continued from page But, you ….
continued from page
But, you want your officers sharp when they are on duty. They have lives away from Alamo. They have families to look after.”
City resident Dr. Marvin Howard voiced his concerns during the called session.” I am really disappointed, and I think we need to display a little courtesy. I see that everybody does not know what is going on. We, as the citizens of Alamo and Wheeler County, should know what is going on. If they (the Council) are going to close the police department, we need to get the citizens of Alamo together and let y’all hear what we have to say. We don’t know the pros or the cons of this. Y’all represent us, you don’t make decisions for yourself. You need to bring us to the table and let us know what is going on.”
He continued, “We have two sets of Council members: half of ya’ll know what is going on and half don’t. Y’all have to get together and quit bickering. And we can’t forget our chief. You don’t want to be the last person to know you are going to lose your job. I think all of you should feel the same way.”
In her response to Dr. Howard, Councilwoman Brownley said, “If we (the Council) can have discussions, bring in (police) officers and committees to have discussions, then bring in citizens and get their input, is that a good path forward?” She emphasized that the decision would be one affecting many people’s lives. “We do take that seriously. We realize our mistakes. We want to rectify that and do the right thing the right way. We all appreciate our chief and officers. I apologize we did not go about this in the proper manner.”
Jones concluded, “I’ll admit that mistakes were made, but it was not intentional to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes. We talked about this in February of last year, so it is not brand new news.” He noted that on the last work schedule, (December) the Sheriff’s Department covered 17 shifts for Alamo. “They (the Sheriff’s Office) are already helping us. This has nothing to do with what has happened to Karen (Zanders) this past month. We just want to make sure Alamo is protected. There is no use in kicking history around. It’s done. We are here to go forward in the right way.”
