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Show Page Two - The Springville Herald - January 17, 1996 EDITORIAL Was police audit fair to everyone involved? At the January 9 special meeting of the Springville City Council, Mayor Delora Bertelsen read the findings of the performance perfor-mance audit of the Springville Police Department. Copies of the audit were also handed out to the large group of citizens in attendance atten-dance at the meeting. No action was taken by the council concerning six formal complaints of sexual harassment against Springville Police Chief Louis Fetherolf. Dispatchers have also filed a formal grievance against Chief Fetherolf for violating their right to confidentiality as it related to sexual harassment complaints. They did this after Fetherolf spoke to a meeting of the Ambulance Association about the allegations and told those present that they were unfounded. The city council had as their number one business item at last night's council meeting to make a decision of the recommendations in the Modified Performance Audit. The audit, done by Layton City Police Chief Doyle Talbot, Assistant Salt Lake City Police Chief Steve Chapman and Assistant Director of the Utah State Peace Officers Standards and Training Steve DeMille, started December 1 1 with an interview with Chief Fetherolf asking him for a briefing on the department and anything pertinent to the audit. The rest of the day the audit committee interviewed the department command staff with all three members of the audit committee at each interview. However, the next day other employees employ-ees were allowed to speak to only one member of the team in their interview. These employees included most of the dispatchers, the ones who had filed the grievance against Fetherolf. An interview with one dispatcher, who was in on the filing, was done over the telephone as she was home on sick leave. The next day the three audit team members conducted a more in-depth interview with Chief Fetherolf. The audit report says that the sexual harassment became an issue with the dispatchers in April of 1995, and a "major problem" in June when they went to the City Attorney to complain. " However, the city did not inform Chief Fetherolf of the problem at that time," says the report. The problem continued, and on November 1 the city received six formal complaints of sexual harassment. The city determined that the complaints received from the six complainants fell under Section "C" of the Sexual Harassment Policy; or in other words, "the creation of an mtimidating, hostile or offensive work environment." Ten other complaints were listed in the audit report: . The Chief showed us pirated copies of videos in training sessions. . The Chief had an accident in Park City and didn't report it until he returned to Springville and then had one of his officers do a report. . The Chief doesn't follow city policy when hiring new officers. . The Chief didn't get certified in the state until there was pressure from the news media. , ; . The Chief used money from the police department budget to pay for handouts he used to teach a class in Ohio. . The Chief tried to circumvent the city purchasing system by breaking up one big invoice for $2,000 into several invoices for less than $500 each. . The Chief used drug money to buy lunches for evaluators in the hiring process and to buy flowers for his executive secretary on secretaries day. . The Chief required two separate dispatchers to run criminal history on his own son just to keep track of him. . The Chief violated city policy when he spoke about the sexual harassment complaints to uninvolved members of the police department and ambulance association. . The Chief fired the DARE officer on his 20th anniversary in law enforcement and said he doesn't have the power to be a peace officer in the state of Utah. In five of these complaints the audit report said that the chief did not use "good judgement" or should not have done what he did. Citizens can obtain copies of the audit report, however the decisions will probably have been made when this newspaper is published. According to the many Springville Police Department employees, there were numerous other complaints that were not even considered by the audit team. We question why members of the police department were not given equal rebuttal time as Chief Fetherolf was? Mapleton Police Report Mapleton Police had 40 calls last week including 15 animal related. They cited James M. Peterson, 150 W. 800 South 9. (USPS 513-060) Published Weekly by Art City Publishing Co., Inc. 161 South Main Street Springville, Utah 84663 Publisher Martin W. Conover Editor .Patricia Conover Second Class Postage Paid in Springville, UT 84663 Postmaster send change of address notice to: The Springville Herald, 161 S. Main, Springville, UT 84663 Subscriptions in Advance per year $20.00 Out of County Subscriptions per year $23.00 Per Copy $0.50. Delivered by carrier, per month $2.00 Member Utah Press Association Payson, for having an open container of alcohol. John C. Collett, 200 Brook-side, Brook-side, Springville. was cited for possession of tobacco by a minor. He was the passenger in a vehicle that kept driving by a location where police were doing a warrant war-rant service. Their vehicle had no What's happening in llebo District? Dear Editor: I read with some interest the results of the Nebo School District Dis-trict report card. It appears to me that the test results of the district are mostly below average for all areas tested. test-ed. Not only that, but they seem to be getting worse for the past three years. If my students came home with a C-report card and seemed to be getting worse each year, I'd be inclined to cut his allowance until he did better. How do you feel? Signed, Wilford Biesinger Springville Springville Police Report Springville Police report that Allen's Market and 7-11 have had success in catching shoplifters shoplift-ers these past weeks because of their addition of security and security equipment. Brenda D. Miner, 1762 S. Main, Springville, was cited for shoplifting at Aliens. Three juveniles juve-niles were caught shoplifting at Aliens in two incidents. The 7-11 store had five calls to police for shoplifting last week. A couple of them got away, but their pictures are on video. Patrick Michael Peterson, 192 S. University, Provo, was arrested arrest-ed for possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and four warrants. Dale Shumway, 740 E. 400 North, Mapleton, was arrested for possession of alcohol by a minor. Two juveniles were arrested ar-rested with him, female and male. Jerry Hatch, 700 S. 800 East, was arrested on a warrant. Anita Hiatt, 287 N. Main 6, Springville, was charged with filing false information wifh police in a November case. Doug John Stubbs, 3850 N. 139 East, Provo, was arrested for intoxication. intoxica-tion. Ben Westhersley, 26 N. Main 6, Springville, was arrested for possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. Craig Glenn Wilson, 4381 Win-sor Win-sor Dr. Provo, was arrested on a warrant, for having a suspended license and no headlights. Other thefts included two bicycles; a trailer hitch taken in Allen's parking lot and later recovered at the High School, a juvenile was referred to Juvenile Court; gas from Brookside Gas; wallet taken from an office desk at Fibertek; theft of services valued at $60 at Mtn. Springs; two-way radio valued at over $700 taken at Mtn. Springs; cornet taken from the band room at the Middle School; and a Makita miter saw and air compressor com-pressor taken from a construction site at 1550 E. 1000 South. Several Mailboxes were damaged dam-aged or the doors taken, and graffiti was found on the railroad box at 100 E. 1300 South; on Something to Crow About and the Springville Garage; on the Bona Signs building; on a block wall at 560 N. Main; on the Johnson Tire building; on a trailer across from Liberty Mint; on a trailer at 360 S. 200 West; on the pillar at the overpass at 400 S. 400 West; and on a building build-ing at 400 W. 600 South. T The door of a truck was kicked and dented; someone broke the door handles, locks and trunk locks and broke the window win-dow in a vehicle trying to get in it; rocks were thrown and a window broken at the city building build-ing but no entry was made; and beer bottles were thrown at a house. A juvenile is being sought after it was found that he had been charging gas and goodies on several accounts at Brookside Gas. Kids found a syringe in a field, and a small bag of cocaine was found on the floor at Aliens. plates and so police pursued it. The vehicle was impounded, and the driver issued a citation for no registration. Mike A. Snow, 144 E. 200 South, Springville, was cited and released for possession of alcohol by a minor. f Two mailboxes were damaged at about 1342 N. 600 East, and there were minor injuries in a traffic accident. In rivers, the water that you, touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes: so with present time. Leonardo da Vinci " COMMENT PAGE Can time heal wounds? Dear Editor, I have patiently followed the unfolding saga of the controversy surrounding the man chosen to head the police department in Springville. I have been a resident resi-dent of Springville for over a half of century and have a gained a great deal of respect for the officers and dispatchers of this department. In spite of this, I really am shocked at some of the things that I read in the local press. I don't understand why anyone would want to try an issue as sensitive as this one in the court of public opinion. The facts, the real facts, never find their way to the surface in situations like this. Emotions on both sides of the issue run rampant ram-pant and reason is lost in the confusion. I will admit that I do not know all of the facts. I do know that I admire the police chief and the mayor for the restraint they have shown in their dealings with the press. While others seemed all to anxious to state their side Respect, loyalty are Dear Editor: The Springville Police Chief must have a Napoleonic complex. Doesn't he know respect and loyalty are earned? Not blindly given? It seems funny that as a good Rip-off of Citizens of Utah: You have probably heard of The Great Train Robbery and the famous Brinks Robbery. These were small change operations compared to the approximately $186,000,000 annual rip-off of Utah Businesses by our state legislators and the State of Utah under the deceitful'tanard of a personal property tax levied only against Utah businesses. This is a tax on all personal business property which includes: fixtures, furniture, equipment, supplies, machinery, tools, office machines, wall decorations, janitorial equipment, everything. They tax every dollar we earn and then they tax our ability to earn each dollar. Business people are the only people in the state who are required to pay this personal property tax. It is an egregious, discriminatory, and in my opinion, an unconstitutional tax. Pertinent facts: Small business provide over 80 of all the new jobs created in the U.S. Business provides most of the goods and services. Business provides most of the employment except in the public sector. Business provides most of the unemployment funding. Businesses collect and handle han-dle all of our Utah State sales tax collections without compensation. 56 of the businesses that start in the State of Utah go broke within four years - National Nation-al bankruptcy rates for small businesses are much higher. With this additional unfair tax added to their, cost of doing business, the business people can absorb the cost themselves or pass it on to their customers in Help youth build future Volunteers are needed to serve as mentors for at-risk youth aged 10 to 17 through Project Vision. Project Vision mentors are ; matched one-on-one with students f to provide positive role models to t youth in need for special attention. atten-tion. Volunteers are trained to help youth build leadership skills and self-esteem, and to combat the negative effects of peer pressure, pres-sure, substance abuse, poverty, teen pregnancy, gangs, violence and fear. The student and mentor attend one group activity together each week and spend one additional addi-tional hour outside of the group for six months. Group activities are held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 6 to of the issue to the media the chief and the mayor have remained silent and allowed those who had been chosen to investigate these allegations, and that is what most of them were proven to be, before be-fore going on record. There are many roads to success, but there is one sure road to failure and that is to try to please everyone. It cannot be done! All of the great men and women in all history, including