Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

WILKES-BARRE — The head of the city council said he would prefer an internal resolution to the differences between police and their boss, Chief Marcella Lendacky, rather than outside intervention.

Council Chairman Bill Barrett acknowledged there was precedent for the Wilkes-Barre Police Benevolent Association seeking outside help, but he was reluctant to get involved in what amounted to a labor dispute.

“At this point, I would say no,” Barrett said Friday.

PBA President Sgt. Phil Myers told council Thursday night the union overall had no confidence in Lendacky and presented copies of a 102-page survey officers completed anonymously on working conditions, the administration of the department and morale. He also asked council to exercise its power granted by the city charter to investigate any city department.

Myers cited the 1979 inquiry by the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office into the possible protection from prosecution of Francis Hannon, who was convicted for the 1975 murder of Olga Burns. The probe resulted in a report listing errors by the department, the retirement of then-police chief John Riddick and suspension and demotion of a detective.

Barrett, a former city police chief, said he saw “nothing tangible” in the survey that would necessitate an investigation. He distinguished between the district attorney’s probe of the murder investigation and the union’s issues with the chief.

“It appears as though there needs to be a dialogue” between the union and the administration, Barrett said.

“It can’t be ignored,” Barrett added, and he called upon Mayor Tony George to take ownership of the situation and stop blaming the former office holder, Tom Leighton.

“It’s December,” Barrett said.

Lendacky, who attended Thursday night’s council meeting, offered a terse, “No comment,” when approached Friday on Public Square.

George defended his appointment of Lendacky as the first female chief of the department and dismissed the union’s survey.

“There’s no need for an investigation,” George said.

As for low morale, George said that’s because Lendacky makes the officers work and they don’t like her as a result. “Everything she’s telling them to do comes from me,” he said.

George singled out Myers as disgruntled because of the change of command. In the past under Leighton and the other chiefs, Myers “ran the department,” George said, adding, “I took that power off him.”

Myers disputed George’s characterization of the dispute as a personality issue. To the contrary, the union members don’t have confidence in her ability to lead the department, Myers said.

“She sticks her nose in everything,” he said. “We have a lot of very good, smart professional officers, younger officers. All they want to do is come to work and do their job.”

But they’re required to write reports instead of doing police work and reducing crime, Myers said.

He labeled as false the mayor’s depiction of “total anarchy” in the department under Leighton.

“He’s painting our agency as if we’re a bunch of corrupt outlaws and we’re not,” Myers said. If discipline was warranted, it was given out, he said.

One noticeable difference since Lendacky took over is in the area of training, according to Myers.

“There’s been very little professional development in the department over the last year,” he said.

And at the end of October, the First Aid/CPR certifications for many offices expired, putting the department at risk, Myers said. The biennial certifications, as well as qualifying with their firearms, are required by the Harrisburg-based Municipal Police Officers Education and Training Commission, he explained.

The commission is aware of it, said Ryan Tarkowski, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Police. The state police administers the training program established by the commission.

In the case of lapses, MPOETC gives police agencies time to get recertified, he said.

“That’s what happening,” Tarkowski said.

Myers
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_Myers_Phil-2.jpg.optimal.jpgMyers

By Jerry Lynott

[email protected]

THE SURVEY

The Wilkes-Barre Police Benevolent Association surveyed its 77 members on a number of topics including working conditions in the department, morale and confidence in the administration’s leadership. The participation rate was 88 percent, with 68 members responding anonymously to the survey.

Some of the results were:

• Approximately 81 percent of the respondents are unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with working conditions.

• Approximately 87 percent of the respondents feel the conditions or atmosphere of the department is still “toxic” or became even more “toxic” since January 2016.

• Approximately 90 percent of the respondents feel that Chief Marcella Lendacky is primarily responsible for the current state of morale in the department.

• More than 85 percent of the respondents do not feel supported by the current police administration.

• 12 percent of the respondents would definitely stay at the department if offered a job with similar pay and benefits.

Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.