The city of Burlington had three police chiefs on Monday. After appointing an interim chief at noon, the mayor announced hours later he replaced that officer too. It all comes down to social media.
On July 4th Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo used an anonymous Twitter account for an hour to criticize a local activist and department critic. He deleted the account but did not inform Mayor Miro Weinberger of his actions until July 28th. He also denied it to a reporter from the weekly newspaper Seven Days. The mayor placed Chief del Pozo on administrative leave to investigate. It was determined that no illegal acts occurred but evaluations found mental health issues affected his actions. The chief then took six weeks of medical leave. None of that was known to the public and city councilors until Seven Days published an article last weekdetailing the situation. At noon on Monday, Mayor Weinberger announced that he had accepted del Pozo’s resignation. “While I believe that Chief del Pozo has been truly an outstanding chief and while it was clear to me that despite his mistakes he continued to have considerable support within the city council, the police department, the police commission, and the community, it was also clear that if he’d continued to serve the days ahead and be very challenging for him, his family, the department and the city. I've asked Deputy Chief Jan Wright to serve once again as Acting Chief and she's agreed to do so.”
But within hours Jan Wright was no longer the Acting Police Chief. The Democratic mayor sat before the City Council Monday evening to explain why he had replaced Wright Monday afternoon. “Much to my surprise Deputy Chief Wright shared that she had occasionally operated a Facebook account. Given the circumstances the department is facing I found the failure to raise the issue with me to constitute a serious lapse in judgment. I've now named Deputy Chief John Murad as the Acting Chief. Murad has confirmed explicitly that he's never engaged anonymous social media posting. I am asking an outside investigator to conduct a thorough review of the Burlington Police Department's social media activity and practices.”
City councilors questioned the mayor following his update. Ward 2 Progressive Max Tracy wanted to know if the mayor had followed up with the individuals targeted in Chief del Pozo’s surreptitious tweets. “Just wondering Mr. Mayor if you have personally apologized on behalf of the city to either Mr. Winkelman or Miss Lamdin in with regards to the harm that was caused each of them.”
Mayor Weinberger: “I do apologize to Charles Winkleman for what happened. I did spend considerable time on the phone with Courtney Lamdin and explained at length what happened.”
The mayor came under fire during the council’s public comment period with a number of activists and residents calling for his resignation. Resident Steve Goodkind says even if the chief had a medical condition, underlying issues have eroded public trust in the city administration. “The mayor and the city attorney are masters of techniques to conceal information from the public and other city officials. Their scheme had one purpose to make sure that nobody, not the public, not the police commission, not the city council ever got wind of this. This was just a complete cover up. The trust levels for these two are very low and may be beyond repair.”
Charles Winkleman is an activist that the former police chief targeted on Twitter. “I've spent the last five months wondering if the police are following me. Mayor Weinberger, I do not accept your apology. And I will not accept your apology until you resign.”
Earlier in the meeting Councilor Adam Roof urged Burlingtonians to learn from the situation. “We all need to be kinder and smarter on social media because it's not just a fake world. It does have real world impacts.”
Audio is courtesy of the Burlington Free Press and Channel 17 Town Meeting Television.
