12] Well
[4:14:13] These people who get promotions they can't or don't get promotions
[4:14:19] They can't trust the system and I said to them
[4:14:24] I said, aren't you on the board?
[4:14:28] Aren't you, I was sat with two people out of the four who voted and if they literally
[4:14:34] walk out of one of these things saying that you can't trust us when they're half of the
[4:14:39] committee and the committee has to be within that band with, well, there's a big problem
[4:14:47] with those people who are sitting on that board who actually walk outside and say, you can't
[4:14:51] trust them when they're on it.
[4:14:52] That's bogus to the max yep all right so we have to make sure
[4:15:00] Or that we talk about making sure things are open and visible and all that stuff. I think
[4:15:06] we need to make sure that people understand that there's four voting people on that, and
[4:15:11] I spoke with two people who would tell me that people don't feel that they can trust
[4:15:14] the results, and I'm like, you're on that board. Are you telling me that they're not supposed
[4:15:18] to trust you?
[4:15:21] Especially when it has to be within that family. So I think we need to get
[4:15:26] more information out, letting people know what the criteria is, what the voting is, and I would
[4:15:32] also ask that we get an HR person and a person from the civil service. If nothing else we consider
[4:15:40] putting them back on, I think we need people from outside the department to make sure not only that
[4:15:45] they're watching and making sure that it's right to being responsible for making a vote to make sure
[4:15:55] I'd also like to suggest that we go back to when the Civil Service Board heard complaints
[4:16:01] from people who felt that they were unjustly denied a position.
[4:16:07] I would also suggest that instead of ten people being on a promotion list, we go back
[4:16:13] to the fact that it used to be the top three.
[4:16:16] And when that was over with, the test was done again because I will be very honest with you.
[4:16:21] When number eight and nine get promoted off of a list of ten, it tells me that F minus minus is now a standard
[4:16:30] Nobody does that
[4:16:31] I agree
[4:16:32] I agree with that
[4:16:35] If you have the top scorers
[4:16:39] Because what if you add the written and the oral together you have
[4:16:43] Whatever the top people should get it you know
[4:16:46] So this isn't like buying old rings for the space shuttle that you get the lowest one.
[4:16:51] You know, this is important stuff.
[4:16:53] I mean, that that the shuttle was wasn't important.
[4:16:55] I can't believe that was in Europe.
[4:16:56] I'm sorry, my, my-
[4:16:58] Anyway, I'm just venting or just-
[4:17:00] But I agree with you.
[4:17:02] Alright, so where are we?
[4:17:03] Just in FYI, a lot of stuff you're discussing and it's in the UU contract, so-
[4:17:08] What?
[4:17:08] I'm sure it's not the-
[4:17:11] I'm sure it's not the-
[4:17:13] We need to talk.
[4:17:14] I'm sure it's not that-
[4:17:15] I'm sure it's not that you could pick eight.
[4:17:16] nine and skip over one through seven.
[4:17:18] Well, if it's in the contract.
[4:17:20] And if it is, that should change, too.
[4:17:21] Okay.
[4:17:22] In the contract.
[4:17:23] All right.
[4:17:24] So let's move this on.
[4:17:25] All right.
[4:17:26] So.
[4:17:27] Good question.
[4:17:28] We have, there was a recommendation.
[4:17:30] There was a motion.
[4:17:31] No, there was an emotion.
[4:17:31] There was just a recommendation about the pay.
[4:17:35] Do you remember what it was?
[4:17:36] I don't remember.
[4:17:39] So the motion, the motion, I'll make the official motion
[4:17:42] reduction would be a one-month reduction in pay, the first month, and then 25% reduction
[4:17:59] in pay for the remaining five months of the probationary period.
[4:18:06] And then, of course, with the diversity in person, the diversity training.
[4:18:11] Well, that will be accepted.
[4:18:13] I'll accept it.
[4:18:14] Oh, I'll accept it.
[4:18:15] Okay.
[4:18:16] Okay.
[4:18:16] And then a evaluation at the end of the six-month period.
[4:18:21] I'll second that.
[4:18:22] Yes.
[4:18:23] I'll second that, Joe.
[4:18:25] Would you accept that?
[4:18:27] Yes.
[4:18:27] Okay.
[4:18:28] Then we can vote on it.
[4:18:29] I would take my vote.
[4:18:30] I've got to bring it back up to public.
[4:18:32] It's part of that motion.
[4:18:33] Basers to direct.
[4:18:35] City Attorney's Office to draft an amendment to the employment.
[4:18:37] Absolutely.
[4:18:37] and authorize the mayor's city manager to sign it.
[4:18:41] So we don't have to bring it back to you again.
[4:18:43] Absolutely.
[4:18:45] If there's anybody on clear, we could explain it again.
[4:18:48] If anybody would like to come up and say anything else.
[4:18:52] That's fine.
[4:18:53] Anybody up here?
[4:18:55] And your lights on?
[4:18:56] Oh, sorry.
[4:18:57] I'm sorry.
[4:18:58] Is there anybody on Zoom?
[4:19:03] Is it?
[4:19:05] Is there hands raised?
[4:19:07] All right.
[4:19:08] Who is it?
[4:19:08] Is there anyone?
[4:19:09] First hand, they are.
[4:19:10] They are.
[4:19:11] AR. AR, are you there? Who's AR? We're about to find out. AR, can you unmute? I think
[4:19:18] mute it?
[4:19:24] All right, next.
[4:19:28] M-P. M-P, many people. M-P? We're trying, next.
[4:19:40] Martin's plus and found this name. Martin, Martin, you put your name down, you can speak.
[4:19:45] Yeah, next.
[4:19:48] I think he spoke earlier. Is that the... Yeah, well, he's the guy who said
[4:19:52] you're in a no-win position, I don't know what to do, not that I paid attention.
[4:19:57] So no?
[4:19:58] Yes, there's a few guys.
[4:19:58] Oh, it's a different motion.
[4:20:00] It's a different motion.
[4:20:01] Okay.
[4:20:01] John, are you there?
[4:20:03] It's here.
[4:20:06] John.
[4:20:07] Yeah.
[4:20:08] How are you doing, John?
[4:20:09] We hear you.
[4:20:10] Okay.
[4:20:13] So I'm just curious, what we're talking about is you're talking about suspending his pay
[4:20:19] for a month or cut for reducing it 75% right and then 25% over the next five months that was on this expansion.
[4:20:29] Oh, the most I didn't hear what he said is that if you're going to suspend them as well and you have to explain why you didn't do that if you want to explain.
[4:20:39] Thank you, sir.
[4:20:41] We're motion.
[4:20:42] If you want to repeat the motion, yeah, the baby tells the city attorney the current motion is.
