Asheville City Hall is heating up, and we’re trying to make sense of it all.
City Council announced last week that its personnel committee – Mayor Terry Bellamy, Vice Mayor Holly Jones and Jan Davis – will be meeting in a secret session at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, two hours before council’s regular meeting, to talk about city staff.
Council directly oversees only three employees – the city manager, the city attorney and the city clerk. All other employees are managed by the city manager. So what’s going on?
Speaking of the city manager, we see a story in today’s newspaper that he has ordered an investigation into the Asheville Police Department’s treatment of minority officers and its relationship with the black community in the wake of a critical consultant’s report.
But the story is only the tip of the iceberg. Dozens of comments linked to the story raise any number of other rumors, questions and intrigue. Here’s a sample:
-Is police chief Bill Hogan on his way to getting fired?
-Has the mayor ordered a stop to all promotions within the police department until a black employee gets promoted to a supervisory position?
-What are the credentials of the consultant? And why did the city pay $2,700 in taxpayers’ money for a report simply titled “Report” and rife with spelling and grammatical errors?
5 Comments
Well now we’ve got to get someone to assess the real state of the APD re: effectiveness, race relations, internal affairs. Turning this report loose hurts the APD, and it’ll be important for someone with some gravitas to tell us the real story.
Mr. Franklin, bless his heart, never should have been tasked with this. Especially for thousands of dollars…
Yes, Gordon.
The story is not the "Report," it’s who the heck hired this guy and wasted a lot of tax payer’s money on offending and upsetting the APD.
That’s the story that needs to be written.
When contacted this morning by phone, Lynda O’Connell, executive director of the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation, the organization that Lt Franklin represents, had this to say: “We knew nothing about it. We do not endorse it. We disagree with the quality and representation of the report. Again, the report has nothing to do with VCPI. We do not endorse it at all. It was done without our knowledge, without our participation, and without our endorsement.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the report.
My question is this: why did the AC-T not uncover these facts before running their front-page story with the headline “Police hit on race relations”?
My core message is this: I believe that every police department in the country should be accountable to do better in terms of their relationships with minority communities–and the APD is no exception to that. However, the AC-T had no business running such an inflammatory story without at the very least documenting the faults in the report and uncovering the fact that the report was not endorsed by the very organization the consultant represented.
I wrote an essay in response to the AC-T article, which can be found on my blog and also below-
The recent report to the city by “diversity consultant” Anthony Franklin (as available on the AC-T website) is an embarrassment, and not for the reasons described by the recent front-page article in the Asheville Citizen-Times (AC-T). Sure, like every municipal police department (and most corporations) in this country, the APD could likely do more to enhance diversity in its ranks and between its officers and the minority communities it serves. I’m sure there is work to be done, improvements to be made, people to be held accountable–there always is, because positive relations between police and minority communities are typically difficult and very complex across the U.S. Asheville is no exception.
I don’t know the truth of the APD’s record on race relations, but I know I won’t find it in the consultant’s report featured in the AC-T. To be honest, I don’t know what is more appalling—the document itself, the fact that our newspaper covered it as fact on the front page in large type, or the thought that the City might actually pay attention to it.
The report is an embarrassment for five reasons: 1) it is replete with spelling, grammatical, syntactical, and logical errors to an alarming degree, casting doubt on the integrity of the thought processes underscoring it; 2) it is the work of a police officer from Richmond, Virginia, who does “diversity training” on the side, not a professional experienced in complex social issues like community race relations; 3) it is based on biased interviews with too-few individuals to be statistically significant and relies on unmoderated, web-based discussion forums for some of its data rather than in-person interviews; 4) it depends too heavily on third-person anecdotal reports (a friend of a friend said…); and 5) it represents no true understanding of diversity issues and race relations in a community (or any other) setting.
Lt. Franklin’s report is so badly written that, in fact, it is difficult to interpret the meaning of many of his “findings” and suggestions, such as they are. For example, he suggests that the APD conduct community dialogue sessions without mentioning that Chief Hogan has done just that since coming to Asheville in 2005.
Rather than an indictment of Chief Hogan and his leadership team, this report is an indictment of the city officials who hired Lt. Franklin to do the work in the first place. The health of our community—and the race relations between the APD and the community—are far too important to be addressed in such an illogical, unstructured, and ultimately meaningless report. In my assessment as a diversity professional with more than twenty years of experience, the report is so badly done that it deserves no further review or consideration by the City. In fact, I have never read a report so badly conceived and executed–nor as dangerous–as the one recently presented by Lt Franklin to the City.
Having done literally thousands of similar interviews and reports about race relations in corporate and community settings across the U.S. and abroad, I shudder to think what kinds of leading, unschooled questions were asked in those "interviews."
In an area as “hot” as race relations, this is a dangerous place to fuel fires with misinformation, or information so badly presented as to be misread. To do so—as the AC-T has done—is irresponsible.
I urge City officials to consider themselves at risk if they make decisions about the APD (or about Asheville as a whole) based on this ill-conceived document. Rather, I would challenge the City to show that it really is serious about diversity issues by exploring in a more professional and meaningful way how Asheville and its police department can best address tough topics of race. Perhaps Lt Franklin has gotten some things "right." Let’s find out for sure. There are many cities across the U.S. that can serve as models for the kind of serious work we need to do about race relations here in Asheville.
This report is so poorly executed that it doesn’t deserve to be argued—in fact, it defies argument or discussion from a logician’s perspective. In a case such as this, the only alternative is to start over, to recognize that every city has diversity issues that need addressing, and to roll up our sleeves and really explore in a meaningful and balanced way what we can do to ensure that all of our citizens receive fair treatment at the hands of our public servants. May I respectfully suggest, by the same token, that Chief Hogan and his leadership team deserve no less consideration, balanced judgment, fairness, and professionalism.
