The Columbus-area police union is taking the city of Whitehall to court after the city placed one of its officers on paid administrative leave after showing a slideshow to the mayor calling for a change in police department leadership.
Whitehall officer Enrique Ortega is the union grievance representative who was hired by Whitehall in 2008. The lawsuit contends Ortega raised concerns from the city's officers against the Whitehall police chief and deputy chief via a survey presented to the mayor.
That presentation alleged a toxic work environment and said many officers are considering leaving the department.
The FOP lawsuit said that after the presentation, Ortega was placed on paid administrative leave by the city. Now the police union is suing, claiming what Ortega did was protected union activity.
The union filed for a temporary restraining order preventing an internal affairs investigation into Ortega.
Whitehall Police Chief Mike Crispen is disputing the allegations he and Deputy Chief Chad Wilder created a toxic work environment. He said Ortega is on paid leave, but that's because he made threats to the department.
Crispen said Ortega is alleged to have said if Whitehall "[thinks] they got a bad employee, they haven't seen one yet" followed by a statement that Ortega will "mess things up" at the department. Crispen said he hasn't had a chance to verify that Ortega said these things.
"(These are) threats that were made. And I have an obligation to protect the department," Crispen said.
Crispen said the allegations against him alleging a toxic work environment are false.
"I will tell you that demonstrably so, it's all false. None of those things are happening," Crispen said.
According to the lawsuit filed in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas by the Fraternal Order of Police, Ortega helped the FOP create a "wellness survey" in April after the FOP received a large number of repeated concerns and complaints about the working conditions within the Whitehall Police Department.
The lawsuit said 40 members took the survey. After it was complete, Ortega presented it to Whitehall Mayor Michael Bivens in a PowerPoint presentation in May.
WOSU obtained a copy of the presentation titled "Patrol Concerns." The survey results shown there said a large number of WPD employees felt overwhelmed, anxious, depressed and angry at work either always, usually or sometimes.
The survey found that over 66% of the employees said morale at the department was "horrible," and another 22% said it was poor or below average. More than half said they either have active applications in to work elsewhere or plan on applying to other jurisdictions soon.
Whitehall City Attorney Brad Nicodemus said the city will not comment on pending litigation.
Anonymous comments included in the slideshow pointed the finger at police department's leadership for a bad work culture.
Multiple comments alleged the police chief compared officers to McDonald's workers, saying officers are as replaceable as fast-food employees and that being a police officer is as easy as working at a McDonald's.
Other concerns allege officers were forced by leadership to violate people's Fourth Amendment rights and that there had been a high turnover at the department with over two dozen officers leaving in the last five years because of Wilder and Crispen.
Most of the comments called for a change in leadership.
Crispen said he wants to have an internal affairs investigative interview with Ortega and a police union, but the temporary restraining order is preventing that for at least two weeks. The court will have hearings on whether the restraining order will be extended at a later date.
Crispen said the FOP has done similar things with past mayors and his strategy is just to "shrug my shoulders and move on with life."
Crispen said he has done his own anonymous surveys since he became chief and similar concerns have been brought to his attention as was the case in Ortega's survey. He said when he asked employees about these concerns, including Ortega, they never presented any evidence of what happened.
"None of those things are happening, which is the most interesting thing to me, because sometimes these things...have a little truth in them, but these are just things the rumor mill got themselves all worked up over," Crispen said.
Crispen also praised the work of Deputy Chief Wilder, who he said has been with the department for 20 years.
"The number one problem that these folks have is that this deputy chief makes them work. And he holds them accountable to working," Crispen said.
FOP president Brian Steel told WOSU he will speak about the matter at Whitehall City Council's meeting on Tuesday evening.
