Medical Leave? Um, So What Was the Problem, Again?
I’m starting to get a little annoyed about a system that coddles public employees, especially those who are supposed to be providing “public” safety, yet who seem to creating more public danger than safety, especially when budget time rolls around.
Let’s take our current police chief, Michael Sellers, who is on some sort of indefinite sick leave. Is he really sick? His doctor says so and like our idiot mayor, I am willing to believe he somehow got hold of a medical degree and a license to be a doctor.
So what’s ailing Sellers? Initial reports said high blood pressure and stress. Hell, I give my cat medicine for its high blood pressure, so that’s a load of bullshit right there. Stress?!! Jeez, some tax payers rightfully conclude that workplace stress is one of the reasons people like Sellers are paid huge salaries of almost $20,000 a month.
Maybe Sellers is just sick all of a sudden about being held accountable for something he was supposed to be in charge of.
And now that Sellers has disappeared to the friendly beach-side confines of San Clemente, he still pulls down that fabulous salary for doing nothing! At this point some cynical folks might assert that Sellers wasn’t doing anything anyway, so what’s the difference? Hard to argue against that. But Sellers has a boss – City Manager Joe Felz; and Joe Felz has five bosses – the city council. So who the Hell has been in charge of the Fullerton police the past two years? Nobody, apparently. It’s true that Pat McPension left Sellers a culture of corruption, but still, Sellers must have known what was going on.
Will he be back? The Three Mummified Miscreants don’t seem to think so, but their lawyer has told them they can’t talk about it.
Clescellers
i hope he chokes on a donut and dies
I can’t imagine the public response if Sellers returns!!
After one year of medical leave, he gets his pension, TAX FREE! Correct??
Yes, the police have a tough job, and yes, they face dangerous situations to protect the public. But the protections they get when they commit criminal acts are just plain absurd and unacceptable!! Sellers should have already been fired by the city manager and the 6 cops should have been removed from duty immediately, without pay!
Apparently, it is state laws that prevent the city from firing Sellers. Getting really tired of the way things are run in this state as well.
there was supposedly an independent review being conducted by some group about sellers’ actual medical condition, to determine if he is actually stressed out or not officially. i am absolutely positive i heard this was happening, but can’t remember who was doing it – at least i’m sure some entity said they were going to do it. whether they really do it is another matter. but the results should be available by now i would think.
does anybody know?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Kelly-Thomas/202121386512154
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=196618
It was my understanding that the city hired a doctor to examine Sellers and determine what his ailment was. Haven’t heard anything other than that. ADMIN – any info on this?
Chief Sellers’ medical condition is protected information, so good luck with that.
WHY THE HELL SHOULD IT BE PROTECTED IF WE HAVE TO PAY HIS OVER-INFLATED SALARY IF HE IS NOT GOING TO BE WORKING???
Welcome to the once great State of California!!
One for the books, “if Sellers returns”? Now that would be funny. I’d love to hear him talk to KTLA’s David Beatnau when asked why he went on vacation just day’s after Kelly Thomas died and left 6 nasty thugs roaming the streets of Fullerton with gun’s and badges.
If Sellers DID return, I cannot imagine him speaking to anyone about it!! It would definitely be a huge hindrance for the city in it’s quest to regain confidence with the people. Protests would be HUGE!! I just can’t picture him returning.
Generally, when a public official knows that he or she is going to be terminated, he or she will begin to use up any accumulated sick leave, personal leave, and the like. It is done, because such accumulated leave-time can no longer be “cashed in” after separation, whether retirement, involuntary termination, quitting, and so on. So my guess is that, because of the inappropriate “coaching session” which occurred not long after the Kelly-Killing, he will be terminated at just the right time to help defuse the Recall.
So I would bet that he was counselled long ago that he would be “scapegoated”, and that he ought to start using up his sick time. Anne York did the same thing, before she retired as City Clerk.
Snow Hume – Interesting observation! Seems very plausible.
