Ronan chief demoted, officer talks about resignation
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RONAN — John Mitchell was demoted last week and became the third Ronan police chief to fall from power in the past 10 months.
Mayor Kim Aipperspach was designated the acting police chief in the place of Mitchell, who remains a regular officer on the force of four people.
Aipperspach refused to comment further on the situation and Mitchell was not allowed to comment for this article.
In an April 21 closed executive session the Ronan City Council met with Mitchell and Ronan officers Pat Noble and Tim Case. The officers angrily exited halfway through the three-hour meeting, after a significant amount of shouting that could be heard through the closed door. The loud voices continued between councilmembers after the officers left, but there was no discussion and no action was taken when the council reconvened before the public.
Former officer Mark Fiorentino, who resigned a few weeks ago, said in an interview that he left the department because of a lack of direction.
“The leadership isn’t there,” Fiorentino said. “Qualifications as a chief aren’t there.”
Fiorentino said Mitchell was not present in the office or available by telephone as much as he expected of a police chief.
Fiorentino worked for the department on and off since 2008, and was one of the few remaining members of the department after a complete overhaul last summer. Longtime Chief Dan Wadsworth was stripped of his law certifications in July 2013. Wadsworth was accused of falsifying his son’s application to the Montana Law Enforcement Academy.
The city council decided against hiring Mitchell in October 2013, and instead chose Valent Maxwell, a 23-year veteran law officer who was living in Klawok, Alaska. City Councilmember Chris Adler described it as a move meant to clean up the department’s image of having a “good ole boys’ system.”
Maxwell took over Oct. 23.
“It was clear it wasn’t going to work,” Fiorentino said of Maxwell’s tenure, which ended on Jan. 7 after Maxwell underwent an extensive round of scrutiny in a city council meeting concerning his competence.
After Maxwell’s farewell, Mitchell’s fellow officer Pat Noble and other city employees spoke in favor of hiring the new graduate of the law enforcement academy as chief. Fiorentino remained silent but didn’t speak against the hiring in public, though in an interview he said he felt that Mitchell wasn’t as experienced as other candidates, namely a veteran of the Los Angeles, Santa Ana and Polson police departments that applied.
“They didn’t even give him an interview,” Fiorentino said of the candidate.
Mitchell was hired as chief on Jan. 21, with a warning from Adler that the council was going to be tough on the new leader.
In the following weeks Mitchell gave updates on how the department had worked to clean up its office and install a new computer system that processed police reports more quickly and required more accountability from officers filing the paperwork.
Councilmembers gave Mitchell positive feedback in council meetings about residents being happy to see Ronan officers on the streets more than in the previous months.
When Mitchell found two police vehicles for sale in Idaho, the council signed off on purchasing them and noted how much of a bargain the town was getting. It worked well for the city’s cash strapped situation, the councilmembers said.
There was little indication in open council meetings that there was any sort of personnel issues in the department after Mitchell became chief, but there were problems, according to Fiorentino.
“I think they’d throw anyone under the bus to get ahead,” Fiorentino said.
Major personality conflicts within the department could be seen once the officers emerged from closed session with one calling the other a liar. Another city employee chimed in that one of the officers was “evil.”
Aipperspach could not give any further insight into the matter.
