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Police chief resigns, but why?
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · May 18, 2011
The West Branch City Council, with little comment, accepted Monday by a vote of 4-1 a letter of resignation from Police Chief David Bloem, following reports last week that a county dispatcher lost her job in part for inappropriate phone conversations with a West Branch officer.
However, a friend of Bloem addressed the council, stating that the police chief did not resign because of those incidents and that he was not the officer involved. And a council member blogged that Bloem probably left because of two years of criticisms by city leaders.
The unnamed West Branch officer, according to a judge’s ruling, had applied for a job as a sheriff’s deputy. Thursday morning, Lynette Bloem, wife of the police chief, delivered to the West Branch Times a letter on Cedar County Sheriff’s Department letterhead, signed by Sheriff Warren M. Wethington, stating that David Bloem “has never applied for a Deputy Sheriff position with the Cedar County Sheriff.”
Hunter said after Monday’s council meeting that Bloem is not the officer who applied for the deputy sheriff’s position.
“These two issues are totally separate,” she said.
While Bloem’s resignation does not take effect until June 3, City Administrator Matt Muckler said Bloem will be paid but will not work for the next three weeks. At $25 per hour and 40 hours per week, that would be $3,000 in salary.
Bloem, who was not present for Monday’s council meeting, has turned in his badge, weapons, keys and other equipment, according to a separation agreement. Bloem will also receive a lump-sum payment of nearly $7,500 on May 27 for accrued vacation time — about $25 per hour for nearly 300 hours.
“I’m sorry to see David Bloem go, I think he was a probably an under-appreciated police chief and I hope he will find very good employment soon,” Council member David Johnson said.
Johnson voted against accepting the resignation.
“I want to wish David all the luck in the world and thank him for five years,” Mayor Don Kessler said after the vote, “and wish him luck in his new endeavor.”
Robin Hunter, a friend of Bloem, rose from the audience to thank Bloem for his service and criticized media accounts that tied his resignation to the dispatcher firing.
“Chief Bloem’s resignation has nothing — nothing — to do with the Cedar County issue,” she said.
Johnson blogged about the resignation later that evening on his Web site, wbcouncilwatch.org.
“I believe there has existed an elevated air of hostility towards the police department following the 2009 council and mayoral election,” he wrote, citing several actions or decisions for which Bloem has been criticized. “I believe we lost a very valuable member of our community tonight because of a host of bad decisions by the mayor, council, and city administrator.”
In the agreement with the city, Bloem gives up any rights to sue, or forfeit the pay he received as part of the agreement.
Phone calls to a city-issued cell phone once carried by Bloem and his home were not returned.
City officials would not disclose if the unnamed officer had been disciplined.
City Administrator Matt Muckler said that he had no comment on the incident regarding the unnamed officer.
Amy Willey, 29, was fired Dec. 28 from her position as a Cedar County Sheriffs dispatcher for numerous infractions — on and off the phone — listed in a recent Iowa Workforce Development decision to deny her unemployment benefits. But the decision goes into detail about two 13-minute phone calls — one on Dec. 5 and one on Dec. 12 — from a West Branch officer.
“We did investigate,” Bloem said on May 11. “It is a personnel matter and has been handled appropriately.”
When asked if the officer had been disciplined, Bloem declined to answer.
“I cannot inform you whether he did or did not,” he said.
The written decision does not state why the on-duty officer called in, and attributes few quotes to the officer.
Willey was married, and so was the officer.
“Their conversations always became sexual, which caused tension in the workplace,” read the decision.
Some excerpts from the written decision, under the “Findings of Fact” section:
• “The conversation included rampant profanities, offensive gossip and sexual innuendos.”
• “The West Branch officer had applied for a position in the Cedar County Sheriff’s office and the claimant provided the officer with all the information she knew about the position, such as the number of applicants and others who had applied. She asked him if he was ready for Wednesday, presumably for a physical fitness test, and he told her he had a ‘broken f------ toe.’”
• “The 13-minute call on (Dec. 12) first discussed a missing 16-year-old child that had been found and the claimant questioned, ‘Why dont these parents beat the crap out of this child?’ She then reported that some guy in West Branch took naughty pictures of the 16-year-old and that she did cocaine, marijuana and other narcotics. The claimant added, ‘I would beat the hell out of my child.’”
• “The job was discussed next and (Willey) told him that the sheriff was looking at two people and he was one of them. (Willey) told him what applicants did not have a chance and said that as soon as she found out more, she would let him know.”
The decision also found that the conversation included “other gossip about their co-workers, their own work hours, (Willey) making cookies for him or making enchiladas for him, and how she would need to do it when no one else would know about it.”
Bloem said on May 11 that officers make numerous phone calls to the Cedar County Sheriff each day — often for 15 to 30 minutes — and that he does not feel the safety of West Branch residents was compromised.
Bloem said on May 11 that he does not believe the issue inside the police department will come before the West Branch City Council.
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