Wednesday, November 30, 2011

CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe's House of Cards



It has long been noted on this blog that CMPD's Chief Monroe has run the city's police department like his own fiefdom. Directives and rules be dammed Rodney Monroe does things his way.

The trouble with this mentality is eventually this sort of operational structure will come back to bite you in the checkbook. The ruling in favor of former CMPD Sgt. Tammy Hatley is just the start.

What the Hatley ruling provides is proof that Chief Monroe is operating a rouge department, doing repeated "end runs" around the City Manager Curt Walton and Charlotte City Council.

From the Court Order:

Major Hat Tip to City News Watch for chasing down the court documents.

"It is undisputed that before Chief Monroe came on board, there were four
ranks in the police departments: sergeant; captain; major; and deputy chief. Chief Monroe attempted to add the rank of lieutenant in 2008-2009, with lieutenants assigned as RACs; however, the downturn in the economy prevented the City of Charlotte from authorizing that rank.

Instead, Chief Monroe created temporary RAC positions and staffed those positions not with lieutenants, but with sergeants already on the payroll, providing each with an additional stripe.

CMPD contends that this temporary special assignment was intended as a stop-gap measure until CMPD could adopt and budget a new rank of lieutenant; however, it was undisputed that nearly three years later, when the court conducted the hearing, the issue of approving and funding lieutenants was only then coming on to be heard by city council."


In short Chief Monroe knew that the city budget wouldn't allow his "lieutenant" idea due to the costs associated, so he "created" a rank of staff sergeant. Which by itself might have been ok, except he also "juiced up" the job beyond just additional responsibilities by adding take home cars and extra pay. The promotion ceremony and formal announcement was the final blow.

Again from the Court:

"In the affidavits of Chief Monroe, (He)concludes that(Hatley) was not promoted and discusses his view of promotions under the City Charter. While the court does not take issue with Chief Monroe’s credibility....

While the courts are not to decide summary judgment based on the credibility of the witnesses or the weight it believes a jury might give such evidence, the court cannot find that the averments of Chief Monroe are sufficient to create a genuine issue as to any material fact."


In other words Monroe's excuse is bull shit, and it is Monroe's own hubris that circled around and latched on to his backside.

So what this means to current CMPD RACs is this your job as RAC, the fourth stripe, the take home car, the extra pay are yours to keep unless the CSB and not Chief Monroe says so.

To those who, were RACs and were demoted, lawyer up the feeding is about to begin. To those who were Sergeant RACs and didn't become Lieutenant RACs lawyer up the feeding is about to begin.

You can read the entire court order here and the original filing which is here.

Cedar's Take: CMPD officers have a right to understand the process for promotion and advancement. Since 2008 the rules have varied from day to day. The promotion process in the past was straight forward with set dates for the process to begin and to conclude.

Under Chief Monroe the rules change almost daily and promotions happen whenever his mood suits.

Case in Point: The Department has a Deputy Chief position that has remained vacant for more than a year. But the Chief refuses to name someone to the position because his favored candidates are unqualified, and the qualified candaites are not to his liking.


Lastly: This is only the tip of the iceberg, Monroe's house of cards is starting to come apart.

Cedar's Bonus: The Charlotte Observer's view on the ruling is here.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please, please, please let this be the start of this assholes downfall. Can Curt Walton continue to look away, can the city council? What a joke this man is and what a joke our police have become under this clown.

Anonymous said...

Truly, this is only the beginning.

How many people are going to take these lying assholes to court and WIN before City Council, Curt Walton and the PUBLIC decide enough is enough?

How many more times will members of Command Staff be allowed to lie under oath and get away with it???

Should part of the qualifications for advancement at CMPD be the ability to lie with a straight face under oath? And to cause immeasurable mental stress to people because you are covering your ass and to prevent the real truth from coming out?

Honestly, this is like some kind of really BAD novel...but I don't think anyone could make this shit up!

I can't wait for the first Press Conference......

If I were Rodney, I would start taking this stuff REAL seriously.....and all his little arrogant protectors that think they are above the law, too. You are gonna be in DEEP DO DO!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Cedar,
I think Cmpd actually has two Deputy Chief 's positions that currently have two TEMPORARY ACTING D.C.'s...one making D.C. salary and the other one to be soon....

