A Failing Mayor Andy Berke Administration Begins to Tank, Goes Down Even Faster as Attacks on Chattanooga’s Beloved Chief Bobby Dodd Have No Substance and Highlight Even More the Incompetence of Andy Berke and Staff

The Talk Radio Morning Crew was baffled Friday morning by what people were calling “A Vengeful Story” and “Personal” Attempt to Smear retired Police Chief Bobby Dodd… But the whole thing quickly turned back on the Mayor Andy Berke Administration showcasing more lies, deception, and bullying.

CitizenWatchHCD asks the questions the people want answers to…

In perhaps the most public expose yet, revealing Mayor Andy Berke and Administration’s bullying tactics: what appears to be a vengeful story, planted to smear retired Police Chief Bobby Dodd quickly turned on the Berke Administration, highlighting their incompentance in running the city, let alone running for governor (if that’s really what they are planning to do).

Chattanooga Times Free Press: “Text shows Jeff Cannon OK’d iPad transfer to Bobby Dodd, staff”

“A Jan. 7 text on former Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd’s phone from a top mayoral aide said the retiring chief and his top staff could keep $2,500 worth of city iPads…

“I’ll take care of it,” Jeff Cannon, then Mayor Andy Berke’s chief operating officer, wrote. “I’ll let [Chief Stan] Maffett know about the iPads.”

The text message retained on Dodd’s phone contradicts a statement from Berke’s office Thursday that Cannon had not agreed to the request, and that there was no documentation to prove he had authorized Dodd and his three chiefs to keep the equipment.

“There is not a report as Jeff did not authorize it,” Berke spokeswoman Lacie Stone said in an email Thursday.”

Clearly, there is a report. This is why longterm city government employees understand the importance of keeping written records, and perhaps that is why the Mayor Andy Berke Administration is looking at destroying public records.

Interesting Side Note: Why Is the Berke Administration Destroying Public Records?

Chattanooga Times Free Press: “Chattanooga’s Quest to Dump Old Records Stirs Debate”

“A $2.6 million taxpayer-funded project is under way to digitize hundreds of thousands of city records — a project that Mayor Andy Berke’s staff says will increase government transparency and efficiency…

Yet since the City Council authorized the funds in February, the city attorney’s office has been simultaneously studying what records the city must legally retain and how many they can shred — potentially destroying decades of old documents…

Those documents could include old discrimination complaints, incident reports and utility billing records — the latter of which have been employed recently during months of scrutiny into the city’s streetlight billing program…

In February, an appeals court judge ruled that the city had to pay $70,000 in attorney fees after officials “willfully” withheld records from Little. She had requested annexation records dating back to 1972. She said she wanted those records to prove the city hadn’t implemented sewer and road plans promised 40 years earlier when the area was annexed…

The City Council voted in 2002 to follow the MTAS guidelines for keeping records, but Richardson said city officials didn’t follow through.”

And Global Green Lighting CEO Don Lepard who filed a Whistleblower Lawsuite on behalf of all citizens against EPB, also finds it curious that the city is now using $2.6 million of tax payer dollars to destroy written documents. Interesting timing, don’t you think?

Don Lepard, founder of streetlight vendor Global Green Lighting, also questions the need to get rid of documents.

Lepard has been caught in a three-way struggle with the city and its utility EPB, over a contract to install streetlights. He has said he found discrepancies in EPB bills for streetlights through public city records.

Lepard recently filed an open records request for EPB billing records dating back to 2000, and he requested the oldest records retained even on microfiche. As a result, he said he just can’t understand why the city would want to get rid of records that could help them with any future discrepancies.

“It boggles me,” Lepard said.

The people would like to know why the Mayor Andy Berke Administration is saying they are going to provide an “open” government as they are in the process of destroying written documents? Who will oversee this process besides Berke appointee City Attorney Wade Hinton?

Back to the Story at Hand: As Public Trust in the Berke Administration hits an all-time low, Personal Attack on Chattanooga’s beloved and retired Police Chief says it all

So, back to this vengeful story waged against the retired Police Chief and his retired assistant chiefs about keeping their city-issued iPads. This story appears to be an attempt by the Mayor Andy Berke Administration to take the spotlight off themselves and this should never have made the newspaper. It was conveniently released in the middle of the EPB “Street Lighting” controversy and Don Lepard’s Whistleblower Lawsuit against EPB.

Just a day before, Mayor Andy Berke failed to provide real answers on a Talk Radio interview regarding the growing controversy over EPB audit findings and the contract Berke broke with Don Lepard’s Global Green Lighting company.

And then on Friday morning, retired Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd woke up to the news that Mayor Andy Berke’s newly appointed Police Chief Fred Fletcher may be pressing criminal charges against him… for keeping his city-issued iPad for depositions and other official proceedings, after receiving approval from Berke’s former Chief Operating Officer Jeff Cannon:

Chattanooga Times Free Press: “Dodd, top staff kept city of Chattanooga iPads, audit shows”

“A city audit found that retired Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd and some of his command staff kept $2,500 worth of city-owned iPads when they retired…

Now current Chief Fred Fletcher says he wants the equipment back and will pursue criminal charges if necessary against his predecessor…

‘We have an entirely new administration and an entirely new way we will hold ourselves accountable,’ Fletcher said Thursday.”

“Criminal charges”? You’ve got to be kidding. Instead of personally attacking retired Police Chief Bobby Dodd through the newspaper and the airwaves, why didn’t the Berke Administration pick up the phone and ask, “Bobby, where are the iPads? We need them back.” And… they would have found out that one of their own Berke staffers, former Chief Operating Officer Jeff Cannon (who resigned earlier this year) signed off on the whole thing.

“A new way we will hold ourselves accountable”? Really? Like how the Mayor Andy Berke Administration is [read: is not] holding themselves accountable for recent audit findings regarding EPB street lighting controversy and the Chattanooga Public Library?

On another note, we like Fred Fletcher, but we wonder if he is beginning to realize he was sold a bill of goods… and when will he begin to question why in the world he moved to Chattanooga from Austin to work for the Mayor Andy Berke Administration.

Talk Radio’s Jeff Styles began asking questions on Friday morning’s show about the inconsistency of the Mayor Andy Berke Administration in how they are dealing with the recent city audit findings:

For instance, why is it that the Mayor Andy Berke Administration was so quick to wield Stan Sewell’s audit report against retired Police Chief Bobby Dodd and send this audit report to the State Comptroller’s Office?

Meanwhile, the Mayor Andy Berke Administration seems to have blatant disregard for Stan Sewell’s audit report when it comes to city-owned utility EPB’s “Street Lighting Fiasco” and have yet to send that report to the State for resolution.

“Transperancy” has been the campaign cry for the Berke Administration. But the people are beginning to believe “thou doth protest too much.” The more you say it, the less we believe it. The transperancy of the Berke Administration is as clear as mud: the political manipulation behind-the-scenes… the carefully crafted talking points… the secretive, closed-door meetings…

And now this attempt to smear retired Police Chief Bobby Dodd is a very public example of how the Mayor Andy Berke Administration use fear, intimidation, and bullying tactics. There appears to be no limit to what this Administration will stoop to to push their agenda at everyone else’s expense, that means us, the taxpayers, or “We The People.”

Mayor Andy Berke and Administration: The people will no longer tolerate your fear and intimidation tactics. The people will no longer tolerate your bullying of city employees, of local businesses, of neighborhood associations, of everyday Chattanooga citizens — “The People.”

The People #SpeakTruthToPower