Forwarded message From: Rick McNannay Date: Thu, Oct 4, 2018 at 5:55 PM Subject: Fwd: Interview committee To: Todd Vanek Here's where it left off at. If| am, in fact, supposed to put the committee together, schedule interviews and rank the candidates I'd be glad to do it. Just be aware this is not the way it has been handled in the past, for at least the PD. If this is the way you want it handled in the future I'll take care of it. - Forwarded message From: Rick McNannay Date: Fri, Oct 5, 2018 at 1:58 PM ‘Subject: Re: Cory's Performance To: Todd, | have a few comments to add; “With regards to the way Cory responded to you (and Chris) ! have addressed this with him and told him that it would not be tolerated. If you want me to go further with that | will need a wrtten,, signed statement from you as to what had happened that night. **As far as how Cory handled the Eagles issue, | agree it should have been handled more diplomatically. | have also addressed this with Cory. It appears he has taken my advice which is reflected in a contact he had with a passed-out patron lying on the sidewalk in front of the Eagles Wed night. He had every right to, and most cops would have, take enforcement action. Instead he made sure the girl had a sober friend to take care of her and then he went inside and warned the bartender for over-serving. Additionally he announced to the patrons that he would provide rides to anyone that might need one. I have told my officers form the first day | got here, this is my preferred approach. Offer an option to driving and if they fail to take you up on it, it makes arresting them for DUI much easier. “The coyote issue; Apparently Chris, my immediate supervisor which whom I reported the incident, was not satisfied with the way I handled it. | explained everything to her, she appeared to accept my remedy and | assumed it was closed. | will explain the incident and outcome to you. Cory was monitoring County radio traffic regarding a vehicle prowi "in progress” in Steptoe. Deputies responded to the area and found the suspects, who had been identified, had already left the area. Their names were broadcast and a deputy went to their residence off of Hume Rd. Cory recognized the suspects and knew they were not LE friendly and could become aggressive. The deputy arrived on scene and after about 5 minutes Whitcom, per their SOP, tried to status check him. He did not respond. Cory, fearing that the Deputy was in need of help (and would not be able to radio for help)started up to the top of Buck Canyon, past the turn around. He told me that his intention was to stage somewhere at the top so that he could hear the radio better and be closer if he was needed. This is when and where he hit the coyote. Cory immediately turned around and headed back into town. He did not realize that the transmission cooler had been damaged and the transmission fluid began to leak out. There was no noticeable damage to the patrol car. I's headlights functioned, the hood was not damaged and there was no obvious sign of damage to the bumper or fenders. There was no reason to believe that the car was not safe to drive, in fact it was safe to drive. | told Chris that have continued to drive after hitting small animals and would have probably done the same thing. | added that | was more upset that Corey had not moved the dead animal out of the roadway than | was that he drove the car back to town. In fact, had he chosen not to move the car it would have had to be towed from a blind corner creating more of a safety issue for the public. Additionally, if he would have called me immediately after striking the animal | would have instructed him to take the car back to the PD and park it. The fact that Cory chose to drive the car after striking the animal is a non-issue. “Leaving the city limits; We currently do not have a policy governing when an officer can or cannot leave the city. Some officers chose to call me and let me know, some do not. Itis a discretionary call that | allow the officers to make. If | disagree with their choice we will address it later, which | did in this case, and had in a prior conversation with Cory. This was the main focus of his written reprimand. **You make reference to the fact that he "lied". That is a very serious allegation that, if substantiated, could not only end his employment but his career. | have no reason to believe that he lied to me during our conversation. If you wish to pursue that claim you need to understand it will not be taken lightly. | expect the Association will become involved at this point and there is a strong possibility that questions will be asked as to how other employees have been disciplined that have been caught lying. | have personal knowledge of at least one instance, along with proof, that has been brought to your attention in the past 6 months. **We need to come to an understanding on the difference between mentoring versus training. I's my opinion that mentoring is character building that occurs over a long period of time. It is also my opinion that mentors are selected, not assigned. Training is Just that....training. Cory's weaknesses are more of a result of his lack of training, and training takes manpower and budget, neither of which I have. | would be glad to train and mentor Cory but in order to do that | need to be the one working with him most of the time. My current staffing level does not afford me that luxury. We work with one officer on duty every day, every shift with the exception of Thursday, which is when officers, including myself, use to burn up vacation, holiday and comp time. | am forbidden to use the words resources or time but they are the cause of many of our problems within the department. And telling me to be "creative" is not helpful. It would be like me telling you to be creative when it comes to the cities revenue stream. It's not helpful and not realistic. Our manpower issues are going to become drastically worse in the next few weeks and | seem to be the only one with a sense of urgency.**You expect me to constantly do more with less. Just like giving me a task such as. developing a mentoring plan for Cory that is due by tomorrow at 5. It doesn't matter to you that | have handled 7 calls, prepared public records, brought someone over for court, read and approved Cory's reports from last night and taken the time to reply to this email. And this is not an extraordinary day, its typical. But you will have your action plan by the end of the day tomorrow as you requested. | do not want to be accused of being insubordinate. You requested that I discipline Cory for his poor performance. He was counseled and corrected. Our conversation was documented and placed in his personnel file. That is the course of action that | felt was appropriate (HR Manual 13.04). If you want anything additional will be glad to discuss it with you, On Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at Hi Rick, 10 PM Todd Vanek wrote: | just wanted to follow up on our conversation Monday about Cory’s performance. Just to summarize, we talked about the way he responded to me when | suggest he talk to you about closing down a local business. | was providing him some guidance and he was not receptive to it, so much so that when he saw me talking to you, he knew it was about him and thus had to stop and comment about us talking. | am concerned about a law enforcement officer not taking advice to talk to his Chief. When he doesn't interact with his Chief, it appears that he feels he can make critical decisions without guidance, in the case of hitting the coyote, a decision that cost the taxpayers more than $2700 and put the city at risk. His poor decision making when he ran into the coyote outside of city limits when NOT called out on an agency assist, is concerning. | would like to hear the story he told you about the situation, because from what | have gathered he has also lied about where exactly he was at, which is even more concerning, To top it off, he drove a damaged car and put himself, the car, and citizens at risk. He needs to be disciplined (if he hasn't already) for his poor performance in that situation and I would like you to report back to me on the discipline and the plan to correct the behavior. This leads me to something | have been telling you for years. Your officers need mentoring. Cory’s judgement to drive outside his jurisdiction near the end of his shift is understandable (as you explained) in the fact that he wants to be “active” in law enforcement and thus wants to do police stuff. However, his decision to drive the damaged car was just down right dangerous. And lying about itis unethical, especially as an officer of the law. Cory has always been open with me and accepted my feedback, but how he responded to me on Monday night makes me wonder how receptive he is to your guidance. | want Cory to become a great police officer and succeed in law enforcement, but to do that, he needs the mentoring he has not received since he started. The majority of that