I am wondering now what the FBI is doing in this case? The cops in the Rodney King case were prosecuted for civil rights violations and Mr. King was not murdered. Kelly Thomas WAS!! So, clearly, without question, Kelly Thomas was deprived of his constitutional right to life. I am wondering if the fed’s are going to wait until the state’s case plays out before they make their move.
I would think that if any of these agencies are doing their job properly they would have made public statements in a timely manner about what would be done and what they found right away. This long delay just demonstrates that they don’t think that there is any immediate threat to the public and that nothing needs to be immediatly reprimanded.
usually. it gives them more info on what questions to ask, what evidence is believable etc. the trade off is slow as mud
I think someone should go down to san clemente and investigate if sellers is sitting on the beach drinking margaritas.
No, he’s playing golf with the former director of FCPA. They are very close friends.
He’s having the last laugh,sitting in the luxury of his palace right now.
thats all bull shit, if sellout’ers or any pig did something to piss off any of the majority of council members. his ass would be gone!!!!
what the leaders of f-town are shoveling down the public throats is horse shit. why cuz they don’t give a fuck.
thats why they all need to go and hopefully croak and we can piss on their graves.
Then WHY can’t the city council fire the cops involved in the Kelly Thomas murder?
These egotistical bastards kill an unarmed, gravely- mentally-ill drifter for no reason which resulted in worldwide negative press for the city. They are also the reason that the city will be hit with MILLIONS of Dollars in lawsuits, both state and federal.
Someone please tell me WHY THE HELL the city would want these people to remain on the payrol?!?!?!?!
BECAUSE THEY DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT CITIZENS, ONLY THEIR FUNDRAISERS.
Well, like it or not, Sellers has passed his medical exam. The City Council in its infinite wisdom is NOT taking his medical leave to task and fighting the Sellers MD findings. Sellers will fade into oblivion and collect his huge pension. He is so stressed out that his FPD members caused him to leave his position early. (yes he will leave because he is an embarrassment to the 3 blind mice on city council.)
Sellers wont get his pension, we the good people of fullerton will give him his pension just as we gave him his paycheck while he blithely observed the crimes his police force committed upon the good people of fullerton. our government has been corrupted by greed evidenced by the by gouging of taxpayers with civil servants bloated salaries, overtime abuse that pads their paychecks,. Sellers perfectly personifies the petty,bloated civil servant who has done little to justify his bloated salary and benefits. when he was given a position to affect change for the better, instead he chose to carry on his predecessor’s horrific abuse of persons within our city’s limits by fullerton police force. When this same force murdered a disabled, homeless man, Sellers did not act like a leader/police chief, he chose to hide behind a doctor’s white coat and play ill. Why do we the good people of fullerton continue to alow this form of abuse when many excessively taxed residents and business owners in fullerton have seen their own incomes eroded by the deteriorating economy ?
when will people stand up to our greedy civil servants who need us more than we need them?
And wasn’t Sellers supposed to make a credible effort to move to Fullerton as part of his contract? There was some talk of how you prove you did/did not make an effort, but it’s not like there weren’t any houses available. Hell, the timing would have been perfect as prices had already taken a big hit.
Sellers is raping the city of Fullerton, he’s raping the system, and he’s raping the taxpayers – all the while giving a big F-YOU from his nest in San Clemente.
Everyone remembers the rolling blackouts Enron foisted on California, even as their traders were mocking “Grandma.”
Sellers is doing the same thing. And so are every one of the cops who claim they’re injured and then retire with tax-pardoned pensions, like Sellers.
This outrageous thievery will have to be stopped in Sacramento, not in Fullerton.
Sacramento, California – Leading the country towards oblivion!
Of course he knew what was going on in Fullerton.
New Fullerton police chief long familiar with the city
By BARBARA GIASONE / The Orange County Register
Published: April 8, 2009 3:00 a.m.
