Chaffee officials unavailable to release vote on police chief

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- No Chaffee city officials were available Friday to release the outcome of a vote taken to hire a new police chief during a closed session meeting Monday by the city council.

State law allows a governmental body to wait 72 hours before releasing results of votes taken in closed session, which Chaffee Mayor Steve Loucks announced the council would do following Monday's meeting. Around 30 residents waited for the announcement outside city hall Monday night.

With the 72-hour waiting period in use, the city was required, under the Sunshine Law provision, to release the vote no later than Thursday at around 10 p.m., but numerous attempts Friday to obtain it were unsuccessful. A receptionist at city hall said she did not know where to find the information from the meeting, that the mayor and city administrator were out for the day and that the city clerk left the office early. Attempts to reach Loucks at home and several city council members for the information were also unsuccessful after messages were left but calls were not returned.

Despite no official release of the council's vote, former Chaffee police chief Jim Chambers was back on the job last week. Chambers was fired by the city council in a closed session meeting March 1. Several council members said at the time that he was fired for lying about and attempting to cover up his instructions to city employees, including a Chaffee police officer, to take a dog believed to be a stray to the city dump, shoot it and not tell anyone. Police logs from the day of the incident showed Chambers and Loucks both gave the instructions to city employees.

The dog was not a stray -- it belonged to a local family, who filed a complaint with the Missouri Department of Agriculture over the city's handling of animals. Following an investigation, the department shut down the city's animal impound for a time, but it has since brought its facilities into compliance with state requirements and will soon be issued a license through the department's animal care program.

Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said following the incident that he believed Chambers and Loucks had committed a crime when the dog was shot and requested charges for both, but prosecutors declined to file any, citing a lack of evidence that would result in a criminal conviction.

City officials said before Monday's meeting that Chambers could get his job back if a city police board recommendation to rehire him was supported by council members. Chambers tried to file an appeal of the council's decision in March but missed the deadline. Several city council members said at the time that Chambers would not get his job back. Two council members who voted in favor of firing him were unseated in April municipal elections.

Three employees of the Chaffee Police Department resigned following Monday's meeting, including Jody Cheney, a Scott County Sheriff's Department deputy who served as Chaffee's interim chief and applied for the chief position but was not chosen by the council. On Tuesday, a Chaffee officer was asked to work a 24-hour shift because the department was short-handed. The officer, who asked that his name not be used in a news story, said Chambers was his supervisor during the shift.

eragan@semissourian.com

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Chaffee, MO