HomeMy WebLinkAboutRES NO 35-49RESOLUTION
NO. 35-49
WHEREAS, the Civil Service Commission has, by its so-
called findings in the matter of charges against Horace V. Grayson,
as Chief of Police, declared that there is uncertainty in the
Charter as to whether the chief is subordinate to the City Manager
or to the Commission and that the chief has been advised that he
is only answerable and subject to control by the Civil Service
Commission;
AND, WHEREAS, the Charter expressly provides that
"The City Manager shall have general supervision and
direction of the administrative operation of the city
government";
and
"To see that all laws and ordinances are faithfully
enforced by the heads of the departments";
AND, WHEREAS, there is no express provision in the Charter
contrary to the above provisions, or which by any sort of strained
construction or implication would sustain or support such contentions
of the chief of police and his legal advisers;
NOW, THEREFORE, be it Resolved by the City Council:
First, that such contention of the chief of police and his
· advisers be and the same is hereby absolutely repudiated, repelled
and denied; and the Council hereby unequivocally declares that it
regards the assertion of such contention as persistence by the chief
and the Commission in insubordination and usurpation of authority;
Second, that the recognition of such contention by the
Civil Service Commission and its expression that the matter is one
which is open to dispute and the statement that the Charter needs
clarification on or as to that matter is a piece of irrelevant and
gratuitous dictum the only tendency of which is to arrogate pretended
powers to itself and encourage the chief of police in his manifest
insubordt nati on;
Third, that it be and is hereby declared that the Council
holds and declares that the chief of police is subordinate to the
lawful orders and directions of the City Manager acting under and as
the representative of the Council, and that the Commission is wholly
without authority over the activities of the Police Depsrtment; and
that any act or conduct of the chief in pursuance of his said conten-
tion in recognizing orders, directions or policies of the said Civil
Service Commission regarding the management of his department in
preference to and in conflict with the lawful orders, directions or
control by the City Nanager will be deemed as persistent insubordina-
tion and dealt with as such, and
Fourth, that a copy of this resolution and of the resolution
adopted by this Council on October 1Vth, 1949 be, by the clerk,
delivered to the chief of police for his guidance and instruction.
I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing Resolution was
passed and adopted by the Council of the City of Bakersfield
at a regular meeting thereof held on the 28th day of November, 1949,
by the following vote:
AYES: Cross, Morelock, Shurley, Siemon, Vanderlei
NOES: Carnakis, Kuehn
ABSENT: None
Acting ~i'~ ~l~k andES-Officio Clerk
of the Council of the City of Bakersfld
APPROVED this 28th day of November, 1949
o ~ersf~eld