DOCUMENTS RELEASED ON FORMER BRENHAM POLICE CHIEF
The documents dealing with the resignation of former Brenham Police Chief Craig Goodman show his resignation was a forced one.
The over 500 pages of documents from Goodman’s personnel file with the City of Brenham show that Goodman was given the option of resigning or being terminated from his position as Police Chief.
That decision was made after a comprehensive review of the Police Department by then City Manager Terry Roberts and Human Resources Director Susan Nienstedt.
That review concluded that the Police Department was suffering from low morale and that Goodman had lost the support of the Department, including his entire command staff.
Documents show problems in the Department going back a full year or more, with Brenham City Council members becoming concerned. Roberts and Nienstedt concluded that conditions in the Department were so poor and unfixable that a change in leadership was necessary.
Goodman was hired on September of 2015, and served as Police Chief through his effective resignation date of January first of this year. Although Roberts had originally proposed keeping Goodman on the payroll for 30 days after his resignation date, the City actually payed him through May 7th. He was paid approximately $38,000 plus another $5000 for 12 days of vacation during that four month period.
The release of the documents was prompted by a Freedom of Information request made by Bryan TV station KBTX.
I have witnessed the reasons behind some high end severance packages, and they come with a non disclosure statement signed by employee. The original amount of pay was changed for more dollars, safe bet it was for a reason. A reason that would not set well with taxpayers.
I think the course of action taken was a good one, maybe a merciful kind action. Which is the right way to go. We don’t know what was going on in Goodmans personal life. I say lets have some compassion, excpecially if you would like it when you may need it some day.
Why would the now-retired City Manager PAY Goodman a significant sum to “voluntarily resign” when there was sufficient cause to terminate him??? As a taxpayer paying City taxes, I am outraged that this waste of taxpayer money occurred. I hope that someone will be looking into the 800 pages thoroughly, to see if there is any potential for recourse. Government seems to never be held accountable to the extent they should be, resulting in flagrant waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. And government employees seem to keep their jobs long after it has been discovered that there is reason for termination.
That’s how all resignations work in every city.
Nothing that unusual here , These types of Resign or be fired options are given all the time in almost all companies. Most employees are given the chance to “resign” instead of ” be terminated “because it looks better on their record for future employment. and is easier for the employer , This is relatively Standard practice among big business. In my personal experience I have offered this to a few of the people that worked for me. It is really just a more amicable way to get an employee that is not the right fit or not up to the task to leave the organization. Lots of times a “severance” Package is offered which may include paid vacation time and 3 tp 6 or more months of pay in turn for them leaving without causing a scene or filing a wrongful termination suit . This is nothing out of ordinary basically standard practice.
As someone who has spent a lifetime making corporate employment decisions, this is not standard. When someone commits acts that render them valueless to the organization, as a responsible manager of corporate resources, I fire them outright as most companies do. These types of high-end severance packages are common only in government organizations that have lost touch with their voters and possibly some high profile CEO’s. This is taxpayer money that should have never been spent.
Plenty of Private corporations have severance packages for management and upper management. Not just government!
You are right, many do have some level of severance package, but it is normally offered as a shield against liability, the fired employee has to sign a release stating they will not sue the former employer for a laundry list of things. However, in cases like this where the cause for termination was clear and this is nor real basis for the former chief to sue, why waste the tax payers money getting a release they did not need. This was a waste of tax payer money and should not have happened.