Sunday editorial: The chief departs
Of Joseph J. Mokwa’s decision under fire Friday to retire as chief of the St. Louis Police Department, several things must be said:
First, it was the correct decision. The issues raised by his adult daughter’s use of cars from a favored police towing company — and what and when Mr. Mokwa knew about it — had compromised his ability to lead the 1,300-officer department. Public confidence in the department had been shaken. The rank-and-file officers must have no doubt that the command staff is held to the same strict ethical standards demanded of them.
Second, for seven years, Joe Mokwa was in most ways a good, arguably even an excellent, chief of police. He worked diligently to build relationships with neighborhood and community leaders throughout the city. He mentored and promoted black and female officers, knowing that the department should more closely mirror the city it polices. He instituted computerized crime-data tracking, giving district commanders more autonomy and holding them accountable for results.
He understood the special problems of policing in a city with large numbers of underemployed, under-educated and under-parented youths. In many ways, his forced retirement at 59 is a great loss to St. Louis.
Third, the investigation into the precise nature of the relationship between Mr. Mokwa and various entities of the S&H Parking Co., including Metropolitan Towing Co. and Parks Auto Sales, must continue. The Board of Police Commissioners has asked the U.S. attorney’s office here to look into it.
Too many unanswered questions remain: When did the chief know that his troubled daughter, Aimie Goodrich (from whom he is estranged) and her husband (a former city police officer) were getting the free use of cars and deep discounts on purchasing them? Did other police officers and/or their family members get similarly favored treatment? The Board of Police Commissioners has cancelled the contract with the firm, but what exactly were its terms?
Fourth, the Police Board itself must account for the abysmal way it has handled this situation. So far it has hired its own private lawyers, added extra public relations staff and held its deliberations in secret — no substitute for full transparency. Who decided to outsource the initial investigation to two lawyers from the Armstrong Teasdale law firm? Why did the report have enough holes in it to drive a tow truck through? What did the report cost? Can city taxpayers get a refund before Armstrong Teasdale moves its offices to Clayton?
Why did Police Board President Chris Goodson decide two Fridays ago, reportedly on his own, to declare that the investigation was closed? Post-Dispatch reporters Jeremy Kohler and Joe Mahr had been investigating the S&H story for three months. Why did Mr. Goodson feel the need to hire private lawyers instead of calling in outside law enforcement investigators?
Of the five Police Board members, only Mayor Francis Slay recognized the threat this story posed to the department and its reputation. Perhaps that’s because the mayor has better political antenna, or because he’s running for reelection next year, or because he demoted a black fire chief, Sherman George, last summer and could not be perceived as going soft on a white police chief. Whatever the reason, Mr. Slay took these allegations seriously and acted promptly.
Fifth, the severance package offered to Mr. Mokwa in return for his retirement was excessive. As a 37-year veteran of the department, Mr. Mokwa is immediately eligible to draw a pension based on the $106,439 salary he has been earning as chief. Like other city employees, he also is entitled to be paid for nearly a year’s worth of unused vacation and sick leave.
The Board voted 4-1 to pay an additional $100,000-plus in severance and agreed to pick up his legal bills. You could put almost two extra cops on the street for a year for $100,000. Mr. Slay was the only “no” vote.
Mr. Goodson and Police Board members Todd Epsten, Julius Hunter and Vince Bommarito owe the public an explanation for their actions before they deserve to be entrusted with the job of choosing a new chief.
You are wanting transparency to make a decision, good or bad. I suggest your editorial board read “The Ode to a Louse,” (Burns)
I have no opinion about the Police Chief’s decision to retire. That is his privilege for whatever reason he chooses.
For Gawd’s Sake He was hired to be a police chief, not to be the father of a derelict daughter.
The issue is the behavior of the board. The severance package seems absurd for an employee choosing to retire.
Yeah, we get it. Slay’s people are geniuses. Brilliant. Always right. If everyone would just follow their lead, St. Louis would be utopia.
