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.

 

[Phil Convissor]

Ms Evans,...seriously?

[Phil Convissor]

Ms Evan, why do you consider him getting terminated once before,2003 as irrevalent, is beyond the pale. that was a prior. and ditto to all else, I don't know what relevance, to this, you are trying to give either.

[XWPD]

Mr. Convissor you seem to have me confused with someone else in the 2003 incident. My role in that incident was turning the former City Manager Mike Jäger in for what was reported to me as Embezzlement. I was fired on July 03, 2003 at 1:43pm and the reason was "poor evaluations". Now with that said, Mr. Jäger had just gave me an excellent evaluation just a couple of months before that. I turned that investigation over to MSP. I got my position back. 2 city council members resigned and 3 were recalled. Only ones left were Mayor Miller (no relation to the police chief or fire chief) and 1 city council member, Marie Hall who was battling cancer and has since died. I do not follow your comparison with the 2003 incident and 2012 incident. It's pretty oblivious YOU are not aware of ALL the facts in EITHER incident. Have a Good Day Sir.

[Phil Convissor]

I'm sorry XWPD Whomever this is, you have your story, alls I surmise is there were "priors" of some sort, what the politics was back then,I don't know. Who started what is irrelavent at this juncture. I do know the then chief got fired first, than the city manager got fired,for unrelated issues, it appears to me because of the embarrassment of the CM getting fired is the reason the then ex chief got his job  back. Conflict does seem to follow this guy, Maybe he thrives on it.

The Dereliction and abuse of his powerthis time was accessive and inexcusable,he was told by his boss to stay out of it, he agreed to stay out of it, and then chose not to stay out of it.

I'm sorry for him who is still in denial.

[XWPD]

Mr. Convissor maybe a person should not "surmise" on things They have little or no knowledge about. BTW, the PPO that was served on this person was within the CITY of WAYLAND city limits.

Several PPO 's have been served by Wayland Police OUTSIDE of the City Limits as a SERVICE to the taxpayers at NO CHARGE.

I DO KNOW THE Police Chief was fired wrongfully in 2003 and was quickly reinstated. The CM then was NOT fired. He quit on his own and the corrupt city council then gave him a years salary and benefits to leave shortly thereafter. AND, he was arrested by MSP on several charges thereafter.

This shoots down the theory of what one states "it appears to me because of the embarrassment of the CM getting fired is the reason the then ex chief got his job back" is not truthful.

So, in reference to the statement of "the dereliction and abuse of his power this time was accessive and inexcusable", do you really want to go there......

I'm pretty sure the police chief can do w/o you feeling sorry for him. May you have a good evening Mr. Convissor.

[Phil Convissor]

XWFD, who doesn't want to go where?... for whyyy?

[XWPD]

Disregard. If one has not got it by now, your on your own. Hasta la vista Mr. Convissor. :)

[XLFD]

Phil, you are entitled to your opinion here, but if you do go and form an opinion, you might want to actually put some substance into its creation. 

The 2003 incidents seem to vindicate Chief Miller's position at the time, and one would think that even with the resignations and recalls of the City hall staff at that time, that the people of Wayland recognized the problem with the rest of City hall, and Chief Miller's stance against corruption.  It would be a miracle if all the 'bad' elements of City Hall were routed out at that time, or corrective measures enacted and followed to stop any further drift back to foulness.

It's easy and often profitable to go with the flow of a corrupted stream; I believe Chief Miller continues to swim against the current.  This takes a lot of effort, and your own name gets befouled in the process, but if you stick to what's right and confront the enemies of the people, you will always win in the end. 

[Phil Convissor]

XLFD, are you saying he did nothing wrong? Or not enough to warrant termination? 

Do you consider not owning what you do or did wrong, no matter how trivial, a problem ?

Does doing a number of, lets say trivial things, but not owning them , make it harder to trust that someone? 

Does trust between officers in a small town Police Dept. Matter?

Does commraderie in a small town police dept matter?

Does getting a direct order from your boss not to do something, and then agreeing to that order, and then disobeying that order constitute that person who did it, to own it?

Did he do nothing wrong? Or is he just not owning it? This wanna be Goliath needs to own up man. Or not. 

It's really no hair off my back, it is what it is, and will be what it will be.

The sun will still rise and set,.. and so on and on and on.

Oh i did like XWPDs ending in one of their blogs sounded strangely familiar, what was it Asta lavista baby, well it was close anyway, nice to know somebody impotent is reading my blogs.

[AQUAMAN]

This has been quite a lengthy and confusing thread for some time now. I have been on both sides, and the fence too, from all the information developed here. I do appreciate the opinions of all whom have participated too I must say. As of late, XWPD seems to be making more direct positive progress for information and honesty, imho. XWPD appears and states he is Chief Miller, good for you and standing your ground sir. I do hope this scenario of events in a smaller west Michigan town does get cleared up sometime soon, as it weighs on the good name of that municipality, and no doubt on it's good citizenry. When both sides agree to disagree, there is usually no recourse left but the courts. That is a time consuming, costly, and messy way for all to go. We have seen it in our fair city of Ludington all too often also. Perhaps some arbitrator could help resolve the two sides differences, and make this all history, instead of festering into the future, where feelings and personalities are sure to get even more hurt, along with Wayland's reputation.

[XWPD]

Aquaman, well said. Good Day

[XLFD]

Phil,

I currently have two broad FOIA requests sent out to Wayland City Clerk Herman to check on the personnel records and the records associated with the PPO in question.  More will follow, because I want to get to the truth of the matter, and expose what I believe will be some seedy underpinnings of this matter.  Maybe I will find that Dan Miller should have been fired, but I think I will find more records like the 32 'violations' XWCM Hoffmeyer created which indicates that the legal disposal of legally disposable property of little value merits the first 18 counts of code/conduct violations. 

I believe that accusing someone of doing something wrong in a public record when they haven't, is grounds for a defamation lawsuit.  So the XWCM's list may actually depict that many violations did occur-- by its author, with XWPD as the victim. 

Someone who has been bad-mouthed on other forums for their background, like you Phil, should realize that such spurious allegations damage your reputation.  In my opinion, Chief Miller's detractions are unwarranted and he's fighting back to preserve his good name.  You, Phil, are not fighting back to preserve your good name, just adopting the method of your detractors to unmeritedly bring another down like was done to yourself.