Police Chief Ray Stubbs fired at Monday’s council meeting

CORRIGAN — During a special called City Council meeting Thursday a resolution expressing a “lack of confidence” in Police Chief Ray Stubbs after the motion was made by Councilwoman Johnnie Mae Brooks and seconded by Johnna Lowe. The resolution passed 4-1.The vote was greeted with boisterous disapproval from a standing room only crowd who had gathered to speak on Stubbs’ behalf. Immediately after the resolution council members named Darrell G. Gibson as interim police chief — a motion which drew even greater disapproval. So much booing and laughter, in fact, that the actual second to the motion and vote was inaudible. After the meeting, Mayor Wayne Geeslin confirmed that Gibson’s appointment had been approved by a vote of 4-1.At the start of Thursday’s meeting, Stubbs’ attorney Clay Dark addressed the council questioning the legality of the meeting and necessity of going into executive session since Stubbs had requested any per-sonnel complaint involving him be addressed in open session. Councilman George Murphy likewise objected to going into executive session asking council members to present whatever documented complaints they had against the police chief so they could be addressed. The executive session was held over Murphy’s objection, but Murphy remained in the auditorium with the crowd of spectators. After council returned from the executive session, a parade of citizens rose to speak on Stubbs’ behalf beginning with John Tyler, pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Corrigan. Tyler also serves as chaplain for Corrigan Police Department and he said he has stood by the chief since he initially came un-der scrutiny. “That was a different city council then, and it was a bunch of silliness and I hope we had got through it,” Tyler said.” “I challenge you as a commission to do the right thing, not the expedient thing, not the easy thing. It’s not hard to look out here and see what the right thing to do is,” Tyler said. “He has brought professional-ism to our department and you should consider very carefully what you do here,” Tyler said. Susan Torres cited the numerous special called meetings council has held in the preceding months which she maintained create the impression that council does not want the public or the media to be aware of what they are doing. Corrigan business owner Ryan Burris said he was speaking on Stubbs’ behalf — despite his absolute terror of public speaking.“ Listen to the community members’ unwavering support for the Chief of Police,” Burris said. “Take the time to get the facts. Ray Stubbs is a good man, a good police chief.” Burris pointed out that is the nature of police work that not everyone is going to be pleased when the police chief is doing his job well. “If everybody is happy, you’re probably not doing your job,” Burris said. “We don’t need a people-pleaser.” Stubbs’ attorney Clay Dark said the council was specifically violating the employee hand-book which requires written no-tice and a meeting with Stubbs’ supervisor, which would be the City Manager; that notice and meeting has never occurred. “We’ve got the cart before the horse by starting with the city council without a written com-plaint,” Dark said. Dark summarized his involvement with the attempts to remove Stubbs. He first appeared at a called meeting on a Saturday morning in January that Dark was told had been called by Lowe but was only 2.5attended by one commission member, and she is no longer on the council. “I think this is politics at its worst and it is gamesmanship,” Dark said. Dark defined “gamesman-ship” by reading from screen shots of Johnna Lowe’s Face-book page taken at that time.[You can see that image on page 1.]Former Corrigan Police Officer Greg Bell also spoke on Stubb’s behalf. He said every officer with the department but one was at the meeting to sup-port Stubbs, and that one person is Lowe’s best friend.“I’m no longer with the department, I have nothing to gain,” Bell said. “As soon as I was no longer employed here, I was contacted via Facebook by Johnna Lowe with a friend request for other reason I can think of than to try to get dirt on the police department. Lowe objected to Bell’s comments and the Corrigan City Attorney instructed council members not to engage in commentary with citizens. Former Corrigan Mayor Robert “Dooley” Johnson cautioned council members against taking hasty action. “TML (Texas Municipal League) is your insurance carrier, they won’t cover you if you violate your own policy,” Johnson said. “They can come after you individually and the city.” “Ray did an outstanding job for the time he was here. Revenues increased, morale was good … until we had the election then everything went downhill.” When council members were asked to describe the com-plaints against Stubbs, three council members described incidents of criminal mischief that they felt were not handled satisfactorily. Ms. Brooks said a friend of hers was frightened during a late night traffic stop. One uniformed Corrigan officer attempted to explain the status of those criminal mischief cases, but was told by council he did not have the floor. Interim Chief Darrel Gibson has previously worked for Corrigan Police Department from Oct. 23, 2009 to Sept. 1, 2011, according to his records with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education, which were obtained by the Polk County Enterprise prior to Thursday’s meeting. Prior to that he was employed in the jail division of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for 13 years, four months, according to TCLEOSE.He has held 14 positions with law enforcement agencies in Tex-as ranging from two months to one year, nine months. He worked for the Harris County Constable Pct. 7 Office three times, once with six years, 10 months continuous service, the TCLEOSE record showed