Posted: 2/5/03

Still no decision of Chief Temte

Alice Pickering
Wyoming Area Reporter

A final decision on disciplinary action for Wyoming Police Chief Mike Temte was tabled until the next council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 18 by unanimous vote Monday night. The action is to allow attorneys, the personnel committee and Temte time to revisit a proposed settlement in the insubordination charge against the chief.

The motion allows City Attorney Tom Miller to present suggestions to council. A large crowd, estimated at 75 to 80 people attended the meeting.

Temte met with Council members Lynn Koalska and Sandy Standridge on Jan. 28 and had reached what was thought to be a negotiated settlement of action to be taken.

Standridge said ìdiscussions were frank and well intended.î Later Koalska said, ìThe only thing missing was a handshake.î

Standridge read the negotiated penalty for what council perceives as insubordination. In the terms of the proposed settlement, ìcouncil is not to take action at this time to terminate Chief Temteîs appointment.î Temte ìagrees to one-year probation and a letter of reprimand to be placed in his personnel file to remain during the time of probation.î

He further ìagrees to a 30-day unpaid suspension, to be stayed as long as no similar insubordination occurs.î

Under the proposed deal, Temte agrees, ìnot to file for arbitration on the incident, to respect the cityís chain of command (council, administrator, to chief), and to obey direct orders first and question them later.î

Council will agree to ìconsider serious and all objections if all orders are followed first.î

The city is to make a ìbest effort to work with the police department, to spend the funds wisely as a supplement fund to the police budget.î The police department ìwill continue to give an accounting of the money and proposed reasonable expenditures.î

Finally, ìthe city agrees to rename the forfeiture fund, the police department supplemental fund, to reflect the fact the fund is comprised of miscellaneous donations, small fees and proceeds from forfeited vehicles.î

Miller identified one area of disagreement between the city and Temte. This was the provision included that Temte ìwaive any right to sue the city for this complaint.î

Miller said he ìunderstood to be and still recommend to be a complete settlement, included as provision waives any right to sue the city for this complaint.î He continued that in fairness, ìif the city gives up its right to terminate (Temteís employment), it should not then be faced with a law suit.î He said the language is ìfairly standard in agreements relating to disputes,î and was limited to this incident.

Tharp objects

Union representative Dean Tharp objected to the ìpublic negotiations.î He said ìlast Tuesday the chief very reluctantly agreed to a settlement agreement, to put this whole community out of its misery, where he would basically eat some discipline, for something he did not do in order to retain his employment, in order to settle this thing.î

ìThese people here changed the agreement,î Tharp said to the council.

Tharp claimed the terms were different from those negotiated with Koalska and Standridge. Tharp claimed the council meeting was a ìtravestyî and Temte was being ìasked to sign away his civil rights.î

Tharp said Temte ìis not prepared to sign unless he reviews it (agreement) with his attorney.î The union has provided an attorney for the employment aspects of the issue, but Temte wants his own attorney to look at other aspects of the situation.

Tharp wants to know if the city has violated Temteís rights.

ìYou have alleged claims beyond the simple arbitration of termination,î Miller said.

Mayor Vern Haag asked Temte if he would be willing to accept the agreement otherwise. Temte deferred to Tharp, who said Temte did not want the paragraph included in the final agreement.

ìHe is not prepared to sign tonight,î Tharp said.

Haag identified options open to council; agreeing to delete the provision, tabling the decision for two weeks to allow Temteís attorney time to review the document, or impose some discipline at meeting.

ìYou donít want to address the issue of the waiver,î Haag concluded.

Miller said the language in the document relating to this waiver was standard and the union attorney had agreed. Miller said waiver clause can be deleted but as legal counsel for the city he said it is ìimprudent to set the city up.î

When asked if he feared a legal suit, Miller said, ìI donít see a whole risk of losing.î He said any legal suit would mean added costs to the city. He said inclusion of the clause is standard legal language.

Koalska said Temte knew Miller would draft the settlement. Koalska responded to comments from the audience that everyone sit down, talk, and work out an agreement.

ìWhat youíre missing is that Mike wouldnít come back to the table,î until urged to by Sgt. Scott Dexter, she said.

Clause stays

Council was polled about deleting the clause from the agreement. Council member Martin English did not want it deleted. Koalska agreed with English saying, ìIt is protecting the city and doing no harm to Mike, if he has no intention of suing the city on this incident.î Standridge voted to keep it in the agreement.

Council member Ted Phillips thought the waiver clause should be deleted.

Haag also thought it should be deleted because Temte seemed to think it was a ìsurprise addition to the original agreementî and it ìis standing in the way of settling the agreement.î Haag said the situation has gone on long enough.

Other views

Former Mayor Rodney Hestekin said ìMike has done a wonderful job.î Referring to council he added, ìWe elected you peopleî to run the city. He urged them not to take the responsibility lightly.

He also urged council, mayor and police chief to work together because the city needs to move on.

Haag responded to a question about why the council had not responded quicker in October, by saying ìour attorney said we had to follow procedures to protect Mike.î

Kevin Teel asked why Temte had not consulted a personal attorney at the beginning of the dispute and only now wants to do so. Lee Casto urged opening up lines of communication. Issues can be resolved if everyone can talk together, he said.

Tharp objected that the agreement had been changed by Miller. He wanted to know why the attorney had not checked the wording first.

Standridge and Koalska said that before the meeting with Temte there had been no prepared terms, so they could not have been reviewed by the attorney. These had been worked out in the negotiations.

More comment

Contacted after the meeting, Temte said he felt there was an agreement. He said he had not spoken at the meeting, but ìleft it up to the union rep to speak.î

Temte said he hopes for an agreement before the next meeting because this has been hard on everyone; him, his family, and the city.

After the meeting, Koalska reviewed the past week. She said in attempting to get differences settled council has tried to get parties together to talk.

Koalska and Standridge, meeting with City Administrator Dennis Coryell, enlisted the help of Sgt. Scott Dexter to ìget Mike to the table.î Koalska said Temte agreed to the meeting on Jan. 28, with Coryell as an advisor. The tone of everyone at the meeting was ìletís get this figured out. Weíre trying to deal on a fair basis.î

Possible disciplinary actions were presented and Koalska said Temte offered alternatives, so the meeting was a two-way street. Koalska thought everyone left the meeting believing a solution had been reached, though a full quorum of council was required to vote on it. She and Standridge would speak in support of Temte and promote the solution. No one would point fingers at the other, she said.

Referring to Miller, Koalska said ìit has to go to Tom for legal language.î She said Temte agreed. ìThe only thing missing was a handshake,î she said. ìWe felt like we got something done.î

Koalska said she thought that at Mondayís meeting, ìwe were going to read the proposed settlement, Mike would verbally accept the terms, and then the vote would be taken.î She was disappointed Temte had not commented during the Monday meeting about how well the negotiations meeting had gone.

Coryell wrote the terms of the negotiated agreement, getting it to Miller Jan. 29. Miller reviewed the language and gave the written document to Temte on Jan. 30. Tharp was out of town and did not return until Mon. Feb. 3.

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