Fired Chaffee, Mo., police chief back on the job

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Chaffee's former police chief is back on duty this week despite a three-day postponement of any hiring announcement claimed Monday by the city's mayor.

A Chaffee police officer confirmed Wednesday that Jim Chambers, who was fired by the city council in March, was his supervisor when he was asked to work a 24-hour shift Tuesday, which he said he did because the department came up shorthanded. The officer requested that his name not be used for a news story.

City council members voted to hire a new chief during a closed session meeting Monday night, but Mayor Steve Loucks told around 30 people who waited outside of city hall for an announcement that one would not come for 72 hours, which is the maximum amount of time allowed by state law to disclose publicly the result of a vote taken in closed session.

Loucks did not return a call to the Southeast Missourian on Wednesday after a message was left on his voicemail at city hall. Chambers also did not return a call Wednesday after a message was left at the Chaffee Police Department.

Chaffee City Council members also did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

City officials said before the meeting that Chambers could get his job back if a city police board recommendation to rehire him was supported by council members. Two council members who voted to fire Chambers lost their seats in April's municipal election.

Chambers was fired by a 4-3 vote March 1 after police department logs from February showed he and Loucks ordered city employees, including a police officer, to take a dog believed to be a stray to the city dump, shoot it and not tell anyone. The dog that was shot belonged to a local family, who registered a complaint against the city with the Missouri Department of Agriculture. The department shut down the pound following an investigation, but the city has recently brought its facilities into compliance with state requirements and will soon be issued a license through the department's animal care program.

Jody Cheney, a Scott County Sheriff's Department deputy, served as Chaffee's interim chief and applied for the chief position. Cheney said Wednesday he could not confirm the council's decision but said that he, along with a reserve officer and a reserve dispatcher, resigned from the Chaffee Police Department following Monday's meeting.

"What I can confirm is that I am not the one sitting in the chief's chair right now," he said. "I guess I was the ‘cleanup man.' I was never given a reason to why they made the decision. I just felt I was not a priority there."

Cheney will return to his full-time position with the sheriff's department.

Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said following the dog shooting incident that he believed a crime had been committed and requested animal abuse and false declaration charges for Loucks as well as false declaration charges for Chambers. Prosecutors declined to file any, citing a lack of evidence that would result in a criminal conviction.

According to the unnamed officer, he has not been asked to work a 24-hour shift at any other time during his employment with the Chaffee Police Department, and he has worked there more than a year. The department has been short by one full-time officer for more than a month, he said, and currently has four full-time officers, but one of those is in training.

He believes he will be paid overtime for working the long shift, he said.

"I was just asked if I would, and I said yeah," he said. "I was not forced to."

eragan@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

Chaffee, MO