Seymour mayor-elect Craig Luedeman was still being interviewed by staff writer January Wetzel on Thursday afternoon as the first criticisms of his appointments came streaming in to TribTown.com.

While January was interviewing Luedeman, community editor Joanne Persinger had posted a breaking news item online, reporting that Luedeman has named Bill Abbott as his police chief and Rodney Farrow as the city attorney while retaining Seymour Fire Chief Fred Hines.

It took little time for the boobirds to start chirping.

That’s one of the nice things about the reader comments online at TribTown.com. They’re pretty instantaneous. It’s also one of the problems with the with reader comments. They’re pretty instantaneous. And, uinfortuantely, anonymous.

If I had by druthers, real names would accompany reader comments online just as we require that real names accompany letters to the editor in the print version of The Tribune. To me it adds credibility, and some civility.

I continue to be amazed, though no longer surprised at what people will post when their names aren’t attached. It takes a lot of courage to attack someone anonymously.

But back to the boobirds. Luedeman was quickly being taken to task on his selections, including those of Abbott and Farrow.

January’s story on Friday offered more information and insight than Thursday’s breaking news bulletin, with Luedeman explaining his selections and the process that resulted in those selections.

Let’s face it, regardless of who Luedeman — or any mayer-elect — would appoint, he was going to catch it from someone.

I say give him  — and his appointees — a chance.

That’s also what a number of folks posting to the reader comments said. Give him a chance.

I stand corrected

Luedeman’s announcement of his appointments, of course, meant I owed readers a “mea culpa” for a recent column in which I said I’d been hearing that chances were good that Luedeman would appoint an outsider as police chief and that that appointee could be a retired federal police officer.

Luedeman confirmed in his interview with January that he had indeed sought applicants from outside the police department, but he received little interest, he added.

And about that federal retiree? Luedeman said he didn’t know the man and had not interviewed him.

By any other name

It also didn’t take long for online users to compolain about my headline in Friday’s paper and at TribTown.com in which Luedeman was referred to by his nickname, “Luedy.” Unprofessional and disrespectful were among comments posted by readers.

That certainly wasn’t the intention, and we’ll not use it again.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.
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Dan Davis is editor of The Tribune. You may reach him by phone at 523-7051 or by e-mail at ddavis@tribtown.com.

Seymour mayor-elect Craig Luedeman is expected to release job appointments sometime this afternoon.

 That’s what he told staff writer January Wetzel at this morning’s Seymour Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.

It sounds as though the tips I was getting that there was a good chance the new Seymour police chief would be a retired federal law enforcement person were wrong. So I’ll stand corrected once Craig releases his appointments.

 Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Apparently there was some talk Friday at Seymour Police Department that mayor-elect Craig Luedeman would be announcing his selection for police chief that day.

 It didn’t happen, and it wasn’t going to happen Friday, Luedeman said. Luedeman, Jackson Township assessor, said Friday he likely won’t announce any appointments for his new administration until the week of Dec. 10.

No hires have been made, he said Friday. He’s still shaping up the appointments. Once he’s ready, they’ll be announced in a news release.

City Republicans must be eager to see who will be appointed. Luedeman is the first Republican to be elected mayor since Don Ernest in the 1970s. It’s also likely that Luedeman is finding all kinds of new best friends, offering their services and their advice.

 From what I’m hearing, there’s a good chance the new police chief will be from outside the department, possibly a retiree from a federal police agency.

There’s some expectation in the community that Rodney Farrow will be hired or retained as the new city attorney.

Current city attorney Jeff Lorenzo has said for months he would not be interested in continuing to serve as city attorney come January 2008 regardless of who would be elected mayor Nov. 6. He confirmed that again Friday night when we spoke at Seymour=-Brownstown Central boys basketball game.

The expectation of Farrow signing on as city attorney raises the question of whether he would continue to serve as attorney for the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. If not, then the commissioners will be seeking new counsel.