[4:20:49] that the salary be reduced by 75% in the first month and 25% for the following five months
[4:20:56] and then a evaluation at the conclusion of the six month period.
[4:21:03] So essentially you're still
[4:21:04] going to be paying him really again you're still putting yourself into no one's situation. I mean
[4:21:11] no matter what you do you're going to have to pay him and at the end of this what happens when
[4:21:17] more stuff comes out, more stuff comes out, like the mayor was saying. You're just putting
[4:21:22] yourself in a deeper hole. I don't understand why you're talking about suspending this
[4:21:29] pay. If realistically you're still going to be paying him. He's not losing anything.
[4:21:35] He may be losing a couple of shackles here and there, but he also was saying that he could
[4:21:40] you could take it out of time accrued.
[4:21:43] So essentially, he's not losing anything.
[4:21:47] It's not gonna come out of time accrued.
[4:21:50] Yeah.
[4:21:50] And I don't disagree with you, John,
[4:21:52] but I was on the losing side and so now I'm,
[4:21:56] I made a commitment to respect the board's vote
[4:22:00] and move forward.
[4:22:01] So this is the next thing that I could come up with.
[4:22:07] I'm not on the board,
[4:22:09] But my suggestion would be that if you, if within the first month, if more allegations
[4:22:16] come out, he should be suspended immediately without pay, if this is the way you guys
[4:22:21] are going to go.
[4:22:22] I mean, that would be the smart move, in my opinion.
[4:22:26] And that's all I have to say.
[4:22:28] Thank you.
[4:22:30] I'm talking to ask the question, because maybe it has to be part of this as opposed to anything
[4:22:35] else.
[4:22:35] I would request the city manager and anybody else that if more stuff comes up then maybe by the second month we reevaluate this if it is beyond repair.
[4:22:50] You know that's common.
[4:22:52] I would rather wait six months and be done with it.
[4:22:55] We treat those as a case by case.
[4:23:00] If I might respond to that because you as the City Commission know that you have the
[4:23:07] duty and responsibility to hire fire discipline the chief of police. So the issue is that if
[4:23:14] there are rumors or there's an email sent or something like that that you know isn't
[4:23:21] isn't necessarily in the form of a complaint, which is what you've seen, then, you know, whose responsibility, you know, legally, is it to bring it to you?
[4:23:31] Is the city manager isn't necessarily the gatekeeper for complaints against the chief of police?
[4:23:40] He's been acting as a gatekeeper when he receives a complaint.
[4:23:43] And who is?
[4:23:44] So, that's his question.
[4:23:45] Yeah, but correct me. Is it the chain? I thought if an officer has a plan, they have to go to their
[4:23:49] sergeant. They go to the superior, but the problem is if their superior is the chief,
[4:23:55] then it's got to come to you. Correct. Should it not happen? But I mean,
[4:23:59] by the way, everything else goes to the chief or to IA and they handle that. Okay.
[4:24:04] Like with respect to issues related to timeliness of reporting text messages from those officers
[4:24:10] that don't necessarily. But let me let me ask you some questions because there was a complaint
[4:24:14] that came through today. Yes. And it was from a major. Yes. And it was regarding a lieutenant
[4:24:20] and somebody else. How do you handle something like that? Well, because you're basically,
[4:24:24] it's a major making a complaint about, what was it, sorry, I don't even remember when it was just
[4:24:31] sorry.
[4:24:34] Yeah, but it was in lieu of the two also that were lower than the change for them.
[4:24:40] So why wouldn't they go to their superior? It's almost like right now everybody is
[4:24:45] Going right to the city manager and I feel bad for him because he's gonna get bombarded
[4:24:48] But it's gonna be like you know what this officer went right to the city manager. So where does it stop?
[4:24:53] I mean, we have to put some sort of let them know
[4:24:56] There's just why we do not tell people that if you're
[4:25:01] Rankin file you go to a sergeant
[4:25:04] Exactly the sergeant
[4:25:06] If it rises to an occasion. I would assume that a sergeant can't handle
[4:25:10] they have to take it to a lieutenant, but I would still like to see the people in charge
[4:25:15] of whom ever take care of the issue unless it's so agree just that it's over their skill
[4:25:22] level.
[4:25:23] And I would have to defer to the, you know, internal affairs officers or police department
[4:25:28] as far as how they handle that, but as far as what you're dealing with and what you're
[4:25:32] seeing, you know, that's, you know, the past couple has been the gatekeeper because he
[4:25:37] It's a complaint and brings it to you, because you're the only ones that can take any action or direct any action.
[4:25:43] It is such a bond how all of this came about.
[4:25:46] Yeah, but isn't it strange how if there's a complaint by an officer, city manager can receive it via major.
[4:25:56] Am I correct?
[4:25:58] That's how it's happened.
[4:25:59] Yes, because it might have stayed.
[4:26:01] Isn't that a problem?
[4:26:02] I think there isn't a definite issue with respect to the reporting of complaints that involve the chief, maybe involved majors because of the fact that the chief is their supervisor, but that's how the current process is set up, and I think the chief said he's, you know, he's going to look at things and maybe that's something that he looks at to see how there is a better reporting process, how there's a better investigative process.
[4:26:30] If it's needed to go to an outside third party, not as that get done, so that the officers are confident that there's a fair and impartial investigation
[4:26:38] performed, and those are all things that can be accomplished.
[4:26:44] Would the Civil Service Board help in that regard?
[4:26:47] Not currently.
[4:26:49] But they use it.
[4:26:50] I don't know.
[4:26:51] But if we brought it back, would that help to bring compliance rights straight to the Civil Service Board?
[4:26:57] That's something we can discuss.
[4:26:59] Okay.
[4:26:59] I used to be their job.
[4:27:02] All right. So, everybody's clear on the motion.
[4:27:04] Zoom is done.
[4:27:06] We have one more?
[4:27:07] A.R.
[4:27:07] Two more.
[4:27:08] Two more.
[4:27:09] Two more.
[4:27:09] Who's that?
[4:27:12] Z.
[4:27:13] Crem.
[4:27:14] All
[4:27:16] right.
[4:27:17] Try that the last one.
[4:27:18] Is there any more?
[4:27:20] We have, we have another one, so we have Reggie.
[4:27:23] Some low.
[4:27:25] D, same well?
[4:27:26] Reggie.
[4:27:27] Reggie.
[4:27:29] Can you hear us?
[4:27:30] Yes. Yes. How are you? We're here. You say your please your full name. Yes, it's
[4:27:37] Rajeev Somal, Marguid resident, just as I would suggest contracting the police
[4:27:44] department to the Brown County Sheriff.
[4:27:49] What do you say?
[4:27:54] All right.
[4:27:55] Is anybody else?
[4:27:59] Yeah.
[4:27:59] All right.
[4:28:00] Call the roll.
[4:28:02] Oh.
