Vernon fires police chief

No words can describe the stupidity of the town select board in Vernon. An emergency town meeting should be called to fire all sitting board members and hire a temporary town manager till they can be replaced.

Everyone knows around here knows that this decision was based on personal entanglements not work related issues. Their jobs as selectmen, is to work for the good of the town , not themselves or a few. If you think this wasn't done because of the current issues pending against the town By Chief Turnley, think again. This is nothing short of a personal vendetta!

These select board members have not done one thing positive in the last 4 to 5 years. Their reckless spending of money is beyond the belief of many.
Lets start with the firing of town residences who took care of the cemeteries, and were now paying out of state employees to do the work that actually our Town road crews should do in the summer. Not only does that save the town money but keeps it in the town. We than hired a lawyer , from a different town, when in fact their are many from our own, that could of easily handled the job.Theirs so much crap going on with these members not to mention their behind door sessions which have shown to be out of control. They have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are not working for the best of the town or its residents.

If you think for a minute that having sheriffs here will make the grass look greener on the other side, think again! This is a small town where everyone knows everyone. Kevin Turnley may of made some mistakes, but I can guarantee you that not one member on that select board would like their dirty laundry aired , now would you? Like how one among you knew as well of the pedophile . Why are you still sitting in the position your in? Stop throwing stones if you don't want your glass houses to break as well. You should ALL , except one be removed.

Its time to take our town back Vernon, and remove these we entrusted by our own bad judgment to run it.

What you did to Kevin is wrong and the town should not be liable for your personal agendas, you should be out of your own pockets!

Unfortunately for many in these behind door sessions many of us are not aware of what goes on or how they conduct businesses . Why don't these honorable members explain to the town people and others how you pretty much control the goings on and how the police dept is run. Don't forget past employees have friends here too.

Like I said don't throw stones. Its time Vernon calls for an emergency town meeting and fire these people before our tax dollars are consumed by their neglect.

I still say the handwriting was on the wall when they hired Trooper Cronan to do an evaluation.From the outside, it looks like this board operates like micro managing nitwits.From the inside it does not look too good either. Let's see em' try to micromanage the Sheriff....lol

It is a crazy thing that Vernon does not have a town manager! A town manager would in the long run save the town money and save the town from such embarassments. Firing a wonderful and respected police chief does indeed cause one to wonder the caliber of those running Vernon.

Bill of Rights wrote:

It is a crazy thing that Vernon does not have a town manager! A town manager would in the long run save the town money and save the town from such embarassments. Firing a wonderful and respected police chief does indeed cause one to wonder the caliber of those running Vernon.

I personally would vote for that and know many others as well who would also. Its no business of the town select board to run the police dept and cry fowl when something goes wrong.

That is the fault with the lawyers...get them involved, and they require you to clam up. All they are trying to do is to get Entergy to throw a few pennies, while the lawyers spending as little as possible.

They will stick it in a court proceeding and it won’t or never come out of the court proceeding for 5 years.

1. What were the credentials of the trooper who did the evaluation? What was his training to do evaluations?

2. Vernon has had major problems over the years with the selectmen, the whole state knows Vernon and their sad selectboard.

3. Hopefully, the fired police chief will sue the town for retaliation, violation of civil rights, harrasement and unjust firing.

Interesting that he was fired just after he demanded his overtime pay. It's possible they were considering firing him before that, but if not this looks a little "odd".

A vernon resident wrote:

These select board members have not done one thing positive in the last 4 to 5 years. Their reckless spending of money is beyond the

I am not from Vernon, but I did have something I was wondering about. I thought that 3 of 5 selectboard members changed after the last election. Is this not true. From watching the papers and working in Vernon I thought that Howe, Miller and Andrews left the board this last year and were replaced by Howard (brand new to board, staropynski (new to board and spelled wrong i am sure), and Ball (previous on board a few years back, but elected back tothe board this year.) If this information is in fact true, then how can you blame a selectboard of which a majority is new for things pervious selectboard did or did not do. I may have my facts mistaken, just wondering.

Sorry it looks like I may have posted under a coworkers login or something. Didn't want to pass my ideas off as someone elses.

In the know wrote:

1. What were the credentials of the trooper who did the evaluation? What was his training to do evaluations?
2. Vernon has had major problems over the years with the selectmen, the whole state knows Vernon and their sad selectboard.
3. Hopefully, the fired police chief will sue the town for retaliation, violation of civil rights, harrasement and unjust firing.

That is the primary problem with a democracy...just because somebody gets voted into office doesn’t mean they are good at it. The select person system is riddled with problems across the board...you want a 5 people running a business or 5 people being co presidents. They are generally part time people and no pay...so they can’t apply their full attention to managing the town.

Are you representing a gang of interest in your town or are representing the greater interest of the town...what does your town and their select people think about the USA ideals...how do they bring those ideal to the administration of the town?

If I won political office I’d like to perform a experiment...go absolutely completely transparent...go absolutely wild...go reality tv without staging events. Everything recorded and up on the internet in real time.

Before all of you sheep follow the flock and convince yourself that Kevin Turnley was unjustly dismissed from his position as chief of police, I urge you to wait until the details come forward. He has held back a lot of information from the public, and lied about a great deal more. He deserved to be dismissed a long time ago. Don't fault the timing of his own grievance with the town for being justification for his termination. You are far better off without him.

