Todd Paris, Staff Writer and Salisbury Attorney
♦ Failing Fibrant and the Police Department are Salisbury City Hall’s two largest problems. Fibrant is loosing now slightly less than 10K per day and the recent partings of Kent Winrich (Director) and Adam Shepard (Sales Manager) are probably indicative of a failure to meet a previously set departmental goal. My educated guess is that it was a sales goal.
As revealed by Chief “this is not a gang related shooting” Stokes at a press conference, SPD is down at least 14 officers from the already Fibrant depleted staff from a once proud and fully functioning department which once numbered 107 employees in 2007. They can now probably field somewhere around seventy. I have spoken to SPD officers who are exhausted from pulling a shift, going to court and then having to report back to duty within 4 hours for the next shift. They often are barely able to make “minimum staffing” and do so only with super human sacrifice from our brave officers.
After the Kenny Lane wrongful termination debacle, Salisbury no doubt has serious and substantial problems recruiting. It was clear from ex Chief Collin’s deposition in Lane vs. City of Salisbury that the Salisbury Chief has no real authority over hiring and firing and that Zack and Ruth “down at Human Resources” are calling the shots and that those “shots” may well end one’s law enforcement career not just here, but everywhere. The Fibrant-reduced low salaries were already creating problems back in 2014 when my wife went through RCCC Basic Law Enforcement Training. Few new officers wanted to work at SPD even then. Crime? Don’t get me started…
Lane Bailey has basically given the department heads who were reporting directly to him to Assistant City Managers – John Sofley and Zack Kyle. Lane no longer has to meet and ask if those departments are working on their work plan or make sure they are making departmental goals. In exchange, Fibrant and SPD are completely on his shoulders.
Basically, it’s just a change in hierarchy that frees up Lane’s time to work on the PD and Fibrant, which are abysmal wreckages. I bet city council is getting incredible amount of heat and has decided to make sure that Lane has enough time to face those huge problem areas.
Our city manager is now “in the cross-hairs” politically. Good luck; being “over” Fibrant is scary thing unless you are “Teflon John Sofley” who always manages to survive somehow. Perhaps being able to perform “Magic Math” has its privileges.
If I were Lane Bailey, I would get some resumes out. Maybe the three “parted” ex Fibrant managers will give him a recommendation. Fibrant can not succeed because the numbers do not and never have “worked.” As far as SPD goes, nothing short of raising taxes, salaries and numbers, and firing Ruth Kennerly and Zack Kyle and returning H-R to an appellate board that just reviews the Chief’s personnel decisions will begin turn SPD around.
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♦ East Innes Street Waffle House is no longer a victimization zone. You can pack.
Readers may remember my article of December 31 where I revealed that our own “Casa De Waffle,” apparently in response to a window being shot out, posted a sign in the door that stated “NO WEAPONS ALLOWED ON THE PROPERTY.” As a CCW holder in “Shotzbury,” the idea of sitting unarmed at night in a brightly lit glass box with one door in and one door out prompted the article and my personal boycott. You will find it here:
New Signage on the East Innes Salisbury, N.C. Waffle House: NO WEAPONS ALLOWED ON THE PROPERTY
Tonight Kittah and I awoke elevenish from a nap and I remembered I had not consumed grub since noon. I was ravenous. Christo’s being closed at that hour, I struck out for East Innes’s burger row and soon I came upon the Waffle House. I wistfully remembered those trips to California where Robyn and I would drive all night in shifts and how much I appreciated those late night “Huddle House” and “Waffle House” stops. The food was always reliable and clean and nothing beats smothered and peppered hash browns and a few strong cups of coffee before you hit those vast empty desert stretches of I-40.
I decided to pull in, just in case, and “lo and behold” the ACCURSED SIGN WAS GONE.
Even though it’s not on my diet for my type two diabetes, I was overcome with joy and hunger and soon found myself sitting at the corner booth (facing the door) devouring a double cheese burger and succulent smothered, peppered and scattered hash-browns. Of course, my handy Glock 24 9mm pistol was snugly inside my pocket holster.
The food was all the more better for the fact that my survivability was enhanced at least in the short term. Hopefully an extra Metformin pill and a trip tomorrow to the Y would alleviate the long term harm from this repast.
I don’t know if my previous article had any small affect on their profits since last New Years Eve, however, just in case, I wanted to announce that to CCW holders that THE WAFFLE HOUSE IS NO LONGER A VICTIMIZATION ZONE. Go by and visit. Your hash-browns are sizzling on the grill.