[4:28:05] Marty.
[4:28:06] Marty Cappello.
[4:28:07] Marty, can you hear us?
[4:28:11] Marty?
[4:28:15] All right.
[4:28:16] All right.
[4:28:17] No buttons pressed.
[4:28:18] No public.
[4:28:19] Call the roll, please.
[4:28:20] Mr. Cajiano.
[4:28:21] Yes.
[4:28:22] Mr. Smone.
[4:28:23] No.
[4:28:24] Mr. Serio.
[4:28:25] Yes.
[4:28:27] By the way, I'm sorry.
[4:28:27] Yes, Mayor Schor. Yes, Mayor Mazzona. Yes, now a couple more things.
[4:28:34] Yeah, about the, about the, the Paulman-Widen person harassment diversity training.
[4:28:41] In person. If I can just before that.
[4:28:44] I still think we need to get to the root of all of the issues and concerns.
[4:28:49] I do think that we should still conduct additional investigations, and I'm not necessarily
[4:28:59] pointing them at the chief, although he probably is included in that, but to see what
[4:29:05] else is going on.
[4:29:07] I have no problem going as the mayor said with that.
[4:29:11] That's why it all out for the third-party investigator, so that this way we can come back and we
[4:29:18] We know the issues and we can come up with solutions.
[4:29:21] The current investigator is here, at least like to see what she has to say or recommend.
[4:29:30] I just figured out who she is.
[4:29:32] You know, we know what we need to continue to fulfill.
[4:29:38] Rhea Chattergune is here.
[4:29:41] She's been sitting very patiently.
[4:29:43] We haven't had a 12 o'clock meeting in years.
[4:29:47] So I apologize.
[4:29:50] Good night everyone. My name is Rhea Chattergoon. I was the investigator on the matter. I wrote the report that you guys have been debating all night.
[4:29:58] Thank you.
[4:30:00] I practice in the field of employment discrimination. I represent both employer and employees, and I conduct investigations, third party investigations. I've conducted a number of investigations for a number of police departments in South Florida. And I'm happy to entertain any questions you may have.
[4:30:22] I know there were, there was one report regarding the limited scope of the text messages. During that,
[4:30:31] investigation there were some other issues that were raised by police officers who I interviewed
[4:30:42] during the investigation. Sorry, it's late. And there were some issues that concerned me,
[4:30:48] which is why I prepared a second correspondence addressing those issues and suggesting and
[4:30:55] recommending a continued investigation on those issues.
[4:31:00] The scope of my investigation with regard to the text messages, like I said, were limited.
[4:31:08] There were some issues that I did want to explore, but I didn't, because the scope was determined
[4:31:17] whether the text messages existed, whether they were sent and to determine whether hostile work
[4:31:26] environment and or discrimination was present. As been discussed tonight, the chief did admit to
[4:31:35] sending the text messages. What concerned me about the text messages was not just that they were sent,
[4:31:43] But the tone of the message, there were some portions of the messages that were included,
[4:31:54] specifically that the chief did not want to promote Lieutenant Marrero.
[4:32:02] I believe she's had a name change, I apologize.
[4:32:07] He did not want to promote her and that he would remote her if he could.
[4:32:12] that was alarming to me and I don't let me let me say I don't live in your city
[4:32:17] I never googled anything about your city before the investigation I do that
[4:32:22] purposely because I don't want to be influenced and actually today was the
[4:32:26] first day I found out that there was a no-confidence vote I had no
[4:32:31] communications with the the PBA president or anything like that so today was the
[4:32:37] first day I found that out sitting here in this meeting.
[4:32:41] You do have some issues within the police department that I think need to be investigated,
[4:32:48] whether it's me or another investigator.
[4:32:50] I do think, from a legal perspective, you want to look into some of those issues.
[4:32:55] That was part of my job, was not only ascertaining whether the text messages existed, but also to
[4:33:02] determine what liability, if any, there would be for the city.
[4:33:06] and so I think in order to give an opinion on that, a further investigation is needed.
[4:33:12] May I ask what things you suggest we additionally look into? I know you had mentioned a couple
[4:33:20] things in the report. Are there any other things that maybe weren't mentioned?
[4:33:24] I prepared a second correspondence. I'm not sure if that's already public, been made public.
[4:33:30] But there was with Sergeant Blanton, the promotional exam, which you guys have already discussed tonight.
[4:33:39] I'll be very honest with you, there was a discussion with the K-9 unit and the promotion
[4:33:47] in that portion of it with a female officer, and that she had to go through additional
[4:33:52] hoops to get the same treatment as a male officer.
[4:33:56] So, that was a little concerning, and I think it should be looked into a little bit more than I was given the opportunity to.
[4:34:04] And do you think, and I don't want specific names or anything like that, but do you think in fairness to the chief that there's potentially other bad actors that the city needs to look at, or is it strictly?
[4:34:20] I can't comment on that because the scope of my investigation was the complaint to towards
[4:34:28] the chief or against the chief. So I can't really comment on that. I mean, I will tell you
[4:34:35] from interviewing the various police officers that, you know, you have some other issues going
[4:34:43] on in the department that you guys have discussed here and that the residents have raised and
[4:34:48] the police officers have raised, so I can't really comment on that because I don't have
[4:34:53] the facts for that, just to support that.
[4:34:56] Well, because I clearly read all of that, no one woke up that morning and decided to
[4:35:03] make the comment that we read, yet there was nothing prior to to show me how that came
[4:35:10] about because again, and I had no intentions of ever repeating what the comment was, but
[4:35:17] It was a standalone and I didn't see what had been asked before that to have elicited something
[4:35:25] like that. And I think it's curious that if we're going to see some, show me all. You understand
[4:35:33] what I'm saying to you. Yes, I understand and I think you're referring to that one text message,
[4:35:38] which I won't repeat. Prior to that and I believe I produced the chain of text messages that I
[4:35:45] did receive.
[4:35:49] I'm going to tell you that the way I got it, some of them were
[4:35:53] repeated constantly, but I didn't have a time or a day to know what really
[4:35:57] came. And that made it very difficult. The ones I never wanted to see again
[4:36:01] were over and over and over. And I had no context as to where it really belonged.
[4:36:07] But if I read it the way I read it, I should have seen something that brought up
[4:36:12] that whole subject because again, I don't believe you just wake up in the morning
[4:36:16] and decided to make a comment like that unless somehow it was elicited from you or the other person
[4:36:22] was having a conversation that led to it. I do think it was a conversation that led to it. I do
[4:36:27] believe the chain of text messages that I were able to obtain. And let me make it clear, I had to
[4:36:38] really seek to get those text messages. I heard Sergeant Horn get up here and talk about the releasing
[4:36:44] of the text messages. I did have to hunt those down and that's why my investigation took
[4:36:50] a little bit longer than it probably should have. The chain of messages is a conversation
[4:36:59] between two people. One of those people, Sergeant Horn, happened to be Lieutenant Moreiro's
[4:37:10] And so the chain of text messages, as I read them, was Sergeant Horn making a comment
[4:37:16] about Lieutenant Marrero, and then that's where the comments came in.