Mike Mulligan wrote:

<quoted text>
That is the primary problem with a democracy...just because somebody gets voted into office doesn’t mean they are good at it. The select person system is riddled with problems across the board...you want a 5 people running a business or 5 people being co presidents. They are generally part time people and no pay...so they can’t apply their full attention to managing the town.
Are you representing a gang of interest in your town or are representing the greater interest of the town...what does your town and their select people think about the USA ideals...how do they bring those ideal to the administration of the town?

Democracy isn't perfect but it sure as hell is better than the alternatives.

Mike Mulligan wrote:

If I won political office I’d like to perform a experiment...go absolutely completely transparent...go absolutely wild...go reality tv without staging events. Everything recorded and up on the internet in real time.

Better wash your undies first!

Someone Who Knows wrote:

Before all of you sheep follow the flock and convince yourself that Kevin Turnley was unjustly dismissed from his position as chief of police, I urge you to wait until the details come forward. He has held back a lot of information from the public, and lied about a great deal more. He deserved to be dismissed a long time ago. Don't fault the timing of his own grievance with the town for being justification for his termination. You are far better off without him.

Obviously you have no idea what your talking about, Kevin Turnley is an awesome person and a dedicated Chief and you are obviously not a nice person.

A vernon resident wrote:

Kevin Turnley may of made some mistakes, but I can guarantee you that not one member on that select board would like their dirty laundry aired , now would you? Like how one among you knew as well of the pedophile . Why are you still sitting in the position your in? Stop throwing stones if u don't want your glass houses to break as well. You should ALL , except one be removed.

I agree with you. They would not want their dirty laundry aired. One selectboard member was injured and collecting disability benefits from the town of Vernon. This individual was so bad off he/she could not work for several years and needed a cane to walk, but at the same time this individual was out riding a motorcycle, gardening, etc. So as you said, they should stop throwing stones at glass houses. They only let Mr. Turnley go as retaliation for filing a complaint in court for his back wages. I wander if any of them would work hundreds of hours for free. I do not believe they would. It does not matter who you are, if you work for the town of Vernon watch out, you might be next. The selectboard and some of the townspeople will do everything in their power to ruin your reputation and life.

Fran wrote:

Interesting that he was fired just after he demanded his overtime pay. It's possible they were considering firing him before that, but if not this looks a little "odd".

They really made a big mistake firing such a good officer. This is what they do to professional people who cross them. They ruin their reputaion and run them into the ground.

Localkid wrote:

<quoted text>
I am not from Vernon, but I did have something I was wondering about. I thought that 3 of 5 selectboard members changed after the last election. Is this not true. From watching the papers and working in Vernon I thought that Howe, Miller and Andrews left the board this last year and were replaced by Howard (brand new to board, staropynski (new to board and spelled wrong i am sure), and Ball (previous on board a few years back, but elected back tothe board this year.) If this information is in fact true, then how can you blame a selectboard of which a majority is new for things pervious selectboard did or did not do. I may have my facts mistaken, just wondering.

Nice try Sheldon...

Concerned in Vernon wrote:

<quoted text>
I agree with you. They would not want their dirty laundry aired. One selectboard member was injured and collecting disability benefits from the town of Vernon. This individual was so bad off he/she could not work for several years and needed a cane to walk, but at the same time this individual was out riding a motorcycle, gardening, etc. So as you said, they should stop throwing stones at glass houses. They only let Mr. Turnley go as retaliation for filing a complaint in court for his back wages. I wander if any of them would work hundreds of hours for free. I do not believe they would. It does not matter who you are, if you work for the town of Vernon watch out, you might be next. The selectboard and some of the townspeople will do everything in their power to ruin your reputation and life.

I am a little confused why you bring this up as the person you are talking about is not on the selectboard any longer and was not part of this decision. I agree that most anyone wouldn't want their dirty laundry aired. If you are public official and your dirty laundry is not doing your job correctly then it is fair game. I always thought Chief Turnley was a great officer and very pleasant, but there have been alot of issues brought to the selectboard by citizens. I have read the audit and undfortunetly it wasn't very flattering. None of us know the full story, only the Chief and the Selectboard members know for sure. But if what the paper printed was in fact true,(that he lied to residents and to the selectboard) then that is cause for discipline. I am sure more of the story will come to light as time goes on. So I suggest no one rush to judgement one way or the other.

Some jobs are just very messy and extremely complicated...a police chief sounds like that kind of a job. Generally between the players, the selectman and police chief there become apparent there is a policy difference that begins. A police chief job always has a lot of background noise...and the noise level and conflict level are at a much higher level than a normal job. When everyone is in agreement with the terms of the employment condition...the messiness is just ignored and everyone know it is normal.

A philosophical crack in a relationship develops...and it widens. The one who has the most power then goes on a witch hunting search...they dig up these normal messiness issues in order to assert their power over the bottom of the totem pole. So say a group of police chiefs would have about the same background level of messy noises, you know minor rules or policy violation or people ticked off that you enforced the law. A bad selectman group would go after the normal background noise in order to assert their philosophical dominance...many times the target police chief is better than the group of good police chiefs...but the selectman nitpick on the messiness of the job in order to get the chief fired.

You know at the end of the day, the selectman can turn any excellent chief into a bum on any philosophical whim of the selectman. What new chief would want to walk into the same kind of situation.