Las Vegas City Commission Minutes, November 7, 1949 to May 21, 1952, lvc000007-138

Las Vegas, Nevada June 30, 1950 CALL OF SPECIAL MEETING TO: SHIRLEY BALLINGER, City Clerk Las Vegas, Nevada A Special Meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Las Vegas is hereby called to be held in the Council Chambers at the City Hall, on the 30th day of June 1950, at the hour of 3:30 P.M to consider the following matters: 1. Appointment of Chief of Police s/ E. W. Cragin Mayor NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING TO: E. W. CRAGIN, Mayor and to WENDELL BUNKER, R. T. MOORE, WILLIAM PECCOLE, REED WHIPPLE, Commissioners, and C. W. SHELLEY, City Manager and HOWARD W. CANNON, City Attorney of the City of Las Vegas, Nevada You and each of you will please take notice that pursuant to a call this day issued by Mayor Cragin, a Special Meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Las Vegas, Nevada, will be held in the Council Chambers at the City Hall, 5th & Stewart, on the 30th day of June, 1950, at the hour of 3:30 P.M. to consider the following matters: 1. Appointment of Chief of Police s/ Shirley Ballinger_____________ City Clerk ACCEPTANCE OF NOTICE We, the undersigned Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager and City Attorney of the City of Las Vegas, Nevada, do hereby admit due service of the foregoing Notice of Special Meeting: s/ E. W. Cragin_________________ s/ Wendell Bunker_________________ s/ Reed Whipple_________________ s/ Robert T. Moore________________ s/ William Peccole s/ C. W. Shelley__________________ to go? These four men were the oldest men in the department. Should they not have had enough experience and intelligence to disregard an invitation by a stranger whom they did not know, or ; should they have consulted with their administrative head? It appears to me as an individual that the Civil Service Board and certain members of the Police Department are more interested in serving downtown political leaders than serving the City at large and paying all their allegiance to the people of Las Vegas. The downtown people are further interested in appoint­ing a Chief of Police. Why are they interested in appointing a Chief of Police, for their own individual interests? Why shouldn't they be interested in allowing this Board to appoint the Chief of Police? One reason the Board has failed to appoint a Police Chief previously is that there is not enough courage among the members to appoint a Chief of Police who will serve all of the people, and before the Chief of Police is selected in this City, I will divulge other in­formation about people who are interested in appointing this Chief of Police unless a chief is selected for the people. That's all I have to say. Commissioner Bunker: I have one statement I would like to make. I got a tremendous smile out of the last paragraph of the Civil Service decision and I shall read it so you will all know it: "It is the recommendation of the Board of Civil Service Trustees that immediate action be taken by the City Commission of the City of Las Vegas to appoint a permanent Chief of Police, and in so doing that they give particular attention to the qualifications of the man appointed with respect to his length of experience, knowledge of police procedure and administrative ability to insure against a repetition of a like situation and to re-establish the confidence of the public in the police department at the earliest possible date." It is my opinion that if J. Edgar Hoover had to work with the four men we sent back to work, and some of the others on the department, even he could never re-establish the confidence of the people of Las Vegas in the Police Department. There being no further business to come before this special meeting, Commissioner Bunker moved the meeting adjourn. Motion seconded by Commissioner Moore and carried by the following vote: Commissioners Bunker, Moore,. Peccole, Whipple and His Honor voting aye; noes,none.