What's up with that?? TWO "acting" D.C's making D.C. money, but not actually promoted? And why not promoted?

And I heard that Monroe and his trusty sidekick, RR's made promises to a certain Captain that although he was passed over during the last round by Monroe using the antiquated rule of five and another Sargent promoted because promises had been made to certain people..that this Captain is going to be screwed.

WTF?

Anonymous said...

everyone needs to start getting things in writing

Allowing someone to bully you into not following protocol is bad for everyone else and bad for you.

Report Crimes. Report Misconduct. Police officers should have these #1 on the list. If you don't then you are guilty of misconduct.

Cedar is right: this is only the tip of the iceberg. Get on the right side of truth in a hurry.

Way too many CMPD have been lying, covering, participating. Shameful.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the Sgts who took part in the so called RAC "process" and were passed over for less qualified Sgts, and those "RACs" did not make Lt either. A lot of money is going to be paid.

Each "process" for RAC was different from the questions asked to the make up of the reviewing panel.

Anonymous said...

Curt Walton should be gone sooner than Monroe for perpetrating this fraud...yet he continues to get salary increases while the rest of us get screwed!!

Anonymous said...

The Police Chief is a black man in case you haven't noticed. He can, and will, do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, for however long he wants. And, you suckers can't do a damn thing about it. So live with it.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:49
And, we finally get to the elephant in the room that NO ONE wants to acknowledge.

The fact is, if Monroe were a whie male, he woud have been investigated and probably gone long ago.

And it really makes me uncomfortable to say that but it is absolutely true.

And Monroe knows this and uses it to his FULL advantage.

And Curt Walton and City Council would rather allow the corruption than face a perceived "blacklash" from the black community. And then all of the above are on the hook for hiring someone that lied and is clearly not qualified for the job, because they had some ill conceived idea. But how will they look when it all dies come out, and it will, and they have done nothing to stop it? Have, in fact, ignored it and have had no oversight at all?

When will they understand that this one corrupt man is responsible for the culture of corruption that now is entrenched at Cmpd??? That they have completely enabled him to virtually reverse years of ethical, hard work to represent honesty and integriy?

The question is, does anyone have the courage and the guts to call out the elephant in the room? To make this absolute madness stop?

Anonymous said...

To be clear, they all know what's going on and support him in it. It's not like they haven't been informed. How many notifications should they get before taking action? How many lawsuits does it take?

Anonymous said...

Of course they know what is going on.

The questions: Are they complicit? Lazy? Corrupt as well?
Or just don't give damn as long as they look good?

I predict the rats will be jumping ship when the shit hits the fan....soon.

Anonymous said...

the rats don't understand abuse of power and the delusion that they have kingdom rules.

federal ranks over all of them. it will be happening soon. even the morons at city council, the mayor and city manager's office should be wise enough to pretend to start investigations, so their names will be on the side of appearing to do the legal thing.

officers who have been silent should do the same

Anonymous said...

For whatever the reason, Monroe seems to be teflon. I have read these posts and am amazed the media doesn't bite and do some real reporting. It's a real shame. Damn, I miss Stephens.

Anonymous said...

dulatedIf your black you have it made within CMPD. They are scared to try and test certain things, as they will claim it was racially motivated.

Anonymous said...

If your black you have it made within CMPD. They are scared to try and test certain things, as they will claim it was racially motivated.

Anonymous said...

Its still kind of BS that these RACs accepted the position, take home car, and raise without going through the proper process and knowing full well the position was Temporary but now they are going to act like they didn't believe that. RoMo is dirty but what these RACs are doing is dirty too.

Anonymous said...

why do you say it was temporary? What process did they skip? How is it dirty?

every officer (except for cops unfairly promoted by monroe) should be very happy the processes are being exposed in court and under focus and review. more is coming.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous December 5, 2011 4:20 AM

Basically the CMPD'S Mission Statement has turned into the Biggest Joke. Maybe it should be changed a bit and the words added LIE, LIE, LIE in there.

Anonymous said...

hey hey ho ho monroe has got to go!!!

Anonymous said...

do away with affirmative action!! They are the majority now!! otherwise NAACP will be involved.