Publication of private documents violates ethics
August 9, 2009
Someone is violating the confidentiality of employees and of Salisbury citizens.The recent publication by The Daily Times of protected documents concerning Salisbury Police Chief Allan Webster raises the questions:
•Who is violating city employee confidentiality?
•What does this person(s) have to gain by doing so?
•Who else is now at risk of having their confidential personnel information violated with the cooperation of this newspaper? (emphasis added)
It has been brought to my attention and verified by me that a local Web site recently has made public some confidential details of a violent crime case that, as far as I know, would only be in the victim's case file or known to members of law enforcement. How did this information come to be public? Will this happen with other private citizens' information? Who stands to gain from making such information public? (emphasis added)
These issues are of far greater concern to the people of Salisbury, whom I was elected to represent and serve, than the erroneous statements and "he said she said" journalism produced by The Daily Times in violation of journalists' and editors' code of ethics.
I urge the mayor and council of this city, this newspaper and all employees of the city to join together to end these violations now to protect all city employees and citizens in Salisbury. No one can have confidence in the legal protection of their private information until this is done.
Terry E. Cohen
Salisbury
Cohen is a member of the Salisbury City Council. -- Editor
33 comments:
I am happy to see someone has finally asked these questions. If the average citizen had asked these questions they would have a letter from Louise and only God knows what type of retaliation from the city as has been done in the past.
I hope these questions are soon answered. Thank you, Ms. Cohen.
It is obviously Webster who has provided these documents in order to make himself appear as the victim. In fact, all citizens of Salisbury and those who visit here are victims of Webster's gross misconduct of his job. Crime rises while he claims it is going down and his denial of gangs for so long has aided the criminals. Now he is entering the political fray. It began in the election with his criticism of Ireton and now continues here with Campbell and Cohen. He must think he is untouchable, and so far he is for some reason. Anyone know when his contract is up?
Looks like someone is finally wiseing up.
Mrs Cohen, it is a violation of ethics of government exposes the involved employee, but no violation of ethics of employee exposes him/herself. Ireton knows this, he is keeping mum about it. Are you thinking we will be reading your five pages? This will be public knowledge if the Chief proceeds with his lawsuit.
Some idiot going by "Hadley" on the Daily Rag side is comparing what the newspaper did to the leaking of the Pentagon Papers.
What a dumba$$. The landfill scandal of the county is more comparable to the Pentagon Papers. Did the Daily Times print anyone's personnel files or other confidential county documents?
No one is un-touchable. No-one.
Let us examine, shall we say, the chain of custody of these reports/complaints.
1. Campbell and Cohen hand deliver reports/complaints to the mayor.
2. Mayor gives reports or copies of reports to Webster for his review and response.
3. Article concerning reports/complaints appears in DT and on the blog favored by the council majority, where other information has been leaked by them.
4. Another article recklessly written by Laura D and printed by DT without regard or reporting of the facts appears.
5. Confidential document submitted by Debbie Campbell, to the mayor, to Chief Webster appears in the DT in the form of a pdf file.
I would bet good money that Debbie Campbell, or Mayor Ireton did not release these documents to the press. That leaves the only player being Chief Webster that had a copy of these reports/complaints to provide it to the newspaper.
I'd like to add more questions to Ms Cohen's list. Chief Webster is the only logical suspect to have given this confidential document to the newspaper for publication, did he knowingly and willingly waive his rights to confidentiality?
Did John Pick, in his capacity of city administrator have access to these documents? Did Lore Chambers? Did Linda Ross in Human Resources? Did Pam Oland, department head of Human Resources? Did Webster provide copies of these documents to Smith, Comegys and Shields? If none of these people had a copy then the power of deduction leads us right back to CHIEF WEBSTER. Smart money lies on Webster.
Case closed.
You're leaving out the city clerk, did she not see and have access to the letters?
The city clerk works for the city council, not the mayor. John Pick and Lore Chambers work for the mayor.
Terry Cohen asked out loud the questions many have been asking amongst themselves. Thank you Mrs Cohen for speaking out for all of us.
come on mr i do something..
The biggest question is, will Jim Ireton finally grow a pair of stones are fire that SOB?
No he wont do anything.
Terry Cohen, a liberal, a democrat, BUT she is a fiscal conservative, too bad Kratovil won't take a lesson from at least two on the city council
Give me a break, the two C's lie and lie and they were caught in a lie, who give a sh@t who leaked the documents....I think it great that they published them and it shows how much the 2c's lied and Mr Jim also lie..the real question here is do we want at least TWO liars on the city council?? NO we don't ..lets see..the two c's have a personal beef with the police chief and they got caught, so lets blame everyone else for it..and she did not mine bringing up many, many personal "TYPE" of information during her ethics probe on the health care issue, because the liar wanted health care for HERSELF and her cohort Campbell!!