FIRST, when did the Police Board meet and vote on hiring Armstrong Teasdale and how did EACH of the five members vote? If Slay was not aware that Armstrong Teasdale was getting paid to investigate the chief, why wasn’t he aware of it? Was he not paying attention or were Goodson and the other four deliberately keeping Slay in the dark about the chief being under investigation by a private law firm?
SECOND, Goodson needs to be escorted out the door right along with Mokwa. His pitiful news conference was done for one reason only - to take the wind out of Jeremy Kohler’s investigation, which was close to exposing the S&H scandal. Claiming the “matter closed” while professing openness and transparency only served to elevate the scandal to a whole new level. It was a bone-headed performance and inquiring minds would love to know who’s been advising him.
I’m sorry to see Mokwa retire. I think he did a lot of good things for us citizens and the Police Dept in general.
But you cannot allow this type of corruption to go on unabated with the special deals and never-ending Get Out of Jail free cards his daughter got.
And the sad part is this is not isolated.
This type of corrupt behaviour is rife in the City. The aldermen are in on it, City Departments are stocked with friends and relatives of Aldermen and the connected sitting around doing nothing collecting paychecks “working” for the City of STL.
I think the P-D should just do on-going probes of every City dept on a regular basis. Just keep cycling thru ‘em because everytime you think you’ve killed all of the weeds, they just move somewhere else. For example How about that stalwart of ethics and morals “Sheriff Barney Fife/Murphy” and all of his buddies that are on the payroll with their drunk driving records supposedly handing out subpoenas/summonses. The PD exposed his sleaze once, start with him. I guarantee nothing changed in that rotten dept.
Anyone stop to think that those sweet deals were given to possibly hold against Mokwa in the future to keep their doubly sweet towing contract with the city?
What a business concept. Free cars to sell for thousands of dollars. Even when someone did try to claim a car wasnt it a huge hassle and runaround? Seems like there was a few articles in the paper a while back about the excessive charges….
One only needs to follow the money to see where the real scandal lies. Some police/former police officers found a golden cow and milked it. Whether Mokwa was on the payola or not we will probably never know.
I feel this entire unfortunate mess is a result of the Mayor firing the Chief of the Fire Dept., Mr. Sherman. Think about it. It has witch-hunt written all over it. Remember, the owners of S&H Towing have the right to sell or give away their cars. After 30 days the cars are the property of the towing company……a federal law governs this practice….it is no different than any business owner or private citizen giving away something they own.
To me an even bigger problem than Mr. Mokwa’s daughter are the policemen who received use of the cars. I am in favor of taxing for police purposes, but while chief of police, Mr. Mokwa allowed officers to abuse the power we entrusted them with so even if you discount the abuses of his daughter over whom he had no direct control, he failed to control the action of the officers over whom he should have had complete control in their police related duties.
That the police chief and all of the police are not accountable to the citizens of St Louis is absurd. The people of St Louis ought to have the ability to remove a corrupt or even a poorly performing police chief, either directly or through electing a new mayor. Each officer should also be accountable to the community he or she serves as well and citizens should be able to discharge them as at will employees.
This entire story has very little to do with the police chief’s daughter. It has everything to do about a Tow Truck Co., St. Louis City Police department officers, and alleged kick backs to those officers for having cars towed to the tow lot. Duh!
I live in the County and absolutely nothing surprises me aabout the City. Cops driving cars that are impounded .. cops watching the World Series thanks to tickets “impounded” from scalpers .. It’s a joke!
When you look at it the chiefs daughter damaged his reputation as police chief. I am sure his only concern was for his grandchildren but what he needs to do now is to get those kids away from their mother. She has damaged the chiefs reputation, and it seems as if she doesn’t care. Her husband doesn’t seem any better. I feel sorry for the chief and I hope he picks himself up and does the right thing, which would be getting custody of his grandchildren.