COLUMBIA, SC — Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott is taking an indefinite leave of absence and one of his top assistant’s has been named acting chief.
City Manager Teresa Wilson announced Scott’s leave through a press release emailed Tuesday afternoon. No explanation was given as to the reason for Scott’s leave.
Deputy Chief Ruben Santiago has been named acting chief…
And that’s all I know. This just came out of the blue, as far as I’m concerned. More as I hear it.
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Its a about time. During his tenure it seems like it’s been one clusterfest after another.
Really? Because I can’t imagine what this is about. Sure, Columbia has its law-and-order challenges, but I can’t think of anything offhand that I would blame on Chief Scott…
Maybe he found another loophole to let him “retire” again and get a second pension?
If it’s with pay, it’s just like retirement but at full salary.
And how is a police chief able to take a leave of absence without an explanation? There has to be a reason and that reason should be announced along with his leaving.
I guess I’ll have to go to FITSnews to find out.
Corpulent greed is its own downfall. Leaders often forget what gives them credibility until it is swept away – often by their own doing.
Maybe botching a high profile missing person case?
Whoa. Did not see that coming.
He’s done a great job. I hope whatever this is about can be quickly resolved and he can get back to work!
Ruben and Les Wiser are great, too. We are still in good hands!
This is beginning to sound like the used car salesman’s, “Trust me”.
aka cheerleading @ pre-owned vehicles . com
Not entirely sure that Chief Scott has done a “great” job, but he’s certainly done an adequate job. I think the recent spike of violence in 5-points, the bungled Sponseller investigation and the 300k settlement with the Myrtle Beach atty are all strikes against the Chief. There’s also the matter of “paper policing” where crimes are written up as lesser offenses, or not writtten up at all, or so I’ve heard….
I suggest going to the article in The State and reading other’s comments. It’s not just a few here who are sick and tired of the gross incompetence going on in Columbia. Head cheerleader for the city or not, there’s not a lot of support for those in charge or their actions these days.
He should have never been allowed to return after retiring, Indefinite leave with pay no doubt. Maybe he had an orthodontist appointment.
I hear Argentina is a really nice place to unwind and get away from all the day-to-day stress of public office.
Do you really think that Randy’s going to leave his college-aged girlfriend to go hiking on the AT? He’s probably just in Panama City for the week on spring break!
Word on the street is that his 8 round pistol got him in trouble.
It’s personal leave, not administrative leave. The State will have a story tomorrow morning.
Story’s out today – not a lot of details.
Read the comments, The State’s article is nothing more than a space filler for the front page. I’ve seen better investigative writing in high school newspapers.
Can’t get to the State comments from here, nor the Fits ones. Probably not worth reading anyhow.
Umm… really? The news story was a news story. It contained confirmable facts. The comments — the couple of pages I read at your recommendation — were the usual assortment of water-cooler gossip and ranting…
Personally, I got quite a bit out of the story, although some of it is contradictory. For instance, it’s interesting that the city manager says she might have taken disciplinary action. You pair that with the allegations in the Green lawsuit, and it sounds like it could be pretty bad. At the same time, she says she hopes he’ll be back on the job, which implies she has reason to believe it can all be straightened out.
I’m concerned that the council members haven’t been briefed. In this insane council-manager system that we have, they are the people who are politically accountable, and the manager is accountable to them. It’s all well and good to say it’s an administrative matter, but the possibility of yet another chief leaving under a cloud is a significant political issue. This is the police chief, not Lovely Rita the Meter Maid.
“she has reason to believe it can all be straightened out.”
or covered up.
Brad – You don’t think that it has anything to do with the Maxwell Edison murder case, do you?
You mean, the medical student?
That’s the one.
I’ve read more information on FitsNews regarding this than some no-information interview by some jr. reporter at The State. “I might”, “it’s possible”, etc. aren’t much to go on. She might as well have said, “Write whatever you want, some of it might actually be true.”
“The comments — the couple of pages I read at your recommendation ”
Do you time the page loading by hitting the X so it keeps from loading that annoying “you’re not a subscriber” banner popping up too?
