09/08/2023
Dear Citizens of Chickasaw.
As some of you know, I have resigned from the City of Chickasaw. This was not an easy decision. I have prayed, cried, and lost sleep over my resignation. This was going to be a short paragraph, but then my loyalty was called into question. I was also told that I could not come back to work at the Chickasaw Fire Dept. part-time. The department is short-handed with only one active firefighter with over 30 years of experience and the other senior member is on light duty for 6 months. Everyone else has less than 3 years of experience. 3 have to go to recruit school.
Remember that this mayor has said that public safety is his primary concern. So who really cares if all your Sergeants resigned over something you could have prevented? It does not matter if your employees do not like you, it does not matter if your supervisors like you. It only matters that you have experienced personnel working for you. Police officers are so low that they are working 7 days a week, think this is the 4th or 5th week of that I believe. You can not expect officers to be on the top of their game working like that. And has this mayor called the officers together to thank them for working such harsh shifts? No as of today. Wow, that shows you all how much he appreciates his police department.
I currently work for the City of Creola. The atmosphere at Creola City Hall is like it was when I first came to work with Chickasaw in 1989. The office staff greeted me with enthusiasm and welcomed me during the process of becoming an official employee. The Creola Mayor personally met with me, shook my hand, and welcomed me to the City of Creola. He explained that he was the Mayor, not the Police Chief and that he did not meddle in police affairs. He told me the Chief comes to him, tells him what he needs, and he does his best to get it for him. That is the extent of his involvement unless he is required to be involved. Unlike previous mayors in Chickasaw, this mayor does not meet with new employees. When I was hired, I sat down with Mayor Davis and was introduced to all the council members. I doubt the current mayor would be able to name all of the few officers who are currently working.
Chickasaw’s Mayor stated to the press that the City of Creola was recruiting his police officers. This was a blatant lie. I sought employment elsewhere after I made the decision to resign. No other police department, including Creola, approached me first.
I left due to the follies of Chickasaw City Hall. You would think that the Mayor is kin to the Russian president. He, like Mr. Putin, wants to leave a legacy. Putin thinks he is Peter the Great and wants to return Russia to its former greatness, but he is destroying his country to do something he will never achieve. The Mayor was obsessed with getting out from under Prichard Water, while the rest of the city’s problems were put on the back burner. The only thing I see him doing is running Chickasaw into the ground. His legacy will be that he is the worst Mayor in the history of our city. Fortunately, what all of us at the public safety department think, if the city was able to buy Prichard water, which would have never happened, how would this underfunded city ever pay for the infrastructure? We all figured that if left alone the Water Board in Prichard would collapse and Mobile would take over or someone that had the means to procure and repair would buy it. It turns out the latter occurred.
A similar situation happened with Prichard PD and Fire several years ago, when they lost all of their senior personnel. They have been struggling to rebuild their police force with the same qualifications and experience, ever since. The process of rebuilding a strong and experienced department takes years to accomplish, not just a few days. For example, let's say 20 officers come to Chickasaw. The mayor would surely boast that Chickasaw has 20 officers. But if they were all rookies, which they would be sure to be, where is the experience and leadership to keep them in line and mold them into good and productive officers? Without that experience, they will likely leave or become problems. I had voiced my concern that we were going to be losing officers and was told "Let them leave" by a department manager. So you see this is not by accident and nothing was done to stop the bleeding out of senior personnel.
Remember in 2020, when the Mayor and city council ran as a group together? By doing that, you have a Mayor in power, with supporting council members, who are like “yes people”. Kinda the way Putin has things set up. Who is going to voice an independent opinion when there will be retaliation for speaking against the mayor? 1 council person does and isn’t allowed to play in most of the reindeer games. Keep in mind too, that over half of the people who are sitting on the current council are the same people he blames for Chickasaw being in ruin today, including him.