New Fullerton police chief long familiar with the city
Mayor says he was impressed with Michael Sellers’ training and education.
“Through the years, I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from the faculty about the Fullerton Police Department,” Sellers, 57, said. “The reputation of the Fullerton department has always been on my radar screen.”
Sellers also trained under then Sgt. Pat McKinley at the Police Academy “when Pat would run us through the hills.”
http://www.ocregister.com/news/sellers-125042-police-beach.html
“My grandparents lived in Laguna, and when I came back from the beach one day, I found a transient sleeping in their house,” Sellers said. “He’d been drinking, and had already taken a shower in their bathroom. I called the Laguna Beach police and they handled the situation as a mental health issue.
“I just thought it was a real cool thing the way they handled it; how ironic I would end up working in Laguna,” Sellers said.
—————————————
How ironic, indeed! His first law enforcement encounter is with a transient with mental issues.
And so, apparently, is his last.
Great post, Jane H.
Another hard-hitting cream puff by Giasone. No mention of LB lawsuits.
I think we can all see what’s what. The bond between LEOs is great and far-reaching.
Believe me when I say this whole set-up (the FPD) was orchestrated. They all know each other; police chiefs everywhere all know each other. Pat McKinley had an enormous influence on police officers everywhere in So Cal. Everyone looked up to him.
One thing I’ve been wanting to say is that although I don’t live in Fullerton, this story has affected me more than people know. Cal Sate Fullerton is my Alma Mater. But last week I found out just how small the world is when my mother told me that she worked with and carpooled with Pat McKinley’s wife in the middle 60s. I don’t remember much about that, except that she shared a ride with a woman. I believe Barbara is his second wife, but I’m still looking into that. The point is that he was a rising star at LAPD. One of his first assignments as a rookie was the L.A. Riots, which was the birthplace of S.W.A.T.. Both he and Daryl Gates started it and became lifelong friends.
There is more of course, but I think listening to mother talk about those times made me realize that somewhere along the line, for what ever reason, he embraced his power with a vengeance, completely forgetting that he too, is a human being. He seems to really believe his own myth: that he is above the average person, which is very sad.
The last thing my mother said to me about it was, “I don’t know what to think. It’s very sad.”
I was once a public servant, but no more, thank God.
I don’t doubt your assertion that retired Fullerton Police Chief McKinley influenced police officers in SoCal. What galls me is this same police chief served on Fullerton resident Rusty Kennedy’s Orange County Human Relations Commission(OCHRC). The OCHRC is a tax funded agency that claims to work with local law enforcement and the community to protect and ensure the civil rights of all people in the OC. McKInley was the sole police chief on the OCHRC board.
My question is how did these two residents of Fullerton, one intimately connected with the Fullerton Police force and thus privy to this police force’s systematic abuse of our community, Fullerton, and Rusty Kennedy who as executive director of a county commission who claims his commission is essential to the OC because it protects and defends the civil rights of all persons living in the OC allow their hometown’s police force to systematically beat and molest persons within Fullerton’s city limits?
OC’s board of supervisors along with the OC DA must start asking these two persons some hard questions instead of allowing our tax dollars to be used to quietly pay off persons whose civil rights were grossly abused in our town of Fullerton.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
especially if your commission is dependent on OC cities determining a need to fund this commission
the worst you could call people like Rusty is simple. sell-out by someone who never worked for own cause. not that he would ever be allowed any real influence.
McKinley and Daryl Gates pals? Why is it I’m not surprised.
Since psychopathic LEOs like Gates are frequently venerated posthumously here are some choice Gates quotes that typify the “legend”:
“Casual drug users should be taken out and shot.”
“We may be finding that in some blacks, when the choke hold is applied, the veins or arteries do not open up like in normal people.”
