An entire North Carolina police force has resigned in protest of the city’s ‘increasingly responsible’ new city manager, who the police chief says has created a ‘hostile work environment.’
Kenly Police Chief Josh Gibson made the shocking ad in a facebook post on Thursday, saying the deputy city manager and a key employee joined him and his five officers in resigning in protest.
“I gave my 2 weeks notice with the entire police department,” he wrote of the force he served with for 21 years.
“The new manager has created an environment that I don’t think can fulfill our duties and service to the community,” she wrote of Justine Jones, who He took office early last month.
He made it official with an official resignation letter to Jones herself, according to a copy. obtained by WRAL.
Noting that he was “the longest-serving leader” in the region, he said he believed his force had “made substantial strides” recently in handling unspecified “ups and downs.”
“However, due to the hostile work environment in the city of Kenly, I don’t think any progress is possible,” he told Jones, without identifying him as the source of his complaint, as he did on social media.
Neither the message nor his letter set forth the specific complaints the officers had against Jones. However, the outgoing police chief told WRAL that he would consider staying on if Jones were fired.
The city called an emergency closed meeting for Friday night.
Jones refused to discuss the drastic decision, telling WRAL that he “was not at liberty to speak due to a personal issue.”
It had started on June 2 after “a nationwide search,” according to a press release that celebrated the hiring of a manager hailed as having “held positions of increasing responsibility” in multiple states.
However, the statement does not mention how he sued a former employer in neighboring South Carolina for racial discrimination after he was fired in March 2015, according to WRAL.
She accused Richland County officials of treating her “unfriendly” and not paying her fairly because she was black and had a disability, according to court documents. She also accused the county of discriminating against her because she was a “whistleblower” who “reported serious fraud, wrongdoing, and violations of the law.”
The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in April 2017, according to court records, without specifying why.
Before being hired by Kenly, she signed on as “senior CEO” of her own consulting firm, Word of Mouth Realtime, as seen on her LinkedIn.
Meanwhile, Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell assured WRAL that his deputies would “step in” to cover up the missing Kenly cops.
“I will be there for the people of Kenly, and you can rest assured that you will have officers patrolling the streets,” he insisted.
–
