Council opposed cop's firing
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By JEFFREY HAGE jeff.hage@lee.net
Thursday, February 22, 2007 10:17 AM CST
Members of the Bloomer City Council thought Chris King was a great police officer. Council members thought so much of King that after nine months of serving as a reserve officer they created a position so King could be hired as a full-time officer, said council member Janet Thur.
But three days before King’s probationary period as an officer was to end, council members were shocked to learn their hand-picked officer had been fired.
King told the Herald Tuesday that he had a spotless employment record until a Jan. 14, 2007 incident involving Bloomer’s police chief, Michael Bungartz. That’s the day King responded to a call of a restraining order violation at a Bloomer bar. What happened afterwards resulted in four charges filed against Bungartz by the Chippewa County District Attorney’s office. It alleges that the off-duty Bungartz, who was attending a graduation party at the bar, inappropriately interfered with efforts by King and county Sheriff’s Deputy Nick Gardow to handle the matter.
Thur and fellow council members Jeff Steinmetz, Jay Young and Richard Hoffman all learned of King’s firing Tuesday when he made personal visits to each of their residences, Thur said.
“I heard the news through the officer. He came to my house, thanked me for my support and said he was going to visit the others, also,” Thur said.
Thur said she and the other council members couldn’t believe their ears.
That’s because Bloomer Mayor Randy Summerfield — serving as the acting police chief — went against the wishes of the Bloomer City Council when he fired King Tuesday. During a meeting of the city council last week the council members all told Summerfield that they didn’t want to see King terminated.
“It shocked me,” Thur said. “I had also personally called Randy to tell him not to do it.”
Other council members did, too, she said. She says the action was an example of the mayor not paying attention to what the council is saying.
“I just feel that Chris isn’t getting a fair shake in the deal. Randy and Mike are best friends. He got fired because he was doing his job and wouldn’t bow down to Mike,” she said.
After criminal charges were filed against Bungartz, he voluntarily accepted a paid leave. Following city procedure, Summerfield stepped in as acting police chief in Bungartz’ absence to handle administrative matters.
One of those matters late last week was to offer King a six-month extension to his probation. King refused to sign the agreement and was terminated four days later. The probation extension agreement, as written, was not supported by the city council, Thur said.
“There were no rights for Chris in it,” Thur said. “The way it was written, he could have been fired if he sneezed.”
Thur says she believes Summerfield acted with a sense of urgency in firing King because he wanted to circumvent the convening of a police commission that would be charged with handling the situation.
The Bloomer City Council is looking to form a police commission and is holding an open meeting to hear the public’s thoughts next Wednesday, Thur said. “He wanted to hurry up and do it before we enacted a police commission,” she said.
Thur says the people of Bloomer are very upset at Summerfield because they believe he has left the city wide open for a lawsuit, she said.
“Too many people in Bloomer think the world of Chris and see him as such an asset to the community,” Thur said.
“Why are there only two people who think he’s bad?” she said, referring to Summerfield and Bungartz.
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