The following paragraph nicely sums up Gates’ legacy:
“Chief Gates represented all that is wrong with police and law-enforcement in America. Thanks to him, my little town of Upper Dublin, a mostly upper-middle-class exuburb just north of Philadelphia where crime mostly consists of breaking and entering, or an occasional case of drunkenness or disorderly conduct, boasts a big gray SWAT panel truck, equipped with assault weapons and god knows what else that never gets used, but that gets shown off every year at an annual police and fire department show-and-tell day. And surely, his PDID, and the spying it engaged in, was a harbinger of and even pioneer for the almost universal surveillance state that we now live in, with cameras popping up everywhere, our electronic communications constantly monitored, and police acting like the gestapo, instead of the civil servants they are supposed to be.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/04/19/good-riddance-daryl-gates/
Sound familiar, fellow Fullertonians?
And an in-depth article on Gates and LAPD’s use of illegal spying, honeytraps, etc is here: http://www.laobserved.com/visiting/2010/04/daryl_gates_secret_legacy.php
“he embraced his power with a vengeance, completely forgetting that he too, is a human being. He seems to really believe his own myth: that he is above the average person, which is very sad.”
In other words his ambition found outlet in being the 100% cop. Just like the Gates brothers, and many other police who become enamored of their own sense of self.
That’s why these coppers like to think they are experts on things like psychology, medicine, etc. It’s a Messiah Complex, and it’s a bad personality profile for a guy with a badge and a gun.
DOR, good timing. I’ve asked (well, paid) Dr. Ott to do an essay on the psychology of narcissism, megalomania and authority.
Gates Brother was beat up by a sherrifs deputy in Laguna Beach…. for parking his golf cart on the sidewalk….. its true.
The Three Mummified Miscreants?
Cold.
But accurate.
It all boils down to responsibility.
how long has Sellers been off with “high blood pressure”? and no surgeries?
Should have been resolved with medication by now…there’s definitely something else going on.
Yes, one year or more of medical leave results in a tax free pension, which in this case, is utterly absurd!!
High blood pressure from what, being sedentary with a bad diet? Maybe he should have gotten off his ass and chased some bad guys.
No need to chase bad guys when they work for you.
The media should be all over this story to expose the blatant corruption!
http://www.kfiam640.com/pages/Handel2.html?article=9314033
What a joke. Sellers left the Fullerton in its time of need. We needed leadership and Sellers was just out for himself.
It is a joke but they all worked together at LAPD or other departments and they all know how to milk the sytem. Everyone of them is getting at least two pensions and working on a third. The media calls it “Chief Disease!” You should have heard the stories I heard. All the instructors there were on some type of medical disability and collecting a salary from the college. They even told a few recruits that they could go out on a back injury after 5 years on the job. These people were experts! They would leave the newestest instructors to watch the class and the rest would go out and eat these real great lunches and meet the Fullerton brass. They would come back and tell the class what a great lunch they had.
I forgot to mention. TAX FREE!!!!
I bet he does not feel one bit guilty for taking the money from the people of Fullerton. I can only hope that karma steps in….
The city of Downey’s chief of police issued a statement 3 days after one of his officers questionably shot a man to death this past Saturday night, offering condolences to the family and immediately placing the officer on administrative leave.
That is the least you could have done Sellers, immediately after your poorly trained APES murdered Kelly Thomas! Take notes.
It is very ironic that Sellers taught classes in ethics…….Is that the old ‘ Do as I say, , Not as I do ‘ routine?
I think the reason we have not heard from the FBI yet, is perhaps they have found more in their investigations than they expected. All of the wrong doing that has leaked out may just possibly be the tip of the iceberg.
Granted, the issues under discussion here are mainly with corruption and brutality in Fullerton, but to demonstrate it’s a problem with the entire culture of law enforcement I present the following:
“Disabled Man Says CHP Left Him Stranded”
http://www.ocregister.com/news/aldaoudi-324060-officer-chp.html
The Fullerton Police Dept. and Fullerton City Council made it into OC Weekly’s scariest people 2011.
http://www.ocweekly.com/2011-10-27/news/scariest-people-day-of-the-dead/
http://www.ocregister.com/news/hagerman-282996-gates-department.html
There is Karma out there…..