[4:37:21] And in fairness, I would have liked to have seen Sergeant Horn's comment, because as passionate
[4:37:27] as he was standing here, I do believe it's in that.
[4:37:31] That's in the cloud.
[4:37:32] Yeah.
[4:37:33] Well, it's in the cloud.
[4:37:34] I don't, I have, I haven't been elevated yet and I'm in no rush to get here.
[4:37:39] I do believe those in there in the additional text messages, I attach.
[4:37:43] All right, then maybe I'm missing something because I sure as heck did not see what elicited that response,
[4:37:48] but I also have to know that having read just that section, not the second section,
[4:37:55] the addendum part, which is clearly only about one particular thing in a promotion,
[4:38:01] that, oh, that's taxis here, I didn't, that wasn't as offensive to me as the first part
[4:38:13] for obvious reasons because the second part was about someone who should never have said
[4:38:18] to a subordinate, congratulations, there's something coming and they were in Barcelona when
[4:38:24] they heard that.
[4:38:25] So I got that and I understood why that didn't happen because someone did not retire.
[4:38:30] nobody's fault. And I get the fact that the second time it probably didn't happen
[4:38:36] because a list expired. And the third time, if I'm wrong, tell me.
[4:38:41] Well, I think that's part of my recommendation for the second part is why was
[4:38:48] that list allowed to be expired? And I think that needs to be looked into.
[4:38:52] Okay. Which has a lot to be fair, which has a lot to do with the context of this.
[4:38:58] correct which would never have come to us otherwise because it's just not part of our
[4:39:03] purview. It disturbed me that all of that came the way it came because there were also
[4:39:11] text messages there that said to somebody, stop. I didn't have anything to do with it.
[4:39:17] Now that's not true and that person had something to do with it then we need to know that too.
[4:39:21] So correct, but yeah, just I don't have the answers to your question because that's
[4:39:28] why I recommended an additional investigation.
[4:39:31] Thank you.
[4:39:33] Commissioner Semon.
[4:39:36] I think we know I think we need to keep her.
[4:39:40] She's already started and to start with somebody brand new is just going to open everything
[4:39:45] up again and take even longer.
[4:39:47] But I also think that we need to give her free reign to do a complete investigation and ask the questions and seek the answers that she wants to seek.
[4:39:58] Let me just correct that. It's not seek the answers I want to seek.
[4:40:04] That's not what I meant.
[4:40:05] Well, the problem is I hear your residents.
[4:40:08] And so let me be clear. I've never met any of the commission.
[4:40:12] This is the first day. I'm actually meeting them.
[4:40:16] And I do this purposely when I do investigations because I do want it to be a neutral investigation.
[4:40:22] You know, I don't have anything against Chief Galaska.
[4:40:26] I met him for the first time in the interview.
[4:40:29] And I explained to him during the interview, you know, I'm going to have to say
[4:40:34] you wrote these messages because I have them and he understood that.
[4:40:39] So, you know, I want to be very clear that, you know, as an investigator, you don't have
[4:40:47] a dog in the fight, right? I don't live in your city. This isn't going to affect me
[4:40:54] regardless of the decision, regardless of the decision if you keep me to continue the investigation.
[4:41:00] I think even if you hire another investigator that comes in, they're going to have to read my report
[4:41:05] and sort of go from there, and any qualified investigator will be able to do that.
[4:41:11] My qualifications come from, I represent both employer and employees, I represented cities
[4:41:16] before, I represented employees who sue cities. So I do have that unique experience with that,
[4:41:23] and I think that's why your city attorney reached out to me.
[4:41:29] But you agree that regardless of who continues this, it needs to be beginning a middle and a
[4:41:35] end, and so if people have grievances, they need to have a timely amount of time to
[4:41:41] bring it forward because I want to keep hearing about this five months later when somebody
[4:41:47] just thought of something new, that if indeed this is a deep-seated problem, we need to know
[4:41:52] about it.
[4:41:56] Can I answer that, David?
[4:41:58] Okay.
[4:41:59] I'm not saying anything.
[4:42:00] My only comment to that is, based on my investigation, I will tell you that there is a deep-seated
[4:42:09] fear of retaliation within the department, from the police officers that I have interviewed.
[4:42:15] No, no, I know, but from whom? From the chief? Or retaliation from whom?
[4:42:20] Yes, yes. From the chief. From the top, from the chief, okay? And so, you know,
[4:42:26] So that always, and the police department, fire department is very unique in their culture.
[4:42:34] Because it's not a culture where you go complain against someone within the department.
[4:42:40] I think you saw the text messages as said, you know, you broke code or you crossed the
[4:42:46] blue line.
[4:42:47] You see things like that when I do investigations.
[4:42:50] So I think putting a time limit, I mean, I'm sure you can, you know, we have statutes
[4:42:56] of limitations in different types of cases, that sort of thing.
[4:42:59] You could do that, but I think you need to be sensitive to your employees and then the
[4:43:04] particular agencies that you're working with because there's different cultures within
[4:43:08] each agency.
[4:43:08] No, I just meant with this one.
[4:43:11] When this goes on, I would like to hope that there's something that comes from the investigation,
[4:43:18] but yet six months after it's over with to have somebody say, gee, I forgot something that
[4:43:24] that happened three years ago.
[4:43:25] There's got to be a beginning of middle and an end
[4:43:28] so that some kind of decision is made
[4:43:31] without somebody saying, I should have told you this.
[4:43:34] So, you know, I mean, I would agree with that
[4:43:36] in fairness to the chief.
[4:43:40] In fairness to everyone.
[4:43:42] Including on sitting up here.
[4:43:43] So, yeah, I mean, I do think that if you are going
[4:43:47] to continue the investigation,
[4:43:52] that maybe a statement be put out that, you know, if you have a complaint, if something's
[4:43:57] going on, this is a time you're allowed to do it. I don't know what the charter says.
[4:44:01] I haven't reviewed your charter. All of that. So you'd have to get guidance from David on that.
[4:44:07] And regardless of whether it's the chief or not, if there are some deep-seated problems that have been going on for ten years, five years, we need to know.
[4:44:16] I don't think for one moment it's all about him.
[4:44:20] I think there's been a culture for a very long time
[4:44:23] that either people are willing to live with,
[4:44:26] retired from, or whatever,
[4:44:30] or found themselves moving,
[4:44:31] having been upward mobility
[4:44:34] and it didn't become a problem anymore.
