A recent upheaval at city hall has left the City of Moorhead in need of five new police officers, including a new police chief.
City manager Percel Moore confirmed this week that former Chief Bobby Walker and four of his officers no longer work for the city.
Moore has already begun the process of advertising the positions but said no new officers have been hired.
Mayor George Holland said the city’s labor attorney, Preston “Bo” Rideout of Greenwood, instructed Moore to go ahead and post the job openings.
He said the law enforcement officers’ letters of termination were actually issued on Jan. 4, but the officers have been in the appeals process. He could offer no additional information.
Holland said, “The chief was terminated, those people who said that they were locked out were not locked out. They actually abandoned their jobs because they did not show up for work.”
The officers reportedly said they showed up for work and the doors to the police department were locked.
“The locks on the back door were changed, city hall opens at 7 o’clock in the morning the time that these people are supposed to report to work. They would not. They didn’t come into the city hall,” Holland said.
He said the time clock was at the entrance to the building and the officers could have come in, clocked in and sat and waited, if they couldn’t gain access to the police department offices.
Moore said although the locks were changed on the back door, there was a memo left on the door informing them to contact the city manager to gain entrance to the police department.
However, Moore said Walker told the officers not to contact the city manager.
Holland said according to what he was told, Rideout met with the officers’ attorney and also with Moore and instructed Moore to proceed with the job postings, but there was no meeting with the attorney that he or the other members of the council were involved in although it was announced at a city council meeting earlier in the month.
The terminations stem from a December incident in which Walker said he was notified by text message that he had been placed on investigative suspension and subsequently locked out of his offices without a clear reason as to why.
Walker said then that the actions were in retaliation to sexual harassment complaints made by his officers against Moore.
Moore denied the allegations and stated that at least one of the officers, who was later terminated had been placed on suspension without pay because of an incident at the county jail.
Moore said that as city manager he has the authority to hire or terminate any “staff employee” without input from the council.
And according to him the city manager’s authority covers all but the city clerk, city attorney or the assistant city manager.
Moore said any additional information regarding the officers’ appeal or the case in general had to be received from the city’s labor attorney.
The reason for Walker’s subsequent termination has not been revealed and Walker could not be reached by press time for comment.