Actually karma would be when Hagerman gets his long overdue comeuppance.
we really need to think long and hard before we advocate replacing FPD with OCSD as long as they continue to employ violent, out-of-control sadistic morons like this guy.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/gates-322800-hagerman-county.html
karma
these guys are ruthless , they don’t care about the people they should be serving! all they care about is their bank account.
Police equipment
Orange County Register [Santa Ana, Calif]
15 Aug 2006: 1.
Fullerton
City police will acquire new equipment with $36,550 worth of asset-seizure funds after City Council members approved the expenditure at their Aug. 1 meeting.
The Crime Impact Unit will get two night-vision monocles for nighttime operations.
The Traffic Bureau will receive a “total station” device and its software that allows the officers to re-create accident scenes digitally.
****Also, police will get 15 tasers. Police Chief Pat McKinley said tasers have prevented the escalation of violence in many situations.****
Copyright Orange County Register Aug 15, 2006
Word count: 80
Could he have been surprised by the fact that tasers did not prevent the escalation of violence in the Kelly Thomas murder??
That was my post above.
Then we the citizens of Fullerton sue him. Vacation then high blood pressure. His doctors diagnoses is not private because it effects his public job. Isnt that what his claim is “My job”. See this whole thing, even if the three stooges get recalled, stinks badly of a complete scam before your eyes. See this is America where contracts are meant to be broken, happens everyday, so to sit back and think that the Police union cant be broken is bullshit! If there is will there is a way.
Besides, didn’t he agree in his contract to move to Fullerton?
If he’s gonna get paid $200,000+/yr. to do nothing, at least he should be doing nothing here in Fullerton–where some of our tax dollars might leak back into our local economy (every time he buys a doughnut!)
Read this piece written by Michael Lewis (The guy who wrote Moneyball) about the mess we are in in California due to greed of public safety unions (cops, fire, and prison guards). THEY are the problem and are corrupting CalPers. Most of the CalPers abuse in other public sectors is reserved for administrators with big salaries. Public safety unions leverage their power with threats to reward all members.
http://t.co/KkCBWBkC
“Makin’ Bacon!” could be a trademark for the effort to rid pension double and triple dippers like McKinley from the public dole.
Why not create a special state fee equal to the amount of the 2nd and 3rd pension and call it a Pig Tax?
Also. Cops’ Use of Illegal Steroids a ‘Big Problem’ http://t.co/oTG6f3Xs
It is official, they are running around druged up. Drug test cops!!! Why not.
The wonderful “4850.” 50% tax-free.
What a life. Get fired, then collect over $200k/annum ’till death. How many of us here would give up both of our testicles to get that kind of deal?
The chief should subject to the same criteria and std of those who claim disability from the Federal Government. Just because the chief provided a note from a physician that he was unable to work, doesn’t mean that he can’t work. Knowing deceiving the public about this reasons for leave should have an impact to his comp plan including the fringes.
New to Fullerton you got it right!!
The moribund city council could hire workmans comp investigators to find out what Sellers is doing while on medical leave. They look for fraud all the time but unless the City hires them, or an insurance company hires the investigators, no one looks! I have a friend that does this for a living and around 65% of the cases he investigates, photos, etc. lose some or all their workers comp.
CITY COUNCIL: Your doing nothing about Sellers sends a message that it is OK to rip off Fullerton taxpayers!
It would be easy for someone to discretely follow Sellers and videotape his daily life. He’d probably press stalking charges if they were caught – the fat pig!
If the city leaders hired a police chief with ethics and morals, Fullerton would not be paying on a fraudulent medical leave .
Most people in the position would have manned up and stepped down to allow Fullerton to start healing. Sellers intention is to punish the taxpayers for protesting the Kelly Thomas murder.
I’m no Robert Redford, but Sellers is one fugly looking dude.