There were 23 officers on staff when I came back to Chickasaw in 2003, which is average give or take a few. Since this administration took office, they let Chief Fillingim go, by not renewing his contract, and fired Chief Miller. Of the 6 Chickasaw police chiefs I have worked for, Chief Miller was by far the best. That man had our backs and would go above and beyond for his officers. The reasons the mayor told the press that he was fired were fictitious. I was told that I did not know the whole story. I believe the citizens and city employees deserve to hear the full story. I do not believe this administration made any claims of being transparent. Good thing, for they are as transparent as an Alabama red clay milkshake (color may vary depending on which citizen you talk to.) When they fired Chief Miller, they were forewarned that they would lose officers, but this mayor does not take advice well. He seeks revenge against anyone who speaks against him. He makes decisions when he is upset and that is never a wise thing to do. He did not care that we were leaving. His solution was to call in the county, which was going to happen until he discovered it was going to cost almost what a new house would cost to have them here.
When all of a department’s Sergeants leave, it is a big red flag. According to Lannone's Book, Supervision of Police Personnel, your sergeants are your police department. All 4 of Chickasaw’s sergeants resigned, and Chickasaw lost around 80 years of combined experience. You will not get that back. We all lost money in doing so. Why work for an administration that does not care or have your back. Heck, I was going to retire in November a year earlier than planned as the police department, as one of my friends put it, was in complete disarray. Some of the new officers might be ones rejected from other agencies because of policy violations or ones sent to the academy under contract, who will leave as soon as they get their 2 years in. Not one officer left because of Chief Miller. Most left due to the incompetence of the front office and their influence on department policies and personnel. Their drug policy and the employee handbook sound like they were written by the KGB. It was as if whoever wrote it had never heard of the US Constitution. Furthermore, no effort was made to retain any of us. No meeting by the council or mayor, or hey why are you leaving? Anytime I have ever left a job before, I was spoken to by someone from that city to ask why I was leaving. Not in Chickasaw, because they do not care.
The city clerk is the reason for most of our departures, some left for better pay. By her own admission, she told me they did not know what they were doing. Which brings up the question for the mayor: Why would you hire people to the front office that had no experience doing that job? Again I have worked and volunteered here for 33 years. When people's pay is messed up, they start to leave. Furthermore, Ms Couey worked her back end off to get donations from local churches and people in the city, to procure the fire department with badges and helmet plates. The fire department even had a boot drive. Thousands of dollars were collected. I had nothing to do with ordering the badges, but I placed the order for 12 leather helmet plates. A helmet plate on a fire helmet is the plate on the front of the helmet that normally has a number, rank, and department on it. I placed that order, and they came in and were very impressive looking. Months later, I got an email from the vendor demanding payment. I called and spoke with the vendor, confirming the same. So where did that money go? The only possibilities I can think of are that 1) The city clerk failed in her responsibilities to pay a bill on time, or 2) the monies were used for something else.
The mayor ran off one of our officers. He was a good officer. Chief Miller convinced him to stay after 2 other officers quit because the mayor refused to hire Captain Richardson back. The mayor heard that his officer did not like him, so like a child, he brought it up to the officer. That officer resigned. Frankly, it’s none of his business if an employee does not like him. As long as the employee does his job, there should be no complaint. I have been a supervisor in the Navy, the fire department, and the police department. If I had a dollar for everyone who did not like me as a supervisor, I would be rich. As a supervisor, I want well-trained and competent people that get the job done. I could not care less whether they liked me or not.
Morale has never been lower with Chickasaw city employees. You can blame some of the departures on low pay, but the only people to blame are the City's leadership. According to Teambuilding.com: The four main causes of turnover are lack of growth and progression, inefficient management, inadequate compensation, and poor workplace culture.
My loyalty was called into question by the mayor and some close friends/city employees. I’d like to set that record straight, and after this statement, if any of you wish to call my loyalty into question, feel free to comment and state why!
1. I left the Navy in 1989 and joined the Chickasaw Public Safety department. I worked hard. To this day, I still hold the record for the most arrests in one month of 320. I am only 1 of 2 officers to receive a meritorious pay raise for my performance. The other officer was Tommy McDuffie.
