Three weeks ago, the city of Columbus released the report conducted by police department consultant K.B. Turner. The 95-page document was the result of a six-month evaluation that listed weaknesses in the city’s police department and recommendations on how to address these problems.
The city has already started to implement some of the recommendations, but has not made a conclusive decision on the report’s primary recommendation: Remove Oscar Lewis as the city’s police chief.
When the long-awaited report was released to the public, we urged the council to move carefully, but quickly, where Lewis is concerned.
But today, we don’t really know what the council will do, how it will do it or when it will do it.
There was nothing ambiguous about Turner’s recommendations. Much of the report was a item-by-item indictment of Lewis’s performance as chief. There was no mention of an action plan, no solutions offered other than a change of chiefs.
It is especially worth noting now, given the city’s present attitude toward sharing information, that Lewis was mentioned by name. In fact, in the entire document, Lewis is the only person mentioned by name.
It appears as if city officials are equivocating on the biggest single recommendation in the report.
An action plan suggests there are conditions under which Lewis could retain his position. The deadline for implementation of that action plan coincides with the time Lewis will become eligible for state retirement benefits.
Perhaps is it a coincidence, but it is enough to make us wonder.
Whether to retain Lewis as chief is the council’s decision to make.
What we vigorously protest is the inconsistency the city has shown about what information is made available to the public.
We note that Turner’s report was released to the public in its entirety, a report that provided specific details of how Lewis failed to meet the standards required by his position. The report was, essentially, a performance review, yet nothing in it was withheld from public view as a personnel matter.
Presumably, this action plan is the city’s efforts to address those leadership problems.
That is information citizens have every right to know. To acknowledge that a report detailing the problems is a public record, but planned solutions are not is not just contradictory: Either both the Turner report and the action plan are personnel documents or both are public records.
That train left the station the moment the city released Turner’s report detailing Lewis’s performance.
If the city truly wants to regain the confidence of its citizens, informing them of exactly what the city plans to do to address these problems is not just good policy. It is essential.
We have every right to know what is in the action plan.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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