[4:44:36] But I believe it's way more than just today
[4:44:41] or what I've read because it has to be.
[4:44:44] And I heard that today, let me be just very clear, my investigation was based on this company.
[4:44:50] No, I know that.
[4:44:51] I did not look into what happened with the former chief.
[4:44:54] No, I know that.
[4:44:55] You know, former complaints, any other complaints.
[4:44:57] I wasn't even aware that there were any other complaints.
[4:45:00] My scope was very limited to this complaint. It would just be my hope that if we continue to do this, we get to hear the deep-seated things that aren't about this, but people have been hanging on to for the longest time. That was my only comment.
[4:45:19] Thank you very much, thank you for sitting here so long, yes thank you so is there anything
[4:45:26] else?
[4:45:31] I would say that we should have something where we can implement some policy to try
[4:45:38] to. And does that take a special meeting for us to do it? So we can all sit down together
[4:45:44] with that. I think so. I think I think this is something that's definitely going to
[4:45:46] go on. Yeah, going to go on. It's going to be. And we just we just figure it out. You know,
[4:45:51] go buy the complaint that we had. I would also invite. Oh, I would. I would. I would I would like
[4:45:57] for Mr. Scherven to show up. And you know, because I heard tonight that there's some deep concerns
[4:46:03] with their contract related um well and he needs you know what yes that is he's in the table
[4:46:08] this can't be uh done in isolation whatever it is now it's going to be his joint effort and uh
[4:46:15] in terms of the investigation yeah I was going to make a motion where do we where do we go with that
[4:46:21] so I'd like to make a motion that we retain uh this investigator to um investigate what she feels
[4:46:31] needs to be investigated in regard to this case.
[4:46:37] Joanne, I'll second.
[4:46:39] I'm going to speak on that.
[4:46:43] I don't mind the investigation.
[4:46:47] However, I'm going to be very candid because candid as I can because I am.
[4:46:51] And I found out that it was our attorney's firm who knew this woman, that was a bad
[4:47:01] start.
[4:47:06] That's your imagination.
[4:47:10] Second is I did a little background on Miss Rita.
[4:47:15] Rita?
[4:47:16] Rita?
[4:47:17] Rita?
[4:47:17] Okay.
[4:47:19] And she's definitely pro woman, which I get.
[4:47:23] I understand that.
[4:47:24] Nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with it, but when you're investigating something with a hostile work environment with women, let's be a little bit more
[4:47:33] Unjudgmental from the beginning
[4:47:35] Hey, we should get some trans people to do with that
[4:47:38] Is that what you say?
[4:47:39] Is that what you say?
[4:47:40] I can't do it or a girl can't do it. I mean, that's not what I'm saying man, I'm trying to be as honest as I am
[4:47:50] I just asked for a fair investigation being done.
[4:47:57] Yeah, none of us want anything that's unfair.
[4:47:59] Okay, then from the beginning, let's start with someone new and start fresh.
[4:48:05] That's all I'm saying.
[4:48:11] But then don't you have to bring them up to speed and slowly the process
[4:48:17] because it's a new person who has no clue as an expert.
[4:48:21] But I think that if we want to get this done right,
[4:48:24] I don't think that should be a time on it.
[4:48:27] I think it should all investigate it.
[4:48:31] But I think it should be fair.
[4:48:33] I mean, if you're going to look into,
[4:48:37] I mean, basically the second part,
[4:48:38] the event or the supplemental, whatever you want to call it,
[4:48:41] was about the hostile work environment for the women.
[4:48:44] I just heard a bunch of men talk tonight that are pissed.
[4:48:47] I didn't hear anything about hostile men in the environment.
[4:48:50] just want to be fair.
[4:48:54] Good job. Did a check on her pro woman. I'm going to say
[4:49:01] anti-man and I just think it ought to be more level playing field to do an
[4:49:07] investigation with somebody new. And she please get up and answer that. What's
[4:49:14] that? I'd like her to get up and answer that. She can answer it.
[4:49:24] I'm
[4:49:25] I'm not sure how to take that comment, pro-women, but just the groups that you're involved with, just want to talk to the public?
[4:49:32] The groups that I'm involved with, as far as a law association?
[4:49:36] No, just in general.
[4:49:40] I'm not sure what you mean by that, but let me be very clear.
[4:49:44] I conducted a neutral third party investigation.
[4:49:50] Okay.
[4:49:50] There was nothing pro-women about my investigation.
[4:49:54] My investigation was based on the facts as I ascertained them and then an analyzed against the law,
[4:50:03] which is my specialty. I have been an employment lawyer for 18 years. I'm very good at what I do.
[4:50:13] But let me, I've
[4:50:18] never met David or Caroline before. I've worked with their firm, but I've never met
[4:50:24] David, I wasn't sure what that comment was about, but I was hired because of my qualifications.
[4:50:32] I also want to mention that two of the men that I interviewed in
[4:50:42] addition to the women
[4:50:44] specifically stated to me that they believed the chief had a bias against women,
[4:50:52] female officers. I think that's clearly put in my report. So it wasn't my
[4:50:59] opinion. I took the facts as I investigated them and I wrote a report based on
[4:51:07] those facts. There was no bias on my end. I have investigated other police
[4:51:13] departments. I've investigated other police chiefs. Similar complaints. More
[4:51:20] more egregious complaints and not found in anyone's favor.
[4:51:26] And again, I did not make any recommendations if you read the report on hiring, firing
[4:51:32] suspension because that is your job as the commission.
[4:51:36] So I reported the facts as I found them.
[4:51:40] To say that I am pro woman, I mean, I'm sorry, it's not a bad thing.
[4:51:46] It's not a bad thing.
[4:51:47] It is an opinion that you and I have not spoken at all,
[4:51:54] but I think it's sort of damaging to my reputation
[4:51:58] as an investigator for you to say that in a capacity
[4:52:03] as a mayor who hired me to conduct an investigation.
[4:52:06] And you may never hire me again after this,
[4:52:10] but I will say that is damaging to my reputation
[4:52:13] as an investigator.
[4:52:14] and I think you should be a little bit more conscious of saying things like that in your position as a mayor.
[4:52:24] And I will say during the investigation I did not put this in the report.
[4:52:30] I took it out of my report, I put it in and I took it out.
[4:52:34] One of the things that was said to me by every single person,
[4:52:39] I interviewed was that this was going to go nowhere because you are friends with the mayor.
[4:52:45] I'm sure you heard.
[4:52:46] And I didn't think that was fair to put in the report because I didn't, I don't know
[4:52:52] you.
[4:52:53] I don't want to, and I don't want to disparage you and that had nothing to do with the
[4:52:57] scope of the investigation.
[4:52:59] So I just put that to say, you know, I'm sorry,
[4:53:06] I reported the facts as they were told
[4:53:09] to me. And I think any investigator is going to do that. Any person who does their
[4:53:17] job properly.
