Wayland Police Chief Dan Miller is Fired

[XLFD]

WAYLAND -- Police Chief Dan Miller, suspended since early January from his long-time job, was told Thursday that he violated city policy 32 times in the past.

The notice of the violations, presented to Miller by interim Wayland City Manager Terry Hofmeyer, came as Miller is to learn today whether he keeps his 26-year job as Wayland police chief.

Miller said the alleged policy violations are minor and most are related to earlier allegations involving a state police probe over possible mismanagement of confiscated evidence.

The state Attorney General's office recently cleared Miller of any criminal wrongdoing of the allegations. In one instance, he was accused of keeping a seized GPS unit for his own use.

Miller was cleared more than a month ago, but he remained on paid suspension by the interim city manager pending an internal investigation of other possible wrongdoing.

Many community members have come to his aid, packing City Council meetings to urge the board to reinstate Miller to his full duties.

Miller said Thursday that he had a "predetermination" meeting with Hofmeyer that lasted less than five minutes. During that meeting, he was handed a list of 32 alleged policy violations that happened in the past and asked for any comment.

Miller said he did not know what would happen today with the city manager's decision, expected to be released to the media mid-morning.

He considers all of the alleged violations to be minor. Some involved his service of a personal protection order notice and others involved investigative document he had taken home to study.

Miller has a 40-year career in law enforcement, including 26 years as chief of Wayland police.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/04/suspended_...

 

WOOD TV confirms that Dan Miller has confirmed his firing this morning.  The Ludington Torch has been following this story since the beginning of the year, and this looks to be just the start of a brewing controvery.  Will this turn out like the brouhaha about a decade ago where the Chief prevailed over a corrupt City Manager?  Or have the tables turned on the Chief? 

Read more here at: 

 http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/wayward-and-waylaid-i...
http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/the-tail-wayland-the-dog

 

In case you missed it the first time.

 

[Marty Redman]

I know Wayland is a ways away from Ludington, but you latched onto whats turning out to be a story that should get interesting fast.  I want to go through Wayland my next time up just to drop by city hall and say WTF is going on here.

[Willy]

Poor Wayland. They don't need this type of publicity.

[XLFD]

Even so, the dynamics of the political system in Wayland has me believe that there will be a resolution to these issues that will bring in some reform and much needed oversight to that City Hall, whoever comes out on top in the end.  It will also lead to the involvement of good men and women of the community to come forward and help the process.

[april]

lol Wayland sucks. I used to live there. 

[XLFD]

It sounds like you're doing a bang-bang job of covering what's going on, Shawn.  As an outsider, just looking at the actions taken, past actions, and the sequence of those actions, that Police Chief Miller is getting railroaded out of his job over minutiae, over the complaints of an ex-wife and a city council that is at odds with him.   What is unclear, is some of the reasons and motivations.

I did see in the news where Dan was able to keep his position as a volunteer fireman for Wayland, serving under his brother, the fire chief.  This was done to quell a full-scale rebellion, but you have to wonder why he would be permitted to do so if he was such a bad person who committed 32 infractions as police chief.

Hopefully, some FOIAs may clear the situation up, because my empathy for Wayland's Police Chief Dan Miller has grown since our first Wayland story, and the arrival of supplementary information.  Thanks for your community involvement, Shawn, and feel free to alert us to developments in this story in the future. 

[Phil Convissor]

In response to you thinking she did a "bang bang" Job of investigating it sounds like she just hung her man out to dry to me.

8/18 complaints are filed with city manager about "personal" misconduct 

8/19 Miller acknowledges complaint and says it wont happen again

9/15 Miller orders an officer to serve ppo on live in girlfriends ex

Shes basically admitting miller slapped his boss in the face, and now he's got to pay the price, 

[XLFD]

As stated in the other thread, the PPO could have been sent by certified mail with no extra problem.  As far as ordering his officer to do so, then there would be a paper trail that should be publicly available as regards its service, and whether he timely complained about it. 

The officer consenting to serve it shows to me that at the time, he had no objections to it.  The officer feeling 'awkward' and 'embarassed' for performing a duty of his job (serving PPOs signed by a judge, and given back to the Chief for service) is more of a dereliction of duty to me, Phil, and it is a stretch to say this move by Miller slapped his boss in the face. 

[Willy]

The Chief might not have committed any crimes but he sure didn't use his head on some of the issues that he was involved in. He should have turned the equipment over to a third party [manager or city council] and had them handle it or he should have sold the equipment and turned the money over to the City. He should have stayed away from serving the ppo since he definitely had a conflict of interest regarding that matter. And if your boss tells you not to do something and you do it anyway that would be insubordination and grounds for dismissal. Official records do not belong at an employees house especially sensitive papers dealing with his subordinates. He may be a terrific Police officer but he didn't learn from the first fight he had with the other Manager. He should not have given them any opening to accuse him of misdeeds. I think he was over confident and improperly miscalculated his chances of being dismissed.

[XLFD]

I currently have a FOIA request out looking into the Chief's personnel file.  I don't see Hoffmeyer's first 18 violations as violations by the laws of this state.  Maybe not the smartest moves, like not stopping completely at a stop sign on your bicycle when the LPD is nearby, but not unlawful.  

I still give him the benefit of the doubt on the PPO-- he may have helped prepare it, but a judge signed it, and the court sent it back to his office to serve, perhaps without knowing that the petitioner was the Chief's girlfriend.

As for the rest, these violations weren't investigated by the MSP, and except for the cell phone, were provocated by the Chief's wife throwing him out on his ear one night, leaving some of his official effects compromised.  Does it amount to this degree of discipline, especially if his prior behavior has been exemplary, if not sloppy at times?  I don't believe so, but I don't have the whole story.  But the Chief doesn't look like he will go down without a fight, and so we may finally see what's behind the curtains.    

[Phil Convissor]

Sorry missed a couple "Timelines" 

07/25/2011- Wayland city officer complains to former city manager(without Chief Millers Knowledge) regarding a complaint filed from Chief Millers girlfriend.

08/10/2011- E-mail was sent from Wayland officer to inform City Manager regarding feeling "AWKWARD AND EMBARRASSED" handling complaints fromchief millers girlfriend.(Without chief millers knowledge)

Can you see its no wonder the officer felt compelled to do what he was told after 3 attempts with city manager to do something about this mis-use of power, and still nothing was done. Not to mention who's in charge here? Or was in charge then. Last I knew subordinates do what their told, the officer was the Chiefs subordinate, and the chief was the city managers subordinate, or employee. Hint... Employees get canned everyday for insubordination.

The buck stops with the Chief. Plain and simple " With power comes great Responsibility" 

[Sweater Cows!]

It is an officers job to handle complaints from citizens whether they are dating the chief or not isn't it? Perhaps the officer didn't like being involved in the situation because the complaintant was the chief girlfriend, but it's still his job to handle the complaints.

[Phil Convissor]

I guess atlas you did not read the "timeline" that was put together, it points out insubordination, in Michigan that is reason enough for termination, put that together with the other stuff, and his prior termination in 2003 any logical person can see he should have been towing the line a little better. Maybe he was thinking because he was reinstated in 2003, his luck would never run out. Another word for this is Narcissism.