Jeffersonville's Police Merit Commission taps president

Clark County

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November 26, 2009

Commissioners urged to move quickly to adopt rules

By MATT THACKER The News and Tribune Thu Nov 26, 2009, 12:09 PM EST

The lone remaining member from the original version of Jeffersonville’s Police Merit Commission was selected on Wednesday to be president of the newly appointed commission.

Dr. Stuart Robertson, a physician, was the only commissioner to be nominated for president at its first meeting.

Dennis Henry, club manager at Jeffersonville Elks Lodge, was unanimously selected as vice president. Dennis Henry Bonnie Deppert, an administrator for the University of Louisville, was unanimously selected as secretary.

Jeff Esarey, an investment secretary for Edward D. Jones & Co., and Clay “Beany” Smith, a Free Enterprise bus driver, make up the rest of the commission.

Smith was selected by city council, while Henry and Esarey were selected by the mayor. Deppert and Robertson were selected by the Fraternal Order of Police.

Bob Bottorff was hired by Mayor Tom Galligan on Wednesday as the commission’s attorney to replace Indianapolis-based Charles Braun.

The clock is now ticking. The commission has 90 days from Nov. 6, the date all of the commissioner appointments were finalized, to adopt rules and regulations.

The original commission did not meet the 90-day deadline and attorneys for the city and commission agreed the commission would not be valid until 2010. R. Monty Snelling was replaced by the FOP, and Conrad Moorer was replaced by the city council leading the resignations of Judy DeSimone and Tom Bodine.

Robertson said that if anyone thinks it is possible for a commission to come up with rules and regulations from scratch within 90 days, then “you’re delusional.” The new commission has a head-start because a draft of the rules and regulations was already written by the prior commission.

“It’s tough. It’s not going to be easy. Fortunately, we have a prior commission that put in a lot of the legwork,” said City Council Attorney Greg Clark, who began the process by organizing the initial meeting.

Robertson said they are under pressure to move quickly but that they must be careful not to make mistakes.

“There’s going to be a lot of people looking at us to get this done in a timely fashion considering what happened with the last board,” he said.

The commission is also being pushed because the city wants to hire new police officers. Galligan said they will need to have police officers hired by February or March at the latest.

“Our goal is to make this as transparent as possible,” Galligan said at the meeting.

The mayor urged the commissioners to move quickly.

“We hope that whatever happened the last time doesn’t happen again,” Galligan said, referring to the missed deadline by the previous commission. “We don’t know how it got into the [news]paper and how it got to the point that it did.”

Sgt. Joe Hubbard, president of the local FOP, said he and Assistant Chief Mike Pavey reviewed the rules and regulations proposed by the prior commission.

“We’re pretty confident to go ahead and accept what you have before you,” he said.

The commission’s next meeting will be Monday, Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. They hope to begin discussing the proposed rules and set up a plan for opening the application process for new officers.