The MPD Command Staff Letter

Twelve high ranking Midland Police Department officers sent a letter dated April 2, 2007, to Midland, Texas, Mayor Mike Canon and the members of the City Council.  It took a lot of courage to sign and send that letter, and the result for them could be either good or very bad -- there doesn't appear to be a middle ground.

Specifically, the problem they have is the way City Manager Rick Menchaca has dealt with the Police Department, and by extrapolation, the other city departments over the course of the years in which Mr. Menchaca has been City Manager.

Excerpt:

Our problem is the dysfunctional condition that exists between the Midland Police Department and the city manager's office.  The following statements we believe to be the truth based primarily on our personal observations, the culture that has developed in our organization in recent years, and to a lesser degree, on what other credible people report.  The Command Staff of the Midland Police Department has no confidence in City Manager Rich Menchaca, Assistant City Manager Tommy Hudson, or their ability to effectively lead our organization.  This has been true for a number of years.  This is a result of approximately seven years of micro-management and behavior that is both belittling and berating of Chief John Urby, and his peers )other City department heads).  Our lack of confidence is also founded on what we believe are the vindictive actions that result from a difference of opinion with the city manager.

They make a strong argument.  And one of their requests, that the City Council go into Executive Session to discuss this problem, is already in the works with an Executive Session having been scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm today.

Reports indicate that the police department is presently understaffed by 19 officers.  And the current private sector hiring boom has probably severely limited the number of potential applicants.  And people say that there are roughly 25 police officers who have worked the sufficient period time to be currently or nearly eligible for full retirement.

I think that, for the most part, police officers have accepted the bargain of getting low pay in exchange for being able to hold such a powerful and respected position.  But with the Midland Police Department employees making 8% less than the average at comparable cities -- as the recent survey revealed -- that theory can carry only so far when we expect quality police officers.

We've got quality.  The Midland Police Department has a pretty good reputation with police departments in other cities.  In fact, a few years MPD Lieutenant Jim Sevey landed the job of Chief of Police of Nacogdoches, Texas.  [Link to Nacogdoches PD.]

So we are asking a lot of our police officers.  But however much pay is an issue, it wasn't even mentioned in the letter.  The concern of the Command Staff was the unacceptable condition of working under City Manager Rick Menchaca.  Read it for yourself.

Typepad has limitations on the size of images I can show, but hopefully the JPG images will be legible.  However, the letter in PDF format should be suitable for printing if need be.   Here's a special thanks to Joe Hathaway for assistance in transforming the letter into the PDF format. Download here:  Page01.pdf , Page02.pdf , Page03.pdf and Page04.pdf

Related, see MPD Blue, infra.

Comments

[Janie]

Brave, that.

[Janie]

Brave, that. Thanks for sharing.