City officials in Udall Thursday said that Randy Emerson never served as the city’s police chief, but Emerson contends a pay raise he received, the perks he got and the duties he performed in 1995 prove otherwise.
Newspaper reports and comments from NewsCow readers have raised questions as to whether Emerson ? a Republican for Cowley County Sheriff ? was ever Udall’s chief. Chris Lette, Udall’s mayor, said that minutes from city council meetings held back then prove Emerson never was the city’s top cop.
Instead, Emerson served as "officer in charge" while the city looked for a permanent replacement for Paul Satterthwaite, who announced he was taking a new job May 2, 1995. Emerson is not included in a list of chiefs available on the the city of Udall web site.
But Emerson told NewsCow that the city council gave him every indication he had command over the department. That included giving him a raise, allowing him to take the city squad car home and putting him on call around the clock.
"Call it what you want to call it, interim chief, officer in charge, acting chief," Emerson said. "In my mind I was the chief.
"Of course I wouldn’t be in list of chiefs because I didn’t get the permanent chief’s job. You wouldn’t list an interim."
Norma Ciskowski, the city’s court clerk and mayor during Emerson’s tenure, confirmed there was a pay raise. The council agreed Emerson would get an extra $136 per pay period, according to council minutes. He would be on call at all times and handle scheduling for two reserve officers until a full-time chief was hired.
But, "I don’t believe any of us ever called him the chief of police," she said. "He had no executive powers."
The agreement was put in place at a May 9, 1995 city council meeting, after Emerson had been on the job as a police officer for about five months. His short tenure with the department, Ciskowski said, was the main reason Udall picked another candidate to be chief.
Ciskowksi said she does not believe Emerson was ever given reason to believe he was chief of police but that was mainly because he’d been on the force such a short time, not due to any deficiencies in performing the job. With Satterthwaite gone, she said, there was not much of a department to manage.
Emerson was the lone full-time officer and there were just two reserves.
The city hired Greg King to serve as chief in June of 1995 and by early July Emerson turned in his resignation. Ciskowksi said Emerson was considered for the position of full-time chief but King was deemed more qualified.
Ciskowksi said she felt Emerson was probably upset at not becoming the full-time police chief and that’s why he turned in his resignation. But Emerson said he had heard about the job with the Winfield Housing Authority and left for better pay.
Emerson said he feels the issue has come up as his detractors try to "stir up something negative against me." Lette said the issue came up because many in Udall asked if Emerson had indeed been chief and if he had, why his name was not listed on the city Web site.
"If he deserved to be up there, we wanted to put him up there," Lette said.
Emerson also answered questions about another issue raised in regard to his background. He has a 2001 bankruptcy on file with the bankruptcy court in Wichita, according to a court official.
In regard to the matter, Emerson said it was an issue he would not comment much on. He pointed out that he is audited regularly in his job with the Winfield Housing Authority and has increased profits.
"I think how you perform in your private life is not necessarily an indicator of how you will do in your job," he said. "Plenty of people, and politicians, have had similar issues. But if people want to look it up and know about it, they should. It’s public record."
Emerson said the talk of his background and other negatives of the campaign trail have left him ready to see the campaigning come to an end.
"I’ve had 160 signs stolen, someone should report on that," he said. "I can’t even put up a few signs without someone taking them."
Undersheriff Don Read, Emerson’s opponent in next Tuesday’s primary, said he had no comment.
"I’m just going to focus on the positive, that’s what I promised myself I’d do," he said.
Editor’s note: Questions regarding doubts about Emerson’s Udall tenure and the bankruptcy were submitted for Tuesday’s debate. Those questions were withheld so that the information could be independently verified by a reporter.
