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F’ville Police Dept. turmoil detailed

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

Fired Fayetteville Police Officer Harold Simmons described numerous events at the May 5 City Council meeting that make his allegations of racial discrimination look like only part of the problems facing the police department and its senior management.

Contrary to comments last week by Chief Johnny Roberts, Simmons used examples that equated the atmosphere in the department to a culture of fear for officers.

In his remarks he called for the city to fire Roberts, police Maj. Steve Ledbetter and City Manager Joe Morton.

“He [Roberts] runs that place like a tyrant,” Simmons told the council. “He’s got people afraid to say the truth. He’s got people afraid for their jobs and for their lives. Y’all see one side of Johnny Roberts, but you don’t see the side we see every day. You don’t see the side of Steve Ledbetter we see every day.”

In a taped interview with The Citizen last week, Roberts compared his lower ranking officers to “mules with blinders on.” Roberts in that interview said complaining officers lacked the “big picture” that he possessed.

Taping of each other by significant numbers of officers, said Simmons, was a direct result of their need to protect themselves.

“Everyone that stands up for himself gets blackballed and gets treated like criminals. Y’all have given Roberts too much power and he is misusing that power everyday when he goes into that building,” Simmons said.

“When you have an officer make the statement that, ‘I feel more comfortable stopping a car with tinted windows at 3 a.m. with five gangbangers in it than I do walking into my own police department,’ that’s a hell of a bold statement to make and that tells you how far officers have gone and how bad it has gotten in the police department,” Simmons told the council.

After Simmons’ remarks to the council last week, cheers, applause and a standing ovation from a packed house in support of Simmons underscored the challenge facing Fayetteville’s elected officials.

The series of events was initiated when Simmons filed two complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in April alleging racial discrimination practices by the Fayetteville Police Department.

The complaints followed Simmons’ termination from the department April 14 after he failed to comply with Roberts’ instructions to apologize to two fellow officers for taping them without their knowledge.

A hearing by an independent hearing officer determined there was no racial discrimination in the policies and procedures and, subsequently, upheld the orders to issue the apology. Simmons’ refusal to apologize resulted in his firing.

Speaking in the public comments portion of the meeting, Simmons’ remarks were prefaced by Mayor Pro-tem Larry Dell, presiding in the absence of Mayor Kenneth Steele. Dell said the council would be unable to comment due to the litigation involved with Simmons’ case.

Simmons began by referencing a hearing prior to his termination that addressed alleged racial discrimination as a factor in his termination.

The hearing and his claim followed a grievance he filed after receiving a reprimand from Roberts for not apologizing to two officers Simmons said he had taped without their knowledge.

Problems were evident, said Simmons, during the course of the hearing. Simmons said he was treated like a criminal.

His allegations, including those unrelated to his termination, rested primarily with Roberts, but also with Ledbetter and with Morton, who Simmons said had allowed Roberts and Ledbetter to perpetuate a hostile work environment.

“Even when the city decided to hold my hearing, it was a joke. My request to have officers testify under oath was ignored. At the meeting with Joe Morton and Chief Roberts I asked them to outline the law or the policy that I violated that they would use to terminate my employment. I was told we’re not going to go down that road. I asked them again and was told we were going to terminate that line of questioning.

“How can you terminate that line of questioning when you’re talking about a man’s future?” Simmons asked. “I stand before you this evening because I want his (Morton’s) job, I want Johnny Roberts job and I want Ledbetter’s job. If I as a police officer can’t stand before you and be protected by the policies then how can you protect the citizens of Fayetteville? For (Morton) to stand behind Roberts and to continue to allow him to destroy people’s lives at will is wrong.”

During his remarks, Simmons went far beyond the immediate circumstances that led to his termination. He cited what he called the city’s inconsistency and misuse of its own policies and the misuse of power that formed the basis of a hostile working environment within the department.