Jack R.
Anon 11:19 What lesson is there to be learned by Kratovil from these two? Curious mind.
Mayor Ireton, you have to know that the stars have been carefully aligned against you by the former administration, your current staff, slumlords and the media.
I know that you're not just wringing your hands addressing the myriad challenges that you face,but to John Q. Public it is beginning to look that way. I know you're smart, but you MUST be brutal to survive. It's eat or be eaten-that simple.CLEAN HOUSE!
Webster's contract has expired. He's not currently under a contract. How hard would it be to not re-new his contract and tell him to start looking for another job?
What are we still paying him for if he has no contract? The Queen is Dead!
Ever photo I see of the man,(Chief) he has a sh*t eating grin and I finally figured out why-he knows that nobody is going to fire him,even though he should be.
It's rumored that Webster is setting his sights on the Somerset County Sheriff's position, where he can kick back in his home county and lord it over the staff there. Somerset's crime problems echo Salisbury's: gangs, poverty, students (i.e., high seasonal numbers of victims), but with a higher proportion of all of the above. Has Webster been currying the favor of the commissioners and other politicos in Somerset? You betcha. And down there, the chances of anyone opposing him once he gets a foot in the door are slim to none.
It seems our responsibility to at least make the residents and powers that be in Somerset County know that this man will do just as he does in Salisbury: lie, cheat and lie some more, while pretending that everything is just rosy, assisted by the Gannet paper and Gary Comegys' buddies.
Public servant, Never in Uniform, resident of Somerset County, SPD Chief of police, Allan Webster is allowing a Vulgar Psychopath blogger to become his public spokesman and press liaison. That alone should be reason enough to cancel his contract.
This man not only shames his department, the men in UNIFORM that serve at the SPD, but the position of chief, which he was never ever fit for.
I'm assuming that you're speaking of the letter that Jim Ireton said didn't exist? Same one? Joe, you got any clue why he lied about having seen them? I voted for Jim and I'm less than enthused with his time in office so far. He's yet to show any backbone like you say.
I think we will find this level of incompetence in all of Barrie Tilghmans hand picked department heads.
Jack R.'s rant is incomprehensible. Cohen didn't expose "many personal "TYPE" of information during her ethics probe on the health care issue." Her testimony exposed people within our government trying to violate the state constitution for their personal vendettas.
Jack R. calls Cohen a liar...on the basis of his anonymous coward post.
Maybe I should call Jack R. a liar and just say "sign me Jim F."
Let's clear this up right here and now. Jim Ireton said he had not seen any 6 page formal complaint filed by Campbell AND Cohen, as was reported by Laura DelAssandro. There never was a 6 page singular complaint. There is however a 1 page complaint/report and a 5 page report/complaint filed by both councilwomen separately.
I thought this would have been cleared up by the statement made by the city solicitor, Paul Wilber. He said Mayor Ireton did not have to admit to receiving any such letters. Jim didn't lie, he followed the advise of the city attorney. Isn't that why we pay him?
4:40, even more than that, even though I agree with you.
What question was Ireton answering?
On Reddish, Debbie Campbell said she was asked if she had "filed charges" against Webster. She said "no." And the Times' hack said Campbell denied filing a formal complaint.
Hellooooo? Writing a letter, Toots, does NOT equal filing charges.
Cohen's letter today really hits the nail on the head. Somebody's got an agenda and is willing to do the smarmiest things to get their way. I admire her guts on this. The people need someone standing up for them!
Who stands to gain from the drip - drip - drip of information on this from the GOB?
I've got a guess. How about you?
10:10 a.m., re-read the letter. In the next to last paragraph, the ethics violations she is referring to is by the Daily Times. Editors and Journalists have Codes of Ethics. She is saying the newspaper has a responsibility, too.
But back to your statement. Are you saying Webster himself released the information? How do you know?
4:40-
Why's Ireton running to Paul Wilber for some "cover" about this BS -- how Barrie Tilghmanesque!
Jim: I would like my vote back!
9:21, for once Wilber's probably right. The Chief has rights, but looks like a game is getting played here with all the leaks to protect his job.
Question is, who's directing that game? This makes me sick. The guy's been in this job about 10 years. Crime and the department are worse than they were when he came into the picture.
I wouldn't say Jim is running to Wilber. I would say he is being smart seeking advise of legal counsel. That IS why we pay Wilber the big bucks, isn't it?
9:21PM are you saying you want Bubba as mayor?
WOW! Did you all see Cohen's letter in the Daily Slime this morning? Thank you for doing your job, ma'am!
Joe, are you going to bring the DT article and letter over here to comment? I'll never go on that site to comment.
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