It's been nearly a year since Mooresville fired its police chief, John Crone, and called in the SBI to investigate his Cops for Kids program.
This week, Town Manager Steve Husemann – who was hired after the Cops for Kids scandal broke last July – promoted Carl Robbins to chief of police. Robbins has served as interim chief since Crone was fired in August.
But while one chapter of the story is now closed, the end is still nowhere in sight.
“We have not received results nor a time table from (the) SBI,” Husemann said this week, responding to Report questions. “The timing of (Robbins’ promotion) has nothing to do with (the) SBI.”
Shortly after Husemann came on board as Mooresville’s town manager in September, he indicated that he wanted to wait for the completion of the SBI investigation before hiring Crone's replacement.
He said this week, however, "I have changed my mind since last December because of the amount of time it is taking for the SBI to conduct its investigation.
"I admitted last December that awaiting the SBI report was somewhat of an excuse to give me time to get a better knowledge of (the Mooresville Police Department), its personnel and issues," he added. "I’ve had nine months now to observe Carl Robbins and the department. I saw no further need, nor advantage in awaiting an SBI report.
"It is time to move forward now and give Chief Robbins full support to manage the department."
It seems Husemann has caught on to what many of us have known for years: waiting on tangible results from the SBI, at least in Mooresville, is like waiting on the Great Pumpkin.
Still, when asked this week if the town would release to the public the results of the forensic audits into Cops for Kids – which were funded by taxpayer dollars and have been concluded for some time – Husemann responded: “This will continue to await the SBI.”
And when asked if the town has reimbursed the federal government for the asset-forfeiture funds that were spent inappropriately by the former police chief and his Cops for Kids program (see http://thegattonreport.blogspot.com/2009/01/feds-to-town-pay-up.html) – and if so, out of what fund the town paid the reimbursement – Husemann responded: “There appears to be a wrong impression about what this is all about.”
While the U.S. Department of Justice “directed the town to reimburse the federal drug funds used for (the) Cops for Kids program,” he said, “this does not require that a check be written and sent to Washington.”
Instead, "It merely requires a re-appropriation to replace drug fund moneys used for Cops for Kids with general fund money while the drug fund money is applied to a clearly permitted use," Husemann said. “Staff will ask that this be done with late FY2009 budget adjustments."
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11 comments:
So this means Husemann and the Town Board is going to use "general fund money" aka tax payer money to "pay" for the junkets that were wrongfully paid for with federal drug forfeiture money. So, hey taxpayers, how do you feel about your money being used for this?
Correct me if I'm wrong but the citizens of Mooresville got really sick of the "its time to move forward" party line with the town manager who was before Steve H.
Mr Huseman, when the State Investigators have been in Mooresville as much as they have in the past years its hard to move forward in confidence that our leaders are looking out for us when we never hear anything about these investigations.Are you saying that we should forget about our questions and concerns and just move on? Thats not right. You go ahead and move on. I think I'll stay back here and question my government.
12:08, Where else is the money going to come from? Cops for Kids? Does that thing even exist any more?
If I remember correctly, Crone took the "cops for kids" checkbook with him when he left. He had the account opened in his name only (again if I remember the blog correctly)
This is pathetic. What could possibly be taking so long for the SBI? This ain't like unraveling the Enron mess. If we had an effective Mayor, he would be on the phone to Raleigh getting the SBI's butt in gear. Everyone, the Citizens of Mooresville as well as John Crone deserve resolution of this matter; innocent or guilty.
The SBI is beginning to look like nothing more than a whitewash agency. If you look around, it seems like whenever the SBI is called in they bring a big broom and sweep it under a big rug.
It's outrageous that this investigation has been ongoing for at least a year and has yet to be resolved. Certainly, the SBI can do a better job than this. Obviously, the DA can't make a decision about prosecution until she has the report. AG Roy Cooper needs to hold the SBI accountable to make sure that this investigation is completed in a quick manner so that everyone can move on, including John Crone.
Yankee Bob
wow
Ya'll are lucky to have Carl. He's a fine fellow.
We'll see.
I'd like to see the Cops for Kids investigation take all the way to the fall...so maybe the general public will remember the commissioner who gave pep talks in the police station.
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