We're lucky to have Bill Bell as mayor. A former IBM engineer, Bell is smart, calm and disdainful of the loony identity politics that often sidetrack Durham's government. (Impressively, he has also learned to stay awake when Howard Clement speaks at City Council meetings. If you have ever heard Clement-a 1,700-year-old relic of the civil rights movement-wend his way through a rambling, impromptu soliloquy, you know our mayor possesses a rare gift.)
So I can't understand why someone as gifted as Bell retains fourth-rate talents like Patrick Baker and Steven Chalmers as city manager and police chief, respectively. The lacrosse case has drawn national attention to the ineptitude of Baker and Chalmers, but Durhamites have suffered under them for years. Bell seems to have the same weakness as President Bush-OK, Bill Bell is not as much of a disaster as George W. Bush, but stick with me-in that he is unwilling to pay the political price associated with firing incompetent staff. As a result, he keeps them around longer than they deserve, and they continue to embarrass their boss and fellow citizens.
Let's start with Baker. Our city manager holds undergraduate and law degrees from Wake Forest, and is the embodiment of every negative stereotype you may have heard about lawyers. He dissembles; he shirks responsibility for his numerous failures; and on occasion has been caught in a bald-faced lie. After a yard waste dump caught fire last fall, The Raleigh News & Observer revealed Baker had lied to the City Council by denying that he had been informed about the expiration of the dump's permit. The fire burned for two weeks, and as The N&O reported, "produced clouds of dense smoke that forced some residents to flee." The dude cannot manage and has to lie about a smoldering pile of leaves. There's no way he is capable or honest enough to helm a city government.
As for Chalmers, he plainly has no interest in doing his job. The chief is expected to retire this year, and he has spent the twilight of his career taking it easy, disappearing from the office for stretches at a time and delegating his duties to Deputy Chief Ron Hodges. Chalmers has also achieved the rare distinction of heading a police department that is distrusted by a wide swath of Durham's citizens. Every Durhamite, white or black, affluent or not, can unite around a mutual fear of Chalmers' wayward Durham Police Department.
Chalmers is black. His department, however, still employs a few yokel cops who seem like holdovers from the Jim Crow era. Five police officers-including Sgt. Mark Gottlieb and Investigator Richard Clayton, two chief investigators of the lacrosse case-were involved in a racially tinged brawl outside Blinco's Sports Bar in Raleigh last summer. One of the cops allegedly yelled a racial slur at a black cook, leading to a fight that ended in the firing of two officers. The other three cops, including Gottlieb and Clayton, remain on the force. Anecdotes like this must provide little reassurance to members of Durham's black community who hope for fair treatment under the law.
Books could be written about Gottlieb's misbehavior alone. He's the sort of guy who I imagine goes home at night, pops in "Cool Hand Luke" and roots for the guards. In the fall of 2005 and winter of 2006, Gottlieb threatened to deport several Duke students for minor alcohol offenses, including one who was an American citizen. In that same period, he let a guy with a concealed weapon off with a ticket.
Not that I can blame him. Who would want to tangle with Durham's drug cartels when you can make a career of throwing 115-pound college girls in jail for giving a 20-year-old a beer? Thanks for keeping us safe from the real criminals, Mark! The worst part: Chalmers confirmed to The N&O that it was DPD policy to arrest Duke students-and tie up Durham's overburdened justice system-for violations that they would only cite non-students for.
How did the results pay off? The number of violent crimes rose 35 percent (from 678 to 916) from the first half of 2005 to the first six months of 2006, immediately after the DPD's in loco parentis policy took force. What do you say to a police chief who sacrifices the safety of his constituents in order to arrest college students at parties? Chalmers chose pacifying the affluent residents of Trinity Park over protecting Durham's most vulnerable citizens. He deserves unemployment and harsh condemnation.
I'm not even going to address the self-serving Baker/Chalmers police report. I'll let Bell, Councilman Eugene Brown, The Durham Herald-Sun and The N&O critique it. But please, Mayor Bell, do the right thing and fire these deadweight officials who are holding your administration and our city back.
Jared Mueller is a Trinity junior and a former city and state editor and editorial page managing editor of The Chronicle. His column runs every other Thursday during the summer.
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