And what will happen with Luedeman’s position as Jackson Township assessor? Once Luedeman submits a letter of resignation to county Chairman Tammy Koerner, she’s seek applicants and precinct committeemen from the township will be called to make an appointment. He plans to serve through Dec. 31, completing the first year of his second term in that office. He takes office as mayor effective Jan. 1.

Two people are apparently making their interests following Luedeman as township assessor known already. They include the husband of a county official and the other is a county employee, from what I’m hearing.

Stay tuned. There will be to report in coming days.

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I’ve been puzzled by the venom and vitriol that’s been aimed at Seymour Police Chief Craig Hayes and Seymour Fire Chief Fred Hines concerning recent disciplinary cases involve police officer Bernard Petro and firefighter Tom Hoene.

Public reaction to Petro being demoted but retained has been fierce, or at least among many of the folks posting reader comments to our stories. I think that’s partly a result of how the agreement that led to that conclusion was made public — pretty well last-minute before Petro’s return to active duty following a 60-day suspension. It appears not even the Seymour Board of Public Works and Safety was aware of what was going on. Its members have certainly cried foul about the process and want to change it.

And the explanation from the mayor that Petro had suffered enough financially really didn’t seem to go over well with some in the public, either, or that the details of the allegations were not openly discussed. That’s left questions in the minds of many folks, although Hayes has said repeatedly that the actions involved no physical contact. And to my knowledge there’s been no evidence that the people involved were minors, as some reader comment postings have claimed.

If there’s an agreement that’s eventually reached between Hines and Hoene — Hines’ comments for a story that appeared in The Tribune on Tuesday certainly hint that something could be in the works — it will be interesting to see if it’s handled better than the Petro case. It would be hard not to.

For instance, giving the board of works a heads up about what’s happening and why it’s happening would be a good start. Maybe even give that heads up before the agreement is signed.

Perhaps we’ll learn something Thursday. That’s when Hoene’s hearing is set with the board of works. Its members are Mayor Jim Bullard, Councilwoman Mary Voss and Councilman Mike Jordan.

As staff writer January Wetzel reported following the last Seymour Common Council meeting, Jordan proposed that the council consider changing the process of reviewing such complaints. Council agree, and city attorney Jeff Lorenzo was working on a draft of such a plan.

The city’s also looking into adding a citizen member to the police review board. Staff wrwiter Zach Spicer has been contacting police departments around Indiana this week to learn how complaints against police officers are handled in other communities and whether their processes include citizen involvement. He’ll report his findings later this week.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Based on reader comments online at TribTown.com and in letters to the editor of The Tribune, it sounds like it must be even tougher than normal to be a policeman in Seymour these days.

The responses to stories, an editorial, a column and letters about the disciplinary action taken against officer Bernard Petro of the Seymour Police Department have been numerous. Some are even mixed in with a story about the disciplinary action that Seymour Firefighter Tom Hoene may face.

Many of them appear to condemn all SPD officers with a broad brush. And that’s too bad.

Only Petro was facing disciplinary action, not any of the other current members of the police department. Yet they all seem to be taking it on the chin in many of the comments.

Over the years as a journalist, first as a police reporter and later as an editor, I’ve worked with many police officers, sheriff’s deputies, conservation officers and state troopers, in Arkansas, Ohio and Indiana.

For the most part, they’ve been good people. For the most part, they’ve been dedicated professionals. For the most part, they’ve been honest.

Granted, there have been some you wouldn’t trust with your life. A few probably didn’t play by the rules.

But that can be said of news reporters. Of bankers. Of factory workers.

Those few, however, don’t mean they’re all bad.

Being a cop, and I don’t use that word derisively, can’t be easy at any time. It has to be a little harder right now in Seymour, or at least based on many of those reader comments, based on the actions of one officer.

Again, that’s too bad.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging onto TribTown.com.

Seymour Common Council members of the board of public works and safety have expressed concern that their role in the Bernard Petro disciplinary procedure has been misreported in The Tribune.

