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minutes 10-27-99Page 34 of 48
<br />WURDEMAN: Or the Mayor’s Office, or the Finance Department. I don’t know. Somewhere where
<br />someone can do the necessary record keeping, budgeting, procurement, and typing, and notice giving,
<br />but where the adversarial process, involving issues of the moment, is not being heard.
<br />HERKES: Citizens Advocate.
<br />RAY: So, more questions for Mr. Wurdeman on this particular -
<br />IRVINE: I guess this is slightly off the subject because it’s concerning all Boards and Commissions.
<br />There’s a lot of Boards and Commissions that seem to be having conflict of interest problems, and
<br />maybe it’s inherent, but do you have any comment on the possibility of moving, say, the Ethics Board
<br />under you, or over to the Prosecutor’s Office, or moving the Police Commission to the Prosecuting
<br />Attorney’s Office, where it would be more independent of the department it’s watching?
<br />WURDEMAN: No, I don’t think there’s a problem with the Police Commission and the department. I
<br />mean, I’ve seen some pretty healthy disputes between the two.
<br />IRVINE: Okay, what about Ethics?
<br />WURDEMAN: One of them is what we were talking about. The Commission wants to know what
<br />happened to Officer So and So who they thought committed some heinous offense, and they don’t get
<br />any answer back. They get very upset.
<br />IRVINE: I think, maybe, it does hinder their ability to work, then, if they can’t get an answer and get
<br />very upset.
<br />RAY: But how would that be answered by moving the Commission?
<br />IRVINE: I don’t think that would. His argument isn’t relevant to moving the Commission. Problems that
<br />might be solved by moving the Commission are the ones that are going on in the Police Department
<br />right now. If an officer, in 1988, had felt free to go to the Commission and say, I’ve got a problem, and
<br />he didn’t, or he didn’t do it, saying I have a problem with things here, so I don’t know if there’s anything
<br />we can do to make things look more independent, or somehow -
<br />RAY: Okay, but, I don’t want to get drug into that. I mean, that was then. This is now.
<br />IRVINE: Well, -
<br />RAY: Wait, wait. And do we have a problem, or perceived problem, with the way things are working
<br />now, that would prompt a change. I think that’s what we should be focused on, rather than what may or
<br />may not have occurred in 1988.
<br />IRVINE: I think there’s a perceived problem in the Police Department right now, whether we can solve
<br />it through the Charter, at all, or make things look, or seem, or be perceived, to be more independent, or
<br />that we can shed more light on what goes on. That’s what I’m exploring.
<br />RAY: Okay. Mr. Martin.
<br />MARTIN: Just a question, and Chris, I’m posing it to you, and Mr. Wurdeman, possibly you can help
<br />answer this question. I think I asked it the last time that this question came up. If an officer does have a
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