At work the Bluecoat blocks the subscribe pop-up, fortunately, but also blocks the comments. At home I get the popup.
As an editor, there are some questions I’d be asking the reporter. Such as, is this talk of “disciplinary action” based on anything? Or did the reporter ask, “Is it possible you would have taken disciplinary action?” and the manager said, “Anything’s possible”? (Of course, that could also have been a question the editor told the reporter to ask, in which case the editor is fully up to speed.) Or did the manager bring it up herself.
Also, why is it worded as though the disciplinary action might have been taken if he hadn’t taken leave? In what way does taking leave eliminate the possible need for the disciplinary action, unless he’s leaving for good? If disciplinary action was called for before he went on leave, why wouldn’t it be waiting for him if and when he came back?
These things need to be cleared up going forward.
That was my question. How is the personal leave related to the possible admin action?
Right. The implication is, “Take a few days off, and all is forgiven.” How does that work?
I read it as a take off now while Council isn’t in session demand. I figured she’s trying to protect them from the political fall-out. Nothing like a well-placed spring break.
I would also infer that if he just stepped down, that she had the chief over the barrel. And probably dead to rights, too.
Typical the guy sought to take a paid leave. I hope since he is back on the job that his January “retirement” can be voided and he can be shown the door for cause. If that’s the situation…
He fired Ida Greene for what she claims is sex discrimination. The details of the case seem to have some merit. Apparently he fired her for her failure to find Mr. Sponhour’s body. But it turns out she was on leave during the time of the incident. Plus there are other allegations.
Isa Greene
Mr. Sponhour should, of course, be Tom Sponseller.
Yeah, last I heard Michael Sponhour (former reporter at The State) was still going. I see he Tweeted as recently as Saturday…
According to FitsNews, Scott will be using the time to prepare for a 2nd retirement party:
http://www.fitsnews.com/2013/04/03/about-randy-scotts-indefinite-suspension/
I saw that. I liked the obligatory libertarian touch, which is pure Will Folks: “Obviously that sort of thing doesn’t really offend us … people doing what they want to do behind closed doors is what America is (or at least should be) all about…”
Libertarians have their own sort of distinctive piety. They tell you about a salacious rumor, a real bombshell, then quickly add, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
If even 1/10 of what Folks is “reporting” is true, Scott should never have been rehired.
Scott is probably wishing now that he would have just stayed retired.
Fits is now reporting that Chief Scott won’t be coming back…
The Fits story suggests that Mayor Benjamin might also be in trouble. At least now Brad will have some local news to post to his Virtual Front Page.
Columbia is currently just a smaller version of Detroit. Which is why people with any brains moved out long ago.
That would be an interesting point, if it had any basis in fact.
And one of the commenters on FITS makes a good point – if Scott “retired” in December, how much paid leave would he have accrued by now? A week? Or in addition to getting a sweetheart pension deal, did he get extra perks as well?
I believe under the state system if he returns his accrual rate remains the same as when he left. The max is 30 day per year if remember correctly which comes out to 2.5 days per year… and assuming he gets credit for April that gives him 10 days of annual leave this year. He is likely accruing sick leave at 15 days per year so he’s probably got 3 weeks to use. If what’s coming out is true, he’ll be fired before then… unless he has the same friends as Lillian McBride.
I guess before we get too caught up in what FITS is reporting it should be noted that it’s been wrong before. The reporting they dido of the DOT funding issues turned out to be very much exaggerated.
I’m shocked, shocked
Round up the usual suspects!
As city head cheerleader, I’m not surprised… if you keep blinders on long enough you start to limit your scope of what’s really going on around you.
City Manager Wilson is about as useless as they come, it’s no wonder they had to dumb down the job description for her to meet the minimum qualifications.
She is a lawyer. By all accounts, she is very smart and capable.
So you’re saying just because she’s a lawyer that she’s smart? I beg to differ.
If she’s so smart, why did they have to dumb down the qualifications to get her approved for an interview. And put ahead of two candidates who met the qualifications before they were dumbed down. From the recent interviews she’s incapable of answering simple questions… which is pretty much standard practice for any City of Columbia or Richland County employee.