[4:53:17] Okay, but I heard you say before you use the word bro code and stuff that those were
[4:53:22] in the text messages, sir. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. So getting back to the
[4:53:27] original investigation, you were asked to investigate the text messages, correct?
[4:53:32] Correct.
[4:53:32] So how did it go into all this other stuff? Was that asked for you to do or did you just
[4:53:36] do that. What other stuff? The the addendum or the supplemental pages? Those were things that I
[4:53:42] determined during the investigation facts that were told to me that I felt that you knew. Were you
[4:53:49] asked to do that? No, I was not. And in fact, I conducted my investigation and then alerted
[4:53:59] your city manager and your city attorney that there could be potential like other liability for the
[4:54:05] city and I put it in a letter to alert you to that because that is the
[4:54:10] proper thing to do. And what were they again? The liabilities?
[4:54:14] So, being seen.
[4:54:15] Gender discrimination. Yeah. You have a you have a potential liability of gender
[4:54:21] discrimination, sir. But now we don't.
[4:54:26] Now you don't what? I'm asking you put it in
[4:54:29] the report that there's possibility. I don't know because I haven't
[4:54:35] Invest, further investigated it.
[4:54:37] Isn't it in the report, though?
[4:54:39] In which you're-
[4:54:40] No, I think so.
[4:54:43] The second report that Ms. Chategun provided laid out
[4:54:48] a couple of factual instances where she's concerned
[4:54:51] about potential liability.
[4:54:54] But she did not further that investigation because that was
[4:54:58] not within her scope.
[4:54:59] So the words potential liability are there.
[4:55:02] You know, it all depends on what I'm talking about.
[4:55:04] Or it might not be correct and that is just issue spotting for me as as an attorney and as
[4:55:10] investigator to say to you as the commission. Look at this. You may need you may want to look at this.
[4:55:16] You need to go. You might need to go for it. Thank you.
[4:55:19] I'm my commissioner Kajano. I just I just want to get this moving. I think the city needs and by
[4:55:28] way. I want the investigation. I want to see all the pus come out. No, this is poison.
[4:55:36] So that's fine. This is poison. Well, I'm sorry. You know what? We got to bust this, this
[4:55:42] pimple, and we need to get this stuff out. Guys, well, tonight's night of really good
[4:55:48] omajas or whatever you want to call them. Harbor and knowledge. Harbor, but you know what? You know
[4:55:53] what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying? This stuff needs to come out. The only way we can
[4:55:59] clean this stuff up is if all of it comes out, and then we deal with it so that we can go move
[4:56:05] forward. So I have no problem with continuing the investigation because I don't want anyone to
[4:56:13] ever say that we did not do our due diligence and didn't look into this stuff when we had an
[4:56:18] opportunity and with the current firm to continue where they left off or I don't have
[4:56:34] a problem either way. I like the report. I mean I like the report. I mean it was well written.
[4:56:42] It wasn't full of a lot of opinion. It was filled with items. I want a fact-based report
[4:56:49] not an opinion-based report, so I don't have a problem with continuing with her, but I also have
[4:56:56] a problem going with somebody else. What I have a problem with is if we don't do a continuing
[4:57:02] investigation. My gut is continuing with her, and then based on those findings, bring in a consultant,
[4:57:15] not an investigator, but bring in an HR consultant to let us know how to address the issues so that we
[4:57:23] could set the chief up for success. I know it didn't go my way, but like I said in the beginning,
[4:57:29] I'm going to work with whoever I need to work with to bring this department and try to make
[4:57:33] everything work. I didn't think people were going to agree to that once we got started, huh?
[4:57:37] If you need to bring in an HR consultant, what do you do with your HR director?
[4:57:41] Okay.
[4:57:43] Well, listen, if this is only a short thing, this is, this is, we need outside eyes on this.
[4:57:51] We need outside eyes.
[4:57:52] I think the person looks at discipline and I'm talking about making policy recommendations
[4:57:59] whether it's the hiring process, the civil service.
[4:58:02] Somebody explains to me that what the director functions are in our HR department, if we
[4:58:08] I have to hire somebody to do that job.
[4:58:10] So maybe we can look at that.
[4:58:11] Well, when we've been in these situations before
[4:58:14] with internal investigations,
[4:58:16] they're always questioned by one side or the other.
[4:58:18] That's right.
[4:58:21] So if we finish the investigation, we continue it,
[4:58:24] we get the results, we hire an expert
[4:58:27] that can bring, we're the policymakers,
[4:58:29] but then can bring recommendations to us.
[4:58:32] And so we can work with the union,
[4:58:34] we can work with the chief,
[4:58:35] we can work with the city manager's office
[4:58:38] do correct those issues from the policies to make a motion and I'll second it.
[4:58:43] You currently have a motion to have Ms. Chattergoon continue the investigation
[4:58:51] that was started with respect to her supplement letter and anything else that comes back.
[4:58:56] Second. You did second. Can I amend it to ask Mike?
[4:59:00] It's not going on so long that it's going to get this.
[4:59:02] So, can I amend it to then once that investigation is concluded that we hire a third-party consultant
[4:59:10] to make recommendations on policies and procedures and other things that we're not experts in?
[4:59:17] So, the second better, I can better make those policies.
[4:59:20] There's nothing to prohibit you from doing that once you get the investigation back.
[4:59:24] My resume should be, you wait on that, is wait on that, see what the investigation comes
[4:59:29] back with.
[4:59:30] Okay. I'm still sorry. I'm not the policy manager because I think you made a good point.
[4:59:35] All right. And your lights still on. Do you want to say anything?
[4:59:37] So are you continuing with the person?
[4:59:39] Yes. Okay.
[4:59:39] Yeah. I just wanted to comment again about the civil service board and the HR. We need to
[4:59:46] expand these more training, the oral exams. We need to figure out how to make.
[4:59:56] You need to revisit the purpose of the civil service board. How's that?
[5:00:00] Exact. Well, that's one part, but yes. Yes. All right. So, Commissioner Simone.
[5:00:09] I am really confused as to how from what the investigator said, how the people on the prevailing side are sticking with their original vote and not bringing this up for a new vote, seeing that there is a definite problem with the
[5:00:31] chief and with females. And it's not going to be solved by workshops. That's his personality,
[5:00:44] apparently. And that was made clear by the investigator. So how can you allow him to stay
[5:00:53] after what the investigator just got up and said? It is just completely baffling my mind.
[5:01:01] And I don't disagree with the commissioner.
[5:01:03] I still think there's going to be issues in the end,
[5:01:06] but clearly, we don't have the support for that.
[5:01:12] And so I've got to go with the cards
[5:01:14] I'm dealt with at this point.
