Courtesy of WMDT:
*** Update***
New information obtained by 47 ABC shows the June 29 firing of Pocomoke City Police Chief Kelvin Sewell was legal, disputing the claim made by councilmember Diane Downing that it was not.
In an August 3 interview with 47 ABC, Downing said that the vote to remove Sewell was a violation of the charter because the charter states only the city manager has power to fire the chief of police. Downing said that because former city manager Russell Blake was allegedly still in office on the day of the vote, the power to fire Sewell should have been his. However according to a memo that was sent by Blake to both the mayor and city council, Blake had officially retired days before the vote occurred.
The memo addressed June 26, 2015 reads, “I will be formally and officially retired from the position of City Manager as of 3:00 p.m. on this date.”
During the July 13 city council meeting, City Attorney Bill Hudson maintained the vote was legal, citing that Blake had already finished his term at the time of the vote therefore allowing the council to vote on personnel matters.
Despite the new evidence, Councilmember Downing still says she never received this memo, nor knew of its existence.
sounds like she needs to check her distribution system? or check her mail more often
ReplyDeleteClassic "I never got your txt msg" excuse
ReplyDeleteIt's been a problem all along. Stating something as fact when something has yet to be determined and are only accusations.
ReplyDeleteHis firing was "illegal" the meetings were "illegal" and on and on and on.
Being illegal and being non compliant are 2 different things as far as the meetings go. The city could be found non compliant and in violation of the MD open meetings act but that doesn't mean what they did was illegal. It order for the violation to be illegal it has to have been done with a plain indifference to or an intentional disregard of the rules of the act.
I'm not sure after watching the video interview of Downing that she isn't shady herself so I'm hard pressed to believe her when she says she didn't get the memo. She brushes off the anonymous phone call made by Sewell as no big deal when it is a big deal. She tries unsuccessfully to justify her actions by saying he said exactly what he said to them as he did on the taped call.
ReplyDeleteAny employee making anon phone calls related to their employment in whatever way should get fired. This is not normal behavior. It shows you are sneaky and you are up to no good.
Even more disturbing is Sewell's prior record while in Baltimore. He was caught in a lie there and only came clean when he failed an FBI lie detector test.
I agree with Slim and have to second his opinion that Downing isn't the brightest bulb in the pack. She would best be served by keeping her mouth zipped. In the minutes of the July PC council meeting she contradicts her own self. At one point she claims to not know what the mayor and council's concerns were with the chief then she proceeds to say his firing wasn't justified and she didn't understand the concerns thus admitting she knew what the concerns were but didn't feel they were justified and she must have understood them for her to reach her conclusion to vote no to his firing.
ReplyDeleteThen there's the problem that is she in fact did not "understand" the concerns why did she even vote. That's just completely and utterly stupid. If you don't understand you either refrain from voting or ask to postpone the vote until you have clarity. She comes across as a complete dope when you read the minutes because a prudent person would never vote one way or another on something they don't fully understand.
What you have to remember about Sewell is that he's carrying around baggage. He was caught not being on the up and up while employed in Baltimore and only came clean after failing a lie detector. Google to read more about it. With that record he should never have been hired in the first place. Blacks are real good at hollering about cops taking up for one another and covering for one another and that's what he did and got caught in Baltimore. Because of Blake and Ervin Pocomoke residents allowed themselves to get Baltimore's sloppy seconds. And now they are hollering because he is gone. They make no sense. No wonder the black youth is all confused and killing off and shooting each other. They have no consistent message in their lives.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing is a cluster. A study in 'Let's Get a Group of People Together and Have Them Make Fools of Themselves.'
ReplyDeleteSewell says he was fired because of his refusal to fire the officers.
Downing says it's because of an anon call. Not one mention of the 2 officers.
The Rev. Jones said at the July 13 meeting it was because of the 2 officers but when Sewell was asked by Attorney Hudson what the reasons were, he basically said- Duh, I dunno why I was fired- leaving the poor Rev. Jones and his racial agenda looking like it was pulled from thin air.
What a crock of lies spun by Russell Blake and the rest of that crowd of Council members and that's because they got caught going against the Charter. If he quit the Friday before why was at work on the 30Th???? Russ was one that didn't want to leave his position to start with why would he have left earlier??? doesn't make sense they are just covering up lies!!
ReplyDeleteWho knows 2:49. I'm only guessing but I think maybe something came up w/Sewell that (anon phone call maybe) requiring him to be fired immediately and Blake didn't want to do it (from a lot of accounts Blake's shady himself) so maybe Blake was told to either retire right this minute or get fired himself and lose his benefits?
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget Blake did hire Sewell. Let's also not forget Sewell got caught trying to cover for a corrupt cop in Baltimore and got caught when he failed a polygraph. The ONLY question anyone should be asking is WHY Sewell was hired in Pocomoke to begin with when he has a record of covering up and lying? The whole rest of the country is trying to get rid of shady cops and Pocomoke wants to keep one! How nuts is that??????
oh well, who cares 2:49; bottom line they fired him, he need to find a new job.
ReplyDeletebesides they actually fired him on Wednesday July 1st, ask anybody at the pd.
just another seweel lie.
whats that make 3 lies that we have uncovered so far;
1) No DOJ investigation, he said there was
2) why was he fired, he says for not firing 2 black officers, councilman downing says for a anonymous call he made to the police, why didn't he just use his radio? plus he told everybody he didn't know why he was fired at that first meeting and
3) he said he was fired sometime before the july 1st.
Yep, all lies.