From the AC-T comment thread:
"I was trying to do some research before I made decisions on this article. I tried to find some other reports completed by Mr. Franklin on other departments but I was not able to find any. I eventually found training session that he taught at, but no consulting reports. So, is this guy a trainer (we have evidence of this) or is he a local area government department consultant. It just seems if he was a consultant he would have interviewed more people than just the minority employees of the APD. You will always get a one-sided view if you just interview one demographic. If you combine former employees, and don’t tell why they are former instead of current, how could their view not be negative. In over 25 years of doing consultant work, this is the worst report that I have seen."
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" am a police officer in Asheville. Over the last decade, I have seen many changes within the department. Some good, some not so. I won’t say that I agree with the way some officers treat African-American citizens, but I can attest to my own relationship within those communities.
I’ve worked at building relationships that are lasting and trusting. It has been beneficial to me in doing my job and it is very rewarding. I feel good going into a neighborhood where I am not afraid to walk down the street, wave at, and speak with residents. I’ve seen more waves and smiles since I started really working on being a part of their neighborhood instead of an outsider.
I am one of those officers mentioned in the shooting incident. The next day that I worked, I went right back in there and walked around like nothing had happened. Many residents commented on how much respect they felt that I would do that. One of the primary reasons that I did go back is because I do not believe that the majority of the residents support that type of violent behavior nor are they participating in it.
As I see young women waving at me and guys throwing up their hands as I pass through, or as I walk by their apartments, it is a feeling of pride and accomplishment that they even acknowledge me. I can remember a time when it was not so.
Does Asheville PD need to improve relationships within the African-American communities? Certainly. I don’t agree with the manner in which some officers address issues within those communities, but the officers that are not promoting good will and respect in the African-American communities are also not promoting it elsewhere.
The way I treat people comes from many years of experience. I have lived in other countries. I am a Army veteran, and have educated myself with regard to how to build relationships. But, mostly, I make an effort at it.
One example, then I will close. A woman that lives in one of the minority neighborhoods is having some troubles. I called her office to check on her after hearing about it. She called back. She told me about her mistakes and misjudgements, and said that she had never done anything like it before. I was compassionate and told her that I’d help her in whatever way I could, but that the issues that led to this behavior needed to be looked at more closely.
I am not giving these examples as a means to brag on myself, but as an example of small measures that officers could be taking in order to build relationships. I think that having a work force that is primarily 28 years old and under is not helping to facilitate more positive relationships within the communities that we serve.
Most of the officers within that age group, while physically fit and well-educated, lack the interpersonal skills and life experiences that lend themselves to positive relationships. They have not yet figured out themselves, their own real goals and aspirations, and they are not mature enough to care whether or not they are building good and lasting relationships within the communities of Asheville.
I know that seasoned officers and people that are older in age have been passed over for younger cadets so that we will have our own academy. I would hope that the city staff looks more closely at the possibility of changing that procedure. I started the job at the age of 35. What does a twenty-one year old, fresh out of college, that has only worked two or three previous jobs and barely left mom’s house got to offer in the way of maturity and experience?
Thanks for reading."
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"I work for the APD and am astonished that this man, who has little qualification to provide consulting services to the city was paid a lot of money to come to Asheville for this purpose. He was paid 4,800 to come and teach two classes. Then this poorly written document cost an additional 2,700. If you look at the format of the document and the grammar that the consultant used, he revealed his level of training and expertise relative to consulting work."
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Another commenter points out that Franklin is a "graduate" of Bienville University Online. Check out this low-rent "university" site. It’s really ridiculous.
Bienville U. – http://www.3cdf.com/3rdwebs/bu3/index.html
Franklin’s brief – https://www.vcpionline.org/instructor_bio.asp?instructorID=293
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"I am a law enforcement officer, and I am not a rookie. When I read the "Report" I literally got sick at my stomach. The men and women of the Asheville Police Department are very caring and professional.The "Report" is a slap in the face to all of the men and women of the Department and the entire community they serve!
This "Report" is very biased, unprofessional, and full of untruths. It is not hard to see that Franklin had the attention of a couple of disgruntled employees,a few ex-employees, and the Mayor. The men and women of the department can do the math and come to their conclusion after seeing a couple of employees picking Franklin up at his hotel and riding him around, and the same employees out with the Mayor. Shame on you! Take a look in the mirror and ask yourselves what the real reason is that you haven’t been promoted? I would bet that if you answered hontesly it would not have a thing to do with race. Sometimes it is hard for one to realize their short comings and change. It is always easier to point the finger at someone else.
One could ask a couple of questions. If the relationship between APD and the community is so bad, why hasn’t the Mayor used her influence in the community to assist APD in its efforts in building relationships and recruiting more young African Americans? In fact, just how many young African American men and women has she brought into the police department? I dare say none!
Chief Hogan and all of the men and women of the department deserve an apology, and they deserve the support of the community.
I thank each of the officers for what they do day in and day out. Walk in their shoes for one shift and you will see how professional and caring APD is."
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Jeebus. It’s not just spelling and grammatical errors. It appears to have been written by a simpleton who doesn’t have the sense to get himself an edit. It’s like reading a fifth grader’s "REPORT".
I’m supposed to trust this guy’s conclusions? I don’t even trust his ability to flesh out a thought.
I’ve no doubt there are racial problems in the department. There are racial problems in nearly every department, and it’s important to address them. Maybe more important than this shoddy report reflects. $2,700? Really?
I’m in the wrong business.