[5:01:18] But I do agree with it.
[5:01:21] So, are you okay?
[5:01:24] So we have a motion on the table for a continuing investigation.
[5:01:29] I know.
[5:01:30] So I got to open up to the public.
[5:01:39] I don't know if you you should look at the books and see how much you have in there now to get this over with.
[5:01:47] We would like to get it over with I know you people are doing the best you possibly can.
[5:01:52] I'm going to give you credit as a citizen of Margate by the way folks I live in this city for 30 years.
[5:01:58] And I've seen a lot of people sit up there, and these guys are doing everything possible
[5:02:04] to get the fairs deal going for this gentleman.
[5:02:09] For everybody.
[5:02:10] I mean, I'm just saying is, if we spend more money and do more investigation, what more can we find?
[5:02:17] Can we find more?
[5:02:19] I mean, if more people have problems, is it going to make it better?
[5:02:23] No, it's going to make it worse.
[5:02:24] so can't we work with what we have? You know it's 12.30 folks almost you guys
[5:02:33] want to go home I know but can we get this over with? Look at it you got five
[5:02:38] years up there just look at the information you have do we have enough to do
[5:02:43] this tonight? I would like to see the chief go home with at least something on his
[5:02:48] mind and he says you know I mean something to say you know let's it's it's
[5:02:54] starting to materialize the way I want because I would say he's going to work with his union
[5:02:58] before we do anything else. I was a union representative, I was a chief
[5:03:03] student for an airline and I was an international association machinist and trust me this man
[5:03:09] has to go through all the channels to work with his union 100%. You guys are trying your best
[5:03:16] to do what you can but at the same time when he makes his decision he's going to go to his union
[5:03:21] and say, am I doing the right thing?
[5:03:24] Are we on the right track?
[5:03:25] And I'm sure the union representative is going to say,
[5:03:27] let's see what we can do.
[5:03:29] And we're not finished yet.
[5:03:31] But I'm only telling you this from my past experience
[5:03:35] because I've never seen anything like this before,
[5:03:38] but working for an airline and being a chief steward,
[5:03:42] I had a lot of experience with different things going on.
[5:03:46] This is probably very much of a problem
[5:03:50] for you guys to work with, but if you can, work it out tonight, let's do it.
[5:03:54] If not, do what you got to do.
[5:03:56] Thank you, Rich, for anybody else.
[5:03:58] Next.
[5:04:01] Donna Fellows, you want to say that he's against women.
[5:04:05] He's not against women.
[5:04:06] He hired 40% more.
[5:04:08] Since he became chief, he's promoted 30% more.
[5:04:12] Since he became chief, what is this against women?
[5:04:16] He's not against women.
[5:04:17] He's not against anybody.
[5:04:19] men, women, black, white, Chinese, transgender, nothing. He's not against that. You all need to
[5:04:29] see that. You're saying that he's against women. He's not. He's proved. He's got the facts that
[5:04:36] he's hired more and he's promoted more. Come on. Thank you. Next.
[5:04:47] Tracey Van Linkle, what is it that we're
[5:04:50] looking for in this investigation.
[5:04:52] I mean, are we going to all the officers
[5:04:55] that did the no confidence vote?
[5:04:59] Are we going to pull all of their text messages
[5:05:00] and see if they said that chief was a dick
[5:05:03] or chief was an asshole?
[5:05:05] Or, I mean, where are we going to go with this?
[5:05:08] Everybody calling each other names?
[5:05:10] I don't understand.
[5:05:12] Where are we going to go with this?
[5:05:14] Because if you find one of the officers
[5:05:17] that wrote a text message that chief was a jerk
[5:05:19] or an asshole or whatever. What are you going to do to that officer? Are you going to bring
[5:05:24] him up here and crucify him and terminate them, suspend them with no pay? I don't understand
[5:05:31] what we're doing more of an investigation for. Well I think in fairness it could be policy
[5:05:38] violations if there are other officers that have messages that didn't turn them in that they knew
[5:05:45] about, but are they going to turn in the whole message or just their part? Because the
[5:05:52] whole message is not turned in. Horne took out what he didn't want to send. You didn't
[5:05:58] see the whole thing. You can cut out what you don't want to send. So are they going to
[5:06:05] get the whole message or are they going to get everything? I don't understand why we're
[5:06:09] we're opening all this Pandora box.
[5:06:12] Margate's already, I mean, we're already on the scope.
[5:06:15] I mean, the carnival, everything else,
[5:06:18] everything else in Margate.
[5:06:20] And we've got no restaurants.
[5:06:21] All the restaurants are closing.
[5:06:22] They're all leaving.
[5:06:24] Okay.
[5:06:25] I appreciate that.
[5:06:26] I mean, thank you.
[5:06:27] Thank you.
[5:06:28] Is there anybody else?
[5:06:30] All right. Before we vote, guys,
[5:06:31] I'm just going to say the same with the residents.
[5:06:33] Just said, I don't even know where you guys want to go with this.
[5:06:36] Another investigation.
[5:06:37] We just we just we're told that the only text message is given with the ones that want to be given
[5:06:43] They weren't full text messages. So I don't know where you guys want to go with this
[5:06:48] You know, we're trying to be working as a group here
[5:06:52] We just decided to keep the chief for a little bit longer see what happens
[5:06:55] But yet again now we're going to open up another
[5:06:58] Can of worms which I'm sure every union
[5:07:01] Curse in here is going to have something to complain about and what's that going to do?
[5:07:06] It's going to make it so they're going to be untouchable.
[5:07:09] This is a giant squirrel chase going in a circle.
[5:07:13] If you guys want to do something, I do not recommend the investigation.
[5:07:18] There's a process right now, if somebody's upset, whatever, go through the process.
[5:07:22] But to start a whole nother investigation, it's going to be a nightmare.
[5:07:26] I'm not going to support it and you guys are going to be, you know what?
[5:07:29] Maybe we shouldn't have done this because it's going to be a mess.
[5:07:31] Yes, so that being said, we will call the vote.
[5:07:39] Yes.
[5:07:41] Is this or is this not something that you would recommend that we continue to do?
[5:07:48] I'm going to answer that.
[5:07:50] I'm Diana here.
[5:07:51] I think from a legal perspective, from a liability perspective, whenever you have any potential,
[5:08:03] whenever you have, it's brought to light that there's any potential or existing issue.
[5:08:09] Whether it's a crack sidewalk, whether it's a faulty vehicle, whether it's a bad driver,
[5:08:18] whether it's a rogue employee, I think this city does have a legal obligation to look
[5:08:23] into that to see what the issues are. And then if there's anything to come from that,
[5:08:31] if you don't conduct the investigation, you won't know. So that's, you know, we're here
[5:08:37] to ask for, we can ask for an investigation on the chief.
