By Martin Couch
The city of Bryant is losing 18 years of law enforcement experience when Chief Tony Coffman officially accepts a[more] patrolman's position with Cammack Village in January.
Coffman announced last week that he would be retiring as chief of police at Bryant.
"Leaving Bryant is the last thing I wanted to do," Coffman said. "Yeah, right, I really wanted to give up my job to be a patrolman. This wasn't an easy decision and it's tearing me up."
Coffman's announcement came after his attempts to contact Mayor-Elect Jill Dabbs for a face-to-face, one-on-one meeting in his office to let her know what projects the police department was involved in, went unanswered.
"I reached out so many times to make her transition as smooth as I could," Coffman said. "I think I got one email answered and that was to say that she would get with me soon."
Dabbs says she'll deal with this more when she takes office.
"I wish all the best for him and his family and I mean that," Dabbs said. "Until Jan. 1, I am a private citizen. I am very much looking forward to getting things done and I am meeting with people to gather information to get things going so we can do our best to run the city of Bryant."
Dabbs won't be suggesting any appointments to Coffman's position until she is officially sworn in as Bryant Mayor on Jan. 1.
"There are bunch of good guys in the department and their morale is low, because of the unknown factor," Coffman said. "They looked to me for leadership, but I couldn't tell them anything and it's not their fault."
Reese
Jill Dabbs doesn’t take office until she is sworn in on Monday, Jan. 3rd. Just FYI.
John
Actually, the swearing in is on New Years Day according to this article.
http://www.bentoncourier.com/content/view/241131/1/
Is it just me, or is Coffman’s and Dabbs’ account of these issues in direct contradiction to one another????
It appears to me, that Dabbs is trying to spin things to save face after she got burned with an unexpected resignation.
Britt
Rob – Reading the past and present informative posts on this topic here on Bryant Daily, it feels like someone has not been interviewed.
Segments of this story are missing, resulting in what looks like two folks simply finger pointing at each other.
Not knowing the full story and not intended to be a hurtful comment toward either party, resignation of an 18 year career over something that might happen in the future gives the appearance of weak reasoning imo.
Maybe the current Mayor has more info?
Thank you Bryant Daily and have a great holiday.
concernedcitizen
I’m confused….Dabbs wouldn’t meet with the Police Chief until she was sworn in in Jan., but she has already been acting in the capacity of Mayor (i.e., the signage removal at Collegeville Elementary which has been in place every year at Christmas)…?
Maxims
Its a pity you dont have a donate button, i would donate some.
Randy Releford
If Mrs. Dabbs puts the husband of her friend in the post of Chief of Police a lot of voters will remember this next time elections are held. Placing friends in position of power when you are mayor is typically not viewed very favorably by the voting public!
Steve
I agree Mr. Releford. She ran on a platform of transparency and accountability. I don’t feel she has been either since Nov. 2. I feel that she knew all the right words to say to win an election, and hoped voters would forget, or else not notice all the other stuff going on.
She has not brought in a new form of government as she promise. She has a lot to prove, but first impressions speak very loudly.