the Savior himself, could not please. all. I would not be mayor, police chief or a member of the city council for any amount of glory or money. Every time these people make a decision at least half of the citizens are upset with them. These are thankless positions posi-tions that I admire those who are willing to step forward and fill them. I do not know this new chief. I would like very much to get to know him and give him an opportunity op-portunity to show what he can do. a police department as Springville had under Chief Bowers, that all of a sudden, highly commended officers such as Officer Senn are humiliated and belittled by some unknown from Nevada who is Utah businesses the form of higher prices, which is problematic in today's highly competitive markets. Our governor and legislators are anxious about attracting new businesses into the state, and at the same time, are helping to bankrupt 56 of the businesses that are already here. Imagine the tremendous loss and despair associated with every one of these businesses that go broke, including the loss to our tax base and the thousands of jobs that are lost. I've talked about this tax to local officials, local state representatives, repre-sentatives, Utah Taxpayers Assoc., member of the Utah Tax Commission. This personal property prop-erty tax is a "sacred cow"; no one wants to address it. Why don't we make the State of Utah a "business friendly" state so that we can invite businesses busi-nesses to come here with the expectation of succeeding. A 56 failure rate is not very inviting. The entire tax structure in the State of Utah is a big part of the problem. We get hit hard in the State of Utah. How can we justify this disproportionate tax burden when we consider the huge surpluses in our state income. The surplus is currently over 200 million and everyone is fighting over it and the state is now trying to circumvent circum-vent the spending cap limits by setting up special funds to conceal con-ceal it. This is a dishonest and underhanded approach. The fair approach would be to discontinue this personal property tax. This would just about balance the books as they should be. If push comes to shove, I would ask the business people of the state to join with me in a class action suit to have this tax 8 p.m. "By tapping into the creativity of the group and using a planned curriculum, volunteers work to develop skills that will benefit youth in the future," said Dave Curtis, director of Project Vision. "By providing positive role models mod-els we hope to help at-risk teens fact today's challenges." Project Vision is a program of Community Communi-ty Action Services. - For more information about these and other volunteer opportunities oppor-tunities throughout Utah Valley, contact United Way Volunteer Center, 374-8108 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. -.- Early Spanish explorers called the Pacific Ocean the South Sea, because it lay south of the Isthmus Isth-mus of Panama, a strip of land that links North and South America. I do know the mayor. I know her to be a woman , of courage! honesty and good judgement. . I know from personal experience that she wants the very best for Springville and it's citizens. Doe's she score two points every time she comes down the court with the ball? No one does. But I will tell you this, she has an outstanding outstand-ing percentage rate, and I think the people of Springville should support her and give her the slack she needs to do her job. ' Springville has a fine police force. Springville is a wonderful place to live and raise children iij large part because of this fin; force. I hope that the men and women that make up this fine organization will accept the findings find-ings of the commission, put their personal grievances behind theni; place their support behind the; chief and the mayor and work for the future good of our community. communi-ty. Time, spent properly, has a way of healing all wounds. Harold R. (Hal) Wing Springville ,t; earned apparently on some sort of ego; trip. I remember 20 years ago of so, this town was going through' the same thing. Sincerely, R.L. Sorensen , rescinded. Signed, Darwin W. Larsen . ? Logan, Utah , 801-752-3217 ,.; Let's have a refund Dear Editor: I find the latest poll mosV taxing. Are we really to believe that every man, woman and child would rather have the state government gov-ernment grow again instead of receiving a $250 cash refund. In' other words, the average household house-hold would rather have the state, government grow again instead of receiving a $1,000 cash refund.. Really? I doubt that was the poll, question. '; Government cannot spend' money without waste, because" government does not know hov money is earned. How can this.' state spend $500, 000 on a state, party if there is one Utahn who is! hungry, ill clothed or poorlyj housed. It is wrong for governv ment so squander funds on the.) bureaucratic elite horn blowing.', affairs. Is there not one deserving Utahns amongst the 1.95 million,, people who dwell here that would- ! be benefitted by a portion of the". $500,000 that will be spent on-the on-the party? Is there not one single', parent household with latch key-children key-children that would be better; served if the party dollars were, spent on their behalf? This state is chock full of;-working of;-working single mothers, with I-children, I-children, at their wits end. What.; does the single working poor-;. mother feel as she watches a state-, gala event on TV for the bloated-; bureaucracy elite? Does she say within her heart, "Gee let me I work another hour of overtime so ' I too can attended the state-fund- jj ed ball? Can I get in with mjfcjS new food stamp card? It lookS like a Visa." :4 ' It is an outrage that taxes areVf spent so freely and so easiljff wasted on bureaucratic party hat; instead of relieving the burden oJ the working poor. Poverty is man J made and state created. I do not ' believe it is wise for a state to I divest itself of scarce dollars to party, if there is one man, one woman or one child in need within the borders of this state. ; Nor do I believe the state should ; keep the citizens' money. The; state should return as freely as it.; takes. I would rather see $10,000 J cash given to the 50 poorest Utah ' families, no strings attached, than J $500,000 for hats, horns and j bureaucratic hooey David Johnson -J American Fork |