[5:08:44] commission wants to do is do an investigation on everybody. Maybe that's your job and his
[5:08:49] job to do, not our job. It's really not up for us to do. We can't do nothing. When this
[5:08:55] information comes back and it's found that this officer said this and what are you guys
[5:09:01] going to do with it? You're going to tell Cal to take care of it. If you guys really want
[5:09:05] this done right, let Cal or let David do it, let them ask for it, let them do the investigate
[5:09:11] And then you know what, report back to us, because there's nothing we can do if this
[5:09:16] comes back road.
[5:09:17] What are you going to do?
[5:09:19] Well, I think that we have to approve the funding to conducting investigation.
[5:09:24] I didn't think this was about officers staying nasty.
[5:09:29] I think the issue, I mean, the issue before you in the supplemental report that Ms. Chategun
[5:09:36] provided, related to additional complaint regarding Joseph Galaska, chief of police.
[5:09:41] So, to the extent that that is going to be investigated, that's under your purview because
[5:09:47] it's an investigation, the chief.
[5:09:49] The other issues that may come up, you know, with respect to any other officer's policy
[5:09:56] violations, that's typically handed through internal affairs.
[5:09:59] Okay?
[5:10:00] So, I don't play a role in that, city managers and play a role in that, and the, you know,
[5:10:05] The hope is that through internal affairs, through the chain of command, that whatever issues are there are dealt with through their policies and procedures.
[5:10:16] So what you're voting on tonight is primarily with respect to this additional complaint that Ms. Chategun prepared, and she'll, you know, if you authorize it, then she will conduct a more thorough investigation to identify the facts related to those two matters and bring that back to you for your review.
[5:10:37] I don't think that this motion is saying that she's going to conduct a whole investigation to the entire police department.
[5:10:43] Well, would I go when I want that?
[5:10:46] And I think if she comes at the end of her investigation, she comes up with other issues or other recommendations.
[5:10:52] She may very well decide to put that in the supplemental report.
[5:10:55] And whether that's within your home, whether it's within your, your, your prison end.
[5:10:58] Well, I don't know where it is.
[5:11:00] I don't have a crystal ball.
[5:11:01] But why start it up again?
[5:11:02] That's why can't we just talk to the union so you know what guys?
[5:11:06] Less anything happened the last two months. We'll listen to it anything prior to that. I don't want to hear it
[5:11:11] That's fine, but this relates to the chief who is your employee. So that's outside
[5:11:16] Understand it, but this has it's a trickle-down. I understand I understand and I don't disagree with you
[5:11:22] Okay, I don't disagree with you. It's gonna be six more months of catastrophe
[5:11:26] It's all this is setting up for failure
[5:11:29] If you don't disagree with him, then explain to me why I should do it.
[5:11:34] I just explained it.
[5:11:35] No, I'm not.
[5:11:36] I know.
[5:11:37] The point that I don't know, I don't have a crystal ball, so I can't say it's the end
[5:11:42] of it.
[5:11:43] But you have these two matters in this additional supplemental report that are provided to you
[5:11:50] related to the chief, and you are the body that's supervising disciplines of chief.
[5:11:55] So it's your responsibility to decide whether or not to do that.
[5:12:02] On these specific complaints.
[5:12:06] Yes, those specific complaints.
[5:12:09] Okay.
[5:12:10] Thank you.
[5:12:12] All right.
[5:12:13] All right.
[5:12:14] Call the roll.
[5:12:16] Mr. Castellano.
[5:12:17] Yes.
[5:12:18] Mr. Smone.
[5:12:19] Yes.
[5:12:20] Mr. Serio.
[5:12:21] Yes.
[5:12:29] No more new discussions if I could just say something.
[5:12:34] I know we don't all disagree up here in the audience, but this is what makes our country great.
[5:12:41] Is it gives us the opportunity to speak our minds whether we agree with each other or not.
[5:12:48] And so I respect everyone's opinion, I respect, I don't agree with the decision tonight, but I respect it, and I'll do what I can to make sure that we can move forward.
[5:13:03] We've all been on some end of the city.
[5:13:06] It wasn't a personal attack against the chief, I said it in the beginning else again.
[5:13:11] He's a nice guy.
[5:13:13] No one is going to, I think, to speed that.
[5:13:19] And it's not an attack on any commissioner.
[5:13:23] I know sometimes the conversations tonight were a little heated, but I think we're just speaking in passion.
[5:13:29] and we all care about the city and we all think that we were trying to do what we thought was right.
[5:13:38] So, thank you for those of you that agreed with me, thanks to those who didn't agree with me, but I've heard everyone, and I appreciate everyone coming tonight.
[5:13:50] Thank you. I just want everybody to know that nobody's going to win at this. When this is all over, nobody's winning. It's not about winning.
[5:13:55] I mean, it's about the best for our city.
[5:13:58] We love our police department.
[5:13:59] We support them with everything they do.
[5:14:02] The residents love them.
[5:14:04] That's not going to change.
[5:14:05] I guarantee you.
[5:14:06] We just need to get better policy in place, better steps in place, just make it transparent.
[5:14:14] That's all this is about.
[5:14:15] Everybody's a level playing field.
[5:14:17] We need to set new policy, but I can tell you what, we might have disagreed on things,
[5:14:22] but we're all here to guarantee you for the best for our city and our residents and our staff.
[5:14:29] I don't know what else to say guys, I just hope in six months from now we're
[5:14:34] in a different spot. I'm not moving to John, I'm just saying we're just in a better position,
[5:14:39] we're all getting along and things are back to normal, but I gotta tell you.
[5:14:43] I hope you want a healthier environment for the people.
[5:14:45] It's not going to get any better for this tech specialist to just keep coming in, it's not.
[5:14:48] It's it's gonna get worse and worse. So just something to consider. I understand you guys might be pissed
[5:14:53] You have a text message whatever
[5:14:55] Take it up in another way. This is the last thing I want to do is come back here for five hours
[5:15:00] I just talk about text messages. It's, it's, we've all done it. We're all guilty of it. Everybody's done it. Just can't, can't keep it going and good. I just want to my last comment, be listen, I go around the city talking constantly about how this is a city where people run to the police not from the police. And I'll be damned if I have the police running from the police. We have to work this out. We can't have the police running from the police. It's got to, we've got to work together.
[5:15:30] We've got to make this work and that's it.
[5:15:35] Yeah, if you can arrange a meeting for us to discuss policy or whatever.
[5:15:42] Maybe a workshop?
[5:15:44] That'd be fine.
[5:15:45] But we do a public safety workshop and we see what happens.
[5:15:50] Guys, we're long meeting.
[5:15:51] Thank you for everybody.
[5:15:52] I appreciate everybody staying here and meeting adjourned.
[5:15:55] God bless.