Long gone

WASILLA — Angella Long was fired Friday as chief of the Wasilla Police Department.

Long served at the pleasure of Mayor Verne Rupright. Both Long and Rupright have their own versions of what led to her dismissal.

Long said that from her vantage it appears she was fired for disagreeing with the mayor over his plans to restructure the department. She said that according to Rupright’s budget, by 2010 the mayor planned to eliminate the deputy chief’s position, putting Deputy Chief Greg Wood out on the street.

“I felt it was a bad idea and that we need a position there,” Long said, and she told Rupright that but, “apparently the mayor didn’t agree.”

She said relations with her boss had been professional and collegial since he was elected last year until she disagreed with him.

Rupright disputes most of what Long said. He said he was simply trying to turn the deputy chief’s position into a lieutenant’s position.

“It’s six of one, half a dozen of the other,” the mayor said.

Long’s dismissal, he said, was of a piece with a somewhat larger restructuring plan he’s put in place at the city, where he also dismissed the city’s finance director, Cheryl Deariso, the week before last. He said he’s been on the job for six months and put a lot of thought into both moves. He contrasted that style to the one Sarah Palin employed when she became mayor.

“She called for everybody’s resignation and then had them re-apply for the positions,” Rupright said.

In the interim, Rupright said, he’s talked to Wood, who has told the mayor he would stay on, be it as a deputy chief or as a lieutenant. Rupright has also put Sgt. Craig Robinson in charge of the department as acting chief.

“He was the first sergeant who was ever made, four months after the department was founded,” Rupright said of Robinson’s qualifications. “He acted as chief a number of times.”

Next, Rupright said, he’ll re-jigger the chief’s job description and put the position out for applications. The same process is under way in the finance department where city controller Troy Tankersley is in charge while a search is conducted for a new department head.

As for Long, she said she’s not saying Rupright didn’t have the right to fire her, but she worries about how the department will deal with changes afoot at the city, where annexation plans might expand the department’s coverage area.

“I’m not out there to rake a bunch of mud. It’s just I’m worried about the department,” Long said.

And, she said, she’ll likely be moving on. Long was with the department before there was a department, having been hired to work as secretary for Irl Stambaugh, the city’s first police chief, as he worked to found the department.

Since then, she’s served in many roles — as a patrol officer, an investigator, deputy chief and then as chief.

“I think I’m done with the city, but you know what, there are a lot of doors opening for me,” Long said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.