They dispute that Seymour Board of Public Works and Safety received a recommendation from Police Chief Craig Hayes to fire Petro.

Well, The Tribune reported May 19 that Hayes submitted his “chief’s charges” to the board at its May 18 special meeting. That’s a fact.

We have a copy of minutes from that meeting that indicate Hayes presented his report to the board and its members, Councilwoman Mary Voss, Councilman Mike Jordan and Mayor JimBullard.

The Tribune also reported May 19 that Hayes’ report recommended Petro be fired. That’s a fact.

We have a copy of the document, one given to us by Hayes on May 18, and it’s also a matter of public record available in the clerk-treasurer’s office.

And city attorney Jeff Lorenzo confirmed Thursday that Hayes’ recommendation to fire Petro was included in that document.

Voss complained during Thursday’s board of works meeting that newspaper coverage has been wrong.

She said, reading from a statement, that “The Tribune wrote that “Chief Hayes brought a recommendation to the board for termination of officer Petro. This was never a recommendation brought to this board for any action.”

We’re not sure what she’s talking about, because the report was presented to the board and it recommended that Petro be fired. Those are facts.

Board members either don’t remember the report, don’t want to remember the report or didn’t do their job.
Jordan has also complained that the works board’s role was misrepresented in the newspaper.

But we don’t think so.

Again, we reported this week that Lorenzo said Hayes’ internal investigation report was not read by Bullard, Jordan and Voss because the process went into negotiations between lawyers for Petro and Hayes. That’s a fact, and that’s what we published.

Voss also read from her statement that “at this point, the board has not officially seen or heard any information, accusations, or witness statements with respect to this charge.”

We never reported the board heard such statements and that a hearing was ruled out because of the agreement between Petro and Hayes. We do, however, wonder whether anything can be read into Voss using the word “officially.” Could that mean statements could have been reviewed unofficially? Who knows.

We understand that city officials are probably taking some heat for how Petro’s disciplinary action turned out, and we’re certain those same officials would have taken some heat from someone regardless of its outcome.

We just wonder how blaming the newspaper for reporting the facts helps them explain that outcome to their constituents.
We invite anyone to call us, write us or visit with us about errors in our stories. We want to report the facts. We serve no one by doing any less.

If you weren’t among the more than 600 folks who went through Seymour’s new police station Wednesday evening, you missed an interesting tour.

Police Chief Craig Hayes, Assistant Chief Jim Elliott, Capt. Don Walker, Capt. John Hill, Detective Bill Abbott and Mayor Jim Bullard led residents around the $4.75 million building at Third and Ewing streets in shifts. Hayes estimated there between 600 and 700 people who took the tour.

The folks who work there, from the officers to the dispatchers to other civilians who keep the department running, have to feel better about going to work.

When I first came to The Tribune, back in July 1984, I spent more than 10 years as our police reporter. That entailed stopping most mornings at the police department to gather news. Then, the PD took up the back end of the building, which was then Seymour City Hall.

Often I sat in the hallway, with my TRS 80 plopped atop the breathalyzer. You could hear some interesting stories from people coming into the window to talk with dispatchers. Other times I’d find myself in the squad room. That could offer a glimpse at some even more interesting characters, not to mention their smells.

It was always a crowded situation and only grew worse over the years, I’d imagine, even though the department eventually took over the whole building, which first served the community as a post office.

The new police station, sorry, I’ll always have trouble calling it the Seymour Law Enforcement Building, offers a pleasant environment in which to work. The odd smell that permeated the old building isn’t present, although the enclosed stairwell offers a smell of fresh paint and wax that takes you back to your first day of school.

Yes, some people have complained that the city was building a downtown Hilton or Taj Mahal, but based on my tour it appears the city took prudent steps to plan for future as well as current needs. It does seem, however, that it took too long to build. But hey, it’s done now, and the new building provides a nice facelift for that area of downtown Seymour, as Bullard pointed out in his comments at Wednesday’s dedication.