Orange City reeling from PD complaint — Union vote planned

By Jen Horton
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jan 19, 2010 - 9:04:07am

Things are happening fast and furiously in Orange City, following a complaint by 20 of the city’s police officers against a superior officer.

City leaders say an investigation of allegations in the complaint is under way. In the meantime, the Police Department — whose members are under orders not to talk to the news media — is heading toward a unionization vote.

The union said officers who signed the original complaint against Lt. Gregory Melvin received a letter from Melvin’s attorney, threatening that they will be sued if they don’t retract statements made in the complaint.

And city officials are clamping down on the release of public records that could help the community understand what’s going on.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 385 business agent Jeff Candage said members of the Orange City Police Department could vote as soon as February or March on whether the union will represent them.

Candage said the union was contacted by members of the Police Department who felt they weren’t getting a fair response from city officials when they complained about Melvin and about the failure of Police Chief Jeffrey Baskoff to address their concerns.

The complaint and a related e-mail from Baskoff to the department’s officers were made public after copies were delivered anonymously to City Council members.

Melvin’s attorney said the resulting publicity has been unfair to his client, because he and Melvin cannot talk publicly about the accusations, including charges that Melvin has a temper problem and that he has belittled fellow officers in public.

“An innocent man is being mischaracterized,” Orlando attorney Derek Brett said. “The reporting thus far is skewed.”

Brett said he and his client are prohibited from talking about the complaint by F.S. § 112.532 of the Florida Statutes, commonly called “the police officer’s bill of rights.”

“I wish you would simply wait until the administrative process was complete so that we can give an evenhanded account,” Brett said.

Orange City officials also are citing F.S. §112.533 in refusing to allow The Beacon to review e-mails to and from Chief Baskoff and his wife, Pat Baskoff, the records supervisor in the Police Department, as well as letters sent by Brett to Orange City police officers.

Orange City Clerk Deborah Renner said all records requested by the news media are being scrutinized by the city attorney before being released, to assure that they don’t contain information about the ongoing investigation that would be made confidential by the provisions of Chapter 112.

The Beacon was granted permission to look at Melvin’s personnel file, a month after the newspaper requested it.

Candage provided a copy of the letter from Brett, which had been sent to a police officer at work.

Brett mentioned the investigation of Melvin, and said the complaint had resulted in “serious” harm to Melvin’s reputation. Brett asked the officer to “renounce” the complaint.

— jen@beacononlinenews.com

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