Calling ‘shenanigans’ on Houston

Well, the Valley’s longest-running comedy/tragedy continues its historic run, starring the Keystone … I mean Houston … cops. Like watching replays of Joe Theismann’s leg breaking, you just can’t help but gawk at the internal drama that is the city of Houston.

Last night, the city council voted 4-2 to fire police Sgt. Charlie Seidl after reviewing a report estimated to be between 30 and 40 pages and authored by police Officer Charley McAnnaly. Judging by the council debate before its vote, the report seems to allege Seidl failed to complete official reports, operated outside the chain of command and left the city without police protection by not giving enough advance notice to Alaska State Troopers about changes to his schedule.

While all of the above may be true, it’s difficult to not call “shenanigans” on this one. It’s no secret Mayor Roger Purcell wanted Seidl gone and tried to fire him last month. The council then sided with Seidl and allowed him to keep his job. But Seidl was relieved of his duties as the department head (there are only two officers supervised by Purcell) and McAnnaly, who is still a probationary employee of the city, was named the supervisor.

It seems odd that a probationary officer who has only been the department head for a very short time could come up with such a massive personnel report on Seidl. There are multiple lifetime offenders in our criminal justice system whose files don’t carry that kind of girth.

If you’re a law enforcement officer in Alaska, why in the world would you ever consider working for the city of Houston? It’s a revolving door for police and the negative publicity Purcell and those on the council too spineless to work for the people who elected them (not their small-town political cronies) virtually guarantees that Houston will only be able to attract the least able and capable law enforcement officers — those who either can’t get a job anywhere else or are oblivious to the situation they’d be signing up for.

—Greg Johnson