MT. CARMEL—Failure of the Mt. Carmel city council to reach a workable resolution for a very serious health problem their police chief is suffering lead to a week’s worth of recrimination that the chief has said openly has damaged his reputation with the citizens he’s served for 22 years.
The matter first arose during a scheduled city council meeting Monday, Oct. 29, and in executive session with chief Jeff Besing, from which the council emerged and merely announced that Besing was being placed on “administrative leave” without any further explanation.
Because it was a closed executive session, that meant that it involved a subject that is among 23 exemptions to take out of the public eye and ear. These usually involve juveniles (in a school setting), litigation of some sort, or personnel. Generally, the council or board taking the meeting out of the public eye and ear announces what the exemption is so that the public can have an idea.
Apparently, this wasn’t done to the extent that those present fully understood what the context of the meeting entailed.
And when they emerged and the words “administrative leave” were announced as regards their chief, the rumors went flying almost immediately…since effectively, Mt. Carmel was without a police chief, and Besing was without a job.
Criticism arises
A particular city councilman did nothing to aid the matter.
While he will not be named, this councilman has been vocally critical about Besing and his job as a police chief since he was placed on the council last year.
Certain comments about Facebook photo postings (not of Besing’s; he doesn’t have a Facebook page. The postings were on a relative’s page) were circulating, and from those grew rumors of wrongdoing by Besing at the county’s Emergency Telephone System Board (E911 board). These were jumped on by a jumpy county, as their ETSB/E911 director, Colby Rigg, is under multiple felony charges for alleged wrongdoing (theft) at the agency.
From there, the rumors grew proportionately, and within a matter of days (and by the time the general public had learned of the incident, Thursday, November 1), there were rumors circulating online of Besing having gotten in trouble because of getting a co-worker pregnant at a recent company gathering, as well as rumors of being busted out filching funds from E911 as Rigg allegedly had done.
Calls to Mayor Bill Hudson by Disclosure only served to clear up that there was no wrongdoing on Besing’s part that ended in the administrative leave, but Hudson wouldn’t say what the origination of the leave was.
But by that time, four days had passed and the damage was largely done. Most people who’d gotten in trouble in some form by Besing or the Mt. Carmel police force were off and running with any hints or suggestions, passing the information around as the gospel truth, oblivious to the other exemptions that could keep a council from stating a reason why personnel matters would be kept in closed session until resolved.
Change in terminology
Finally, a six-hour meeting between the Mt. Carmel city council and their chief of police on the following Monday, Nov. 5 resulted in a change in the terminology of the chief’s leave.
When the council emerged from this meeting—also in executive session—“administrative leave” was changed to “medical leave”…and the public who had spent at least the better part of a week reviling the law enforcement officer learned the truth.
A few years ago, Besing and other city officers were in pursuit of a fleeing suspect. Besing chased the man across a rooftop of a building, while the suspect was waving a weapon at other officers, thus not only putting his life in danger based on where he was (the rooftop) but also because there was a gun directly involved. The man was caught, but during the chase, Besing fell and broke his leg.
He was off work for a term allowing the bone to heal, but was able to later treturn…only to find out that a blood clot situation was arising every so often from the break. Every time the blood clot would emerge, Besing’s doctor would take him off active duty and place him on light duty. Still Besing continued to work, even after he was on workman’s comp, in some capacity because the department needed its chief.
Told to stay off the leg
Ultimately, a few weeks ago, the leg swelled considerably and a visit to the doctor revealed that the clot was back—and that it was a life-threatening situation.
His physician told Besing he needed to STAY OFF the leg; that there was nothing that could be done, as the clot was inoperable, and they didn’t want to amputate the leg.
So Besing took it to the city council on the night of the 29th, wanting to confer with them on how they wished to handle his being laid up for an indefinite period of time.
They couldn’t work out anything specific, so instead they opted to place Besing on “administrative leave,” which was subsequently published by local media, who didn’t ask questions and didn’t bother to clarify.
Those who have bones to pick with cops, including the city councilman who knew better, gave in to speculation as listed above. None of that was the case, obviously…but the public didn’t know that, because the council chose not to release that it was a medical-related issue…and was life-threatening to boot.
The truth comes out
Finally, during Besing’s meeting with the council on the 5th, they hammered out the deal which amounted to Besing being placed on medical leave while he’s recovering from the recurring blood clot, with full pay and full benefits, until such a time as doctors can determine whether he can return to active duty. This will be evaluated in February, to see where the recovery is at that time.
Besing, unhappy about the way the council kind of threw him to the wolves over the administrative leave, as it opened up room for a lot of incorrect assumptions and caused considerable hardship for someone who already has a life-threatening condition, submitted the following to media:
“I have dedicated 22 years of my career to the Mt. Carmel Police Department working my way up from a patrol officer to detective, command sergeant, assistant chief and finally chief of police. The progress and changes that I have made to the department were done to make it more proficient and professional.
“This situation that evolved last Tuesday has accomplished putting suspicion and doubt in the public’s mind in regards to my professionalism and credibility. It has caused a great defamation to my character, my standing as a law enforcement official and credibility to my career by the way this incident was disclosed.
“I have received at the very least hundreds of text messages, phone calls, emails and visits from both the political community and general public offering their support to me during this time. The people that have criticized me and wrote negative comments on the various media sites have done so without knowing the details of the circumstances and were mostly people that I or our department have dealt with over the years.
“I have struggled with choosing not to defend the accusations and rumors that people were commenting on the media websites as to my administrative leave. This whole thing comes down to a serious medical condition that has been recurring and has come to me that I would not be able to fulfill my Chief of Police duties as I would of like to have done.
“The Mayor and myself have both realized that I need this time to heal and that the department cannot go without a functioning police chief and that we agreed that my medical leave will be re-evaluated no later than February 2013 at which time I will decide if I need to retire.
“I would like to thank those of you who supported me through this difficult time of speculation and lies. Your loyalty and friendship has meant a lot to me.”