"What we have here is the failure to communicate," as the old prison guard dude said to B. Reynolds in a movie.

When Mayors, Managers, and such are not put into position from among the common folk, who don't exist by connections, they don't speak the language most of us are used to hearing.

They have a different agenda. They don't have YOU in mind!

Our current President is one of those people. I don't play poker and golf with such people for that very reason, and you shouldn't either if you intend to serve instead of dictate.!

I like your opinions and insight and appreciate the fact that you don't usually have knee-jerk reactions to issues...you think them through and consider the pro's and con's.

I said "usually" because I think you just had a knee-jerk reaction on the Chief Murray debacle:) Getting bits and pieces of information without having seen exactly what was or wasn't on his computer and the context as to why any sex chat/whatever was there isn't enough detail to suddenly proclaim he should have been suspended/fired back then.

If you had said something along the lines of "this should have been investigated immediately" or something similar, that I could agree with. Don't you find it a little odd that none of this comes to light until after he's resigned and gone, and what is printed doesn't really lead to any conclusions but instead many more questions?

To me, it's certainly plausible that after the BS Murray was put through in PTC for his dept giving a DUI to the City Manager, he told them to "stick it" instead of "defending" himself against questions of what he was doing on his computer and why. I don't think the fact that he resigned at that point has as much to do with computer logs as this article states....he'd been trying for quite a while to negotiate a little "extra" retirement agreement with PTC just like the one given to Fire Chief Lohr. He was leaving anyway and I think that was the final straw.

Let me tell you something else about the keystroke logger used on the City's computers...it can be "gamed" like anything else, either by the IT person, a fellow officer, etc.. In order to know what REALLY was on his computer would require more than looking at a log summary given to you by the City itself. That's not enough either...you then need to show that in fact it was Murray at his computer at the time the log was generated and not someone else. If you found that Murray was off on his annual scuba trip yet there is computer activity on his machine...hmmmmmm.

Also, there is no proof of ANY sexual harassment ever happening so I don't follow you there at all.

Bernie's case is very cut-and-dried. Murray's has a lot more questions that are likely never to be answered.

Mike, I think Chevy Chase said it best. “Jane, you ignorant…” Just kidding.

"a history of sexual harassment for at least a year"

What history? Are you referring to unsubstantiated accusations for over a year?

"At the very outset the Chief should have been relieved of his responsibilities pending an investigation."

And just how would you have 'made it up to the Chief" once the investigation proved he was wrongly accused and his carrier destroyed?

I suppose you would say you would rather "error on the side a caution" and oh, I'm sorry we trashed you carrier and family for nothing.

Mike, I don't know where you work but I see EEO complaints and cases of 'supposed sexual harassment' go by daily. I truly mean that, daily.

Investigations are done, witnesses are interviewed, statements are taken, disciplinary boards are convened, union leaders are consulted, lawyers are consulted the whole nine yards. My employer takes this kind of stuff VERY seriously and is willing to spend a lot of man-hours and money to make sure it's done by the book.

If I had to guess I'd say that 90+% are dismissed for lack of evidence.

In the end if the accused is found guilty they are rarely removed from their current position but in most cases they are ordered to receive additional counseling and the offended party is transferred to another area of his or her choosing. Life goes on.

The problem is that once accused, always guilty in somebody's mind.

Do you have any idea how easy it is to file an EEO complaint?

Do you know that the accused is presumed guilty until proved innocent?

You can't even imagine how many carriers have been destroyed by angry employees with a pen.

What I can’t get over is all the hoopla this story has caused.

This has to be one of the greatest collections of worthless words, that once combined, said nothing.

Feeding the rumor mill and trying to make a volcano out of a firecracker is not news.

At best, at the absolute best, Chief Murray violated a city policy on the use of city owned equipment and like I posted elsewhere, if a city employee were to use a city owned computer to read today’s edition of the Citizen, they too would be in violation of that same policy.

That's already been proven. We had a mayor(Steve Brown) with the guts to stand up for us and he was labeled a "troublemaker" and a "bull in a china shop". His methods might not have always been palatable but, his reasons for doing it was at least honorable. That's more than can be said for the current administration. Personally, I believe that occassionally shaking things up is a good thing! The status quo becomes too comfortable--we need to step out of that comfort zone for the sake of improvement. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out. I just hope that we don't become a laughing stock because of it.