(Left to right): Great Bend City Council member Joel Jackson, Mayor Mike Allison, and council member Vicki Berryman listen to Great Bend Police Chief Cliff Couch’s presentation Monday, June 5, 2017.
Monday’s Great Bend City Council meeting formerly put the Great Bend Police Department’s struggles out in the open. There were no letters from lawyers and organizations sent to a select few. There was no executive session for the city council to only hear. Police Chief Cliff Couch was given a chance to speak before the council and an overflowing crowd and tell his version of the problems that exist with the Police Department that is finding it difficult to recruit and retain officers.
Compensation and inadequate manpower are the two big issues, but the alarming part for many citizens is that according to Couch, the city administration tried to muzzle his concerns.
Cliff Couch Audio
The Police Department is operating with five vacant officers forcing the current 25 employees to work overtime and large caseloads. Couch says formal or informal exit interviews with the recent officers that resigned mentioned the low pay and being overworked as reasons they left, some even taking pay cuts to receive a better work/life balance.
When trying to address staffing turnover in the past, Couch says City Administrator Howard Partington has filtered his concerns by not letting him speak to the council or public. Couch wants a study to be commissioned to look into compensation levels for all of his employees.
Cliff Couch Audio
The city council decided to acquire the services of McDonald Tinker Attorneys at Law from Wichita to assist the governing body through their employment issues.
Couch nearly did not receive a chance to present at the council meeting when Mayor Mike Allison told council member Dana Dawson that the Police Department topic was not on the agenda. Dawson’s motion to hear Couch passed 4-3 with council members Joel Jackson, Vicki Berryman, and Allene Owen voting against it.