Some of the officers that left because of that hostility, said Simmons, were present at the council meeting to bear witness to his claims. Many of those officers obtained employment in other law enforcement agencies working for less money and fewer benefits to escape this hostile working environment, he said.

Simmons said he had worked hard to build his reputation in Fayetteville and that reputation is all he has to stand on.

Simmons said he never wanted to use the race card. “I am doing it now because it is true and it is right,” he added.

Simmons referenced a meeting earlier Thursday with Morton where other officers, he said, also acknowledged taping and other activities that have a direct bearing on a demoralized working environment. The morale in the police department is so low that officers are ready to quit, Simmons said.

“The fact that (Roberts) can stand there and run an upside-down pyramid is an absolutely bold lie,” said Simmons, referencing a recent interview in which Roberts had described his management style.

During his remarks, Simmons also referenced a copy of a document entitled, “Settlement of Law Suit,” and a copy of a July 1998 check totaling $11,817.50 issued by the city to Business Software Alliance. That lawsuit, he said, was related to activity involving Ledbetter. That documentation, he said, is not referenced in Ledbetter’s personnel file.

Simmons also referenced correspondence from the Georgia Department of Labor (DOL), from which he had requested unemployment benefits.

A copy of that letter, obtained by The Citizen, states, “Your employer fired you for insubordination to supervisor. If you violate a standard of conduct it is the same as violating an employer rule. However, available facts show that you did follow employer rules, and that you conducted yourself in an acceptable way. Therefore you can be paid unemployment benefits.”

That determination, Simmons told the council, was based on only three pages of information supplied to the agency.

“I know you can’t comment, but I wanted to give you something to think about for the next few days,” Simmons told the council. “I’m not going anywhere. I built a home here, I have friends and family here and I have people I care about. And as you can see here tonight, I have people that care about me. I not going anywhere.”

With those comments, Simmons ended his remarks and many in the audience stood, applauding loudly and cheering.

Prior to Simmons’ remarks, Dell stated that if others in the audience wished to speak on the issue they should do so provided their comments were not redundant in order to expedite the amount of time, given the large number of people in the room.

If that were the case, he proposed that a spokesperson address the council.

Yet once Simmons concluded his remarks, Dell moved immediately into the final portion of the meeting and into executive session, without asking if other citizens wished to be heard.

That move left several in the audience upset. Two of those in attendance, both public school employees, had no recourse but to make their comments outside council chambers.

Using the backdrop of the parking lot as her only available venue to speak, Fayette Middle School front office secretary Karen Littlejohn praised Simmons.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better resource officer than Harold Simmons. Now we feel like we’ve been hung out to dry. It’s a very unfortunate circumstance,” Littlejohn said. “Harold asked some very legitimate questions tonight and he deserves answers to those questions. And I hope he gets them.

Another eager to make his voice heard was Fayette Middle School science teacher Davis Carnow.

“I’ve been working there since Officer Simmons started as our resource officer. I really don’t know where to begin because the school is in shock. They took a man who meant everything to everybody from the sixth graders up to the principal,” said Carnow. “We’ve basically got a thousand people in that school who are wondering how the city could do this to so many individuals when we are supposed to care about our young people and we’re supposed to give them direction and we’re supposed to provide positive role models and help them be bette citizens. And that’s what officer Simmons was all about. Whoever did this has no clue what he means to Fayette Middle. That’s why we were here tonight.”

A former manager, Carnow questioned the method and the timing used for Simmons’ termination. Though not allowed to speak in the council meeting, Carnow said he and others from the school attended the meeting to let council members know the positive impact Simmons had brought to the students, faculty and staff.

“Harold went above and beyond the call of duty,” Carnow said. “We’ve got 900 kids over there constantly walking up and down the hall saying, ‘Where is Officer Simmons? We love him. We care about him. He meant everything to us.’”

Regarding Simmons’ comment about statements by officers at the Thursday morning meeting, Morton said he could not comment on the meeting because it was a personnel matter.