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Pogge-Weaver And Burke Talk About The Handling Of Personnel Issues And Moving Forward In The Wake Of Monday’s Cancelled Closed Session

Photo: Carroll’s labor attorney, Mike Galloway, talks with council members during Monday night’s meeting that was to include a closed session To read details about what transpired that night and to hear full audio from the meeting, follow the link here–https://www.1380kcim.com/news/2018/citizens-join-carroll-chief-of-police-in-seeking-answers-on-reasons-for-secrecy-surrounding-mondays-closed-session/

Carroll City Manager, Mike Pogge-Weaver and Chief of Police, Brad Burke, talked with Carroll Broadcasting again this morning (Wednesday) about the incident that transpired at a scheduled closed session for a Monday Carroll City Council meeting. Pogge-Weaver says, obviously, he can’t comment a lot on a personnel issue, but adds there have been a lot of rumors out in the community. Many of these, he says, are misguided without a lot of facts supporting them, and that is unfortunate. To be clear, he says, Chief Burke has his support and he believes the full council support.

These are ongoing conversations that will be held privately. Pogge-Weaver says this is a unique position in which he has “active control” over the police department and other departments for the City of Carroll. The City Council is charged with hiring and dismissal of the police chief. He wanted to clarify why the meeting was called on Monday.

He adds they don’t advise the council members prior to the closed session because they don’t want the council to “start the rumor train in itself. So that is why it was kept private.” Pogge-Weaver and Chief Burke say they are committed to continuing good communication.

As far as the Jacob Smith v. Herald Publishing Company and Jared Strong case being dismissed on a summary judgement, that basically states freedom of the press, Pogge-Weaver was asked whether or not any issues relating to the depositions in that case would be relevant, as these were cited as a planned part of the discussion at Monday’s meeting.

Pogge-Weaver says at this point, he does not believe there will be a closed session of the council scheduled for this issue in the future. And in this age of instant communication and the speed at which social media travels, rumors spread quickly. He thinks the public needs to understand that in a personnel matter, those rumors are, a lot of times, pretty much unfounded and they need to be taken with a grain of salt. If in that position themselves, many people would want to keep the conversation private. The important thing to remember, he says, is that the actions of Chief Burke are supported. Pogge-Weaver says his honesty, trustworthiness and integrity have not been questioned by him.

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