Friday Wrap Up - Shaft Edition

Chief Monroe Goes To Washington - File this under maybe wishful thinking.

Cedar Posts hears the CMPD Chief Monroe may leave CMPD at the end of May. This would fit well with the five year requirement for the department's retirement plan.

And the rumors that Chief Monroe will head to Washington DC to take over the helm of the MTPD (Metro Transit Police Department) from retiring Chief Michael Taborn. Assuming he gets the nod from WMTA's executive board.

Several sources tell CP that the chief has made recent trips to the DC Area apparently to meet with the International Association of Police Chiefs who are spearheading the executive search to replace outgoing Chief Taborn.

The official job posting is here

Taborn is retiring after 31 years with the department and had delayed his departure until after the Presidential Inauguration, but oddly decided to remain on until the end of March and not just January.

The MTPD has 420 sworn police officers, 106 security special police, and 24 civilian personnel. Officers provide a variety of law enforcement and public safety services on the Metrorail and Metrobus systems in the Washington Metropolitan Area.

While CMPD talking heads may deny Monroe is leaving, the pieces fit. Washington is the Chief's home, he only left the area to become the Chief in Macon Georgia, when the DC Metro folks refused to promote him. Then returned to nearby Richmond Virginia but left six months ahead of Douglas Wilder's departure and just a step ahead of the VCU diploma fiasco.

Wouldn't is be a step down, is the question CP heard over and over again this past week. The answer is, not really, while MTPD is smaller than CMPD the pay is better and the department is pretty unique in the it has jurisdiction in both Virginia and Maryland as well as the District of Columbia.

Now five years later with his diploma issue resolved, (Chief Monroe now has two degrees), and the successful DNC 2012 on his resume' Monroe is a marketable property.

WMTA which has the final say as to who gets the job met in closed executive session last Thursday, February 28th.

Earlier this week, WMTA Media Relations Manager Caroline Lukas had a chatty conversation with a popular Charlotte mainstream news personality until she was asked about CMPD Chief Monroe, at which point Lukas became abruptly defensive and would only say "Metro transit PD's search process for a new chief is "confidential" and there's no time frame for an announcement."

Bingo!

Then there are the four stars that come with the MTPD Chiefs Uniform vs CMPD's two stars, which the chief reportedly loathes.

Bingo! Or maybe just wishful thinking.

Cedar Update: Rodney Monroe did not get the MTPD job as they promoted from within and MTPD Deputy Chief Ron Pavlik will take over at the end of the month. No comment if Monroe was considered or not.

The North Carolina NAACP is leading a coalition of groups that plan to contest a voter ID bill in the legislature. The Republican led majority has the votes to pass it and that GOP Gov. Pat McCrory has said he will sign it.

“We will fight them in the courts, we will fight them in the streets, and voters will fight them by turning out and voting,” said Penda Hair, co-director of the Advancement Project, a major national civil rights group that is legally challenging voter ID laws across the country. She described North Carolina as “ground zero” in the national fight.

The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, rejected Republican arguments that the requirement for a photo ID at the polls was designed to protect against voter fraud. He said that North Carolinians have voted for 237 years without requiring a photo ID and that the push for the law was a conservative backlash against increased black voter registration that grew out of the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

More from the Charlotte Observer here.

Cedar's Take: I've been against voter ID requirements since day one. I guess I am old school because I enjoy seeing my neighbors a couple times a year at the polls. It is nice to be treated like old friends meeting up at a local tavern where everyone knows your name and having to produce "your papers" at my local precinct takes much of that away.

I will concede that there is voter fraud, though I doubt that the out come of any election has been changed because someone voted twice.

I guess it is just a matter of time, before we are all forced to have RF chips embedded in our bodies so we can prove our identity everywhere we go. Just seems like a real waste of time and it makes the left think we are sore losers.

CDIA Airport Police - Get the shaft. For weeks now Charlotte Douglas Airport Police Employees have been in limbo. Suddenly they are neither employees of Charlotte or the Airport. Neither are they CMPD employees.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department took over of law enforcement at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in December.

The city said it was time for the integration of current staff under one umbrella and announced in November that CMPD would be taking over security at the airport.

The budget for 21 new police officers had been in place for months, but nothing had been done with the $1.6 million dollars until late last year.

Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon said the city wanted to make sure it had the best people in place at the airport and he said the best would be CMPD, completly dismissing the Airport Police.

CMPD tells the local press that "current airport police will have the chance to make the transition to becoming officers if they meet state standards."

CDIA Police are pretty much in the dark, as all they know is that even with years of experience they have been told to apply with CMPD as if they were new hires. Apparently CMPD and chief Monroe decided that a lateral transfer was not an option.

This means all former CDIA Police officers have no seniority at CMPD and if that is true they may even striped of current their rank.

Cedar's Take: Seems pretty unfair if true. The Airport, the City of Charlotte and CMPD have all turned their backs on this small group of dedicated individuals.

Cedar Posts Coverage of Herbert Judon here.

Panthers Net Nearly 100 million - Surprised? Frankly I am. After all the outlandish salaries and front office payroll The Fat Cat Jerry has a lot of bacon left over from the game of pigskin.

The real question is did Jerry Richardson come clean with Charlotte City Council during those now infamous closed door sessions? If he did, then Charlotte City Council should be asshamed of themselves. If he didn't Charlotte City Council should still be asshamed of themselves.

Cedar's Take: The general feeling is that the "prepared food and beverage tax" really only applies to people who dine out and are visiting Charlotte. Well that is total pig dirt. I don't think I'm alone when I say the 3 out of every 5 meals is either dining out or in a to go box. That is just the fact in the lives of working couples.

Come on, stop robbing me to pay for the Fat Cat's Castle. Get the government off my back and out of my pocket.