2. After 5 years, I moved to the Mobile Fire Rescue Department for better pay and to live my dream of fire fighting. I worked there for 9 years, while 8 of those years, I served on the Reserves with Chickasaw performing law enforcement, fire fighting and medical duties. I think that is Loyalty.
3. During the 2nd Gulf War, CPD lost 4 senior officers to deployment. Chief Perry Matthews asked me to come back full-time to fill a vacancy. I did so because this is my home town. I think that is loyalty.
4. Under this administration, the police and the fire depts were given a 5% raise, but I did not receive a raise. I brought this to the attention of 2 of the current sitting city councilmen, to no avail. At the same time, I was asked to take a job as an Airbus mechanic. (I worked on planes for 21 years in the Navy). I could have made a lot more money, but I stuck it out. I think that is loyalty.
5. When the City of Chickasaw needed me to work 24 hour shifts, being a 40 hour employee would have cost a lot. Instead of claiming a 56 hour work week, to save money for the city I would only claim half of my over-time. In other words, if I worked 30 I would claim 15. You can call that loyalty or stupidity. If I filed a complaint with the Personnel Board, they might make the city pay that money back to me. However, unlike the mayor, I am not a vindictive person.
6. You should be aware that CFRD is short handed right now, because members are in the fire academy and one is hurt. I offered to come back on a part-time basis to help out. The Mayor informed the current chief that I will never work in Chickasaw again.
I am sure that the Mayor will call me a “disgruntled former employee”, because that’s his excuse every time someone resigns and tells the truth about their reasons why. I am not a disgruntled employee, I am a disappointed one. This city deserves better. I have had issues with my bosses many times over the years, and we worked through them. This time, I had no choice but to resign. The new floors that the officials at City hall walk on, are more important than their first responders. We are reminded of that every time we walk in the door to be treated the same way by the front office.
I stop at the Circle K while on patrol, for fuel and refreshments. During the summertime, I am asked a lot of questions. The most common ones are: How do I get to Hwy 98, how do I get to Chickasabogue Park, or how do I get to some address in the Shipyard Village? The number one question I have fielded this summer has been, “When is the next election?”.
People do not move to Chickasaw because we have a newly renovated City Hall, not because of the Library, not the swimming pool, not the parks, or that we might own our water system in the future, or that the Civic Center is about to be renovated. They come here because we had a strong police force to protect them, a great fire department to rescue them in their time of need, a school system that is improving every day, and an experienced maintenance department. Let that rot away and people will leave.
The City of Chickasaw’s experienced employees make City Hall look good. The mayor bragged that a lady told him that she had seen the police back in her neighborhood. Well Mr. Mayor, I assure you that I made it a priority to patrol every street in the city at least once during a shift. A lady approached me to thank me for driving down her street. She stated that she had not seen the police patrol in her neighborhood in 6 months. Maybe it was the same lady?
People are concerned for their safety, yet, we have a council person who laughed at a citizen expressing that concern. That is not the way Chickasaw citizens deserve to be treated by elected officials.
In closing, I have said my piece. I am not normally one to go on a rant. I felt entitled to it, after all, I was here long before most of the city hall folks moved in. I have no ill will towards the mayor or any city employee. I pray for them. That is why I am in Creola now. God opened a door. I was praying for change and guess what, the folks at the Creola city hall were praying for officers. It is true that God answers prayers.
I have been in Creola now for almost a month. They call it God’s Country, posted on the sign out in front of city hall. It truly is. The Citizens are very supportive as are the good citizens of Chickasaw. City hall has our backs too. You can feel it in the atmosphere when you walk into city hall. A component staff has made my transition here as smooth as a baby's bottom. Not the first issue so far. Because of these factors, I have decided to serve this community till Nov 24 and perhaps longer, as new opportunities may open up for me here. Stay tuned!
Again my family and friends in Chickasaw, I will keep you all in my prayers. It’s been my honor and my privilege to be of service to you, in several capacities, for the past 33 years. This service requires no thank yous, as it was my blessing to serve you all. I love you all and I love the city of Chickasaw
Sgt. Glen “Huck” Wickell
Sept 6, 2023
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