Fortney Report Fall Out
Owasso Taxpayer Alliance Admin
In the report that has been released it clearly shows where the city manager ordered the IT director to destroy the police video evidence of the DUI stop. In May of the same year J.B. Alexander, with the Owasso Taxpayer Alliance requested a copy of that video and the request was refused. Two days later the city manager ordered it destroyed so that Chris Kelly would not be asked to resign so that the establishment could keep control of the city council.
Now the city has put a police officer on administrative leave pending an investigation into the release of the report that shows the destruction of police evidence and the possible violation of five state statutes. More taxpayer dollars are being spent to investigate who leaked the report that should have been made public back in 2013.
Let’s just imagine for a minute if Chris Kelly would have acted responsibly for his actions and addressed his constituents at the next council meeting following his run-in with the Owasso police. He could have owned up his actions, apologized and we could have moved on. Sure, we would have asked for his resignation and he would have respectively declined. Worst case is he would have had to step down as vice mayor but remain on the council. It would have been water under the bridge in thirty days. BUT…..he didn’t.
What happened after the Kelley DUI stop was a cover up. Police evidence was destroyed, innocent people were asked to commit crimes and taxpayer dollars were spent on an investigation.
The report was given to the council at the cost of $24,000 to us, the citizens. They then decided to classify it as a “personal record” so it would not be subject to the open records act and the citizens that paid for the report couldn’t see what they were hiding.
Now what appears to be the report has been leaked and they want to do another investigation into who leaked the report. They are going to spend more taxpayer dollars to investigate a police officer that may or may not have made the report public.
Back in 2009 then Vice Mayor DJ Gall was stopped and arrested for DUI in the city of Owasso. Within hours his mug shot was on every local news channel. One news reporter told us Mr. Ray personally called him to let him know about Mr. Gall’s arrest. Then Mayor Doug Bonebrake wanted to call a special meeting to remove Mr. Gall from the position of Vice Mayor before his case ever went to court.
Mayor Bonebrake also stated in the next open council meeting that even members of his church were upset with Vice Mayor Gall’s actions (Mr. Bonebrake is still on city council and now four years later has not made a public statement about Council Chris Kelley’s actions much less the cover up).
Vice Mayor Gall addressed the citizens at the next council meeting and voluntarily resigned as Vice Mayor while remaining on city council. No $24,000 report, no cover up, no police officer investigation. Mr. Gall owned up his actions, apologized to the citizens and we moved on.
Had Chris Kelly stepped up and owned his actions this would have been over back in 2013. There would have been no cover up, no investigation and no destroying of police evidence.
Instead we have wasted a great deal of taxpayer money and possibly the termination of a police officer all to protect a cover up that should have never have happened.
Had Chris Kelly held himself to the same standard as DJ Gall we would not be talking about this today.
Now the city wants you to believe that they are the victim. The city has now publicly come out and stated the news stories “fail to acknowledge or report the truth”.
IF the released report is factual then most people reading it can come to their own conclusions. The truth lies in the report authorized by the city council. So if the news reports fail to acknowledge the truth then that problem lies in the city’s report. Is the report released factual?
And IF the deposition of Owasso Police Chief Scott Chambless (May 14, 2015, two years after the grand jury) that was included with the report is factual then the comments made by former city manager Rodney Ray should make every citizen in Owasso extremely upset.
If Mr. Ray was of the opinion and put into motion actions where “…we need to teach people a lesson” and “…when people don’t cooperate with us that they are – you know, there’s some accountability on their part” then the citizens of Owasso need to understand the depth of corruption that existed at city hall.
And in the past several weeks it has come to our attention that possible discussions of retaliation against the landowner mentioned in the Chambless deposition occurred with the police department leadership and supervisors back during this timeframe.
So here we go again. Another investigation and more tax dollars being spent on an investigation that the city hopes will continue to protect them and their actions. And the taxpaying citizens will be left holding the bag.