The mayor of Bloomington said the city and police department must work to regain public trust in the wake of the abrupt retirement of Assistant Chief Paul Williams. Williams was involved in a questionable traffic stop in June that sparked a lawsuit against Williams and the city.
In this Sound Ideas interview with WGLT's Charlie Schlenker, Dan Brady also addressed huge amounts of overtime the city paid Williams over several years. The mayor also expressed concern that he was not notified in a timely way of the June incident or brewing controversy by the city administration or the police department.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity.
WGLT: When you were coroner and then as mayor, you interacted with Bloomington police officers, and in particular, Lieutenant and then later Assistant Chief Paul Williams. Was he a good cop?
Mayor Brady: He was a good person. From the standpoint of my interaction with him as former county government and as the mayor of Bloomington, my interaction has been good, but certainly it's a situation that's unfolded that's not good. And, you know, bad things happen to good people.
For multiple years, Paul Williams racked up tens of thousands of dollars per year in overtime. He was among the highest-paid employees of the city, even before he was made assistant chief. $92,000 in overtime was his biggest year in 2020. $500,000 in seven years as lieutenant. He even took a pay cut to become an assistant chief in 2022 [when overtime no longer applied]. How can that scale of overtime be allowed in a department or in a municipality?
It shouldn't be.
What protection or oversight should there be, and monitoring?
Better administrative oversight.
At the police department level, at the city staff level, where?
Both.
Was that a failure?
That's something that's being examined right now. Since I’ve been mayor and [with what’s been going on], of course we have a situation that I'm not at liberty, because it's a personnel situation, to say much more other than — what people want is they want good public safety. They want trust. And they want their government to watch the bottom line when it comes to dollars. That's not too much to ask.
"What people want is they want good public safety. They want trust. And they want their government to watch the bottom line when it comes to dollars. That's not too much to ask."Mayor Dan Brady
You may not be able to talk about the particulars of his case, but you can talk about general policies and procedures to look at the amount of overtime that gets racked up. What are those? What's in place and what should be in place?
I think every time we go through a budget process, it's reviewed, and how can you control that? But there's so many things that somewhat ties, somebody like me or others, budgetary side of things, one hand behind their back, and that is things that are not only maybe law, things that are dictated to, as I'm learning now as mayor, from Springfield, dictated to municipalities, and so there's a number of things that are obstacles that make it difficult when it comes to budgetary side of things for the cities. And how you curb that I'm not sure.
Are you implying that there was no legal way to stop him from racking up that overtime or to stop any officer from racking up overtime?
No. I'm implying, as your question was, I'm trying to answer your question, and that was simply, how do you try and curb some of that? How do you control some of that? And that that comes with those who are directly responsible for the administration side of things, meaning those who look at the amount of overtime in a budget, our budgetary individuals from the city, but I think one thing will be that you know from every bad situation you try and learn something from it.
What is being learned from that?
Well, I think not only from the standpoint of what you're asking about. Budgetary. I think policy. I think the list goes on. And as this is going to be continued, reviewed, it's premature for me to tell you anything further until this works itself out. Because there's pending litigation that's related to this. All those legalities are going to have to work through the process before the City of Bloomington has something tangibly to move forward with, to learn from.
How is oversight done now? Who reviews overtime amounts and authorizes them?
Well, that's from the police department as well as administration, and frankly to our finance department and director. All those three different levels I just gave you all have a role to play in oversight and how we can look at that to improve [is] something I'm interested [in] as mayor.
[Former] Assistant Chief Williams is on video saying, in the most recent flap, "I am the chief. Take them to jail. Tow the car.” Officers were forced to tell him jail no longer applied because disorderly conduct is now a Class C misdemeanor. What does that demeanor, those kinds of statements, say to you about him and about the exercise of power?
"We've got to regain the public's trust, and we've got to make sure that the public understands in the City of Bloomington that it's the priority to protect and serve."Mayor Dan Brady
I wish I was at liberty to talk more about it, but it's a situation where I truly can't. I wasn't there. Have I seen the footage? Yes, and I have a bigger concern of when this was brought to my attention. That is something that is troubling for me. But nonetheless, we've got to regain the public's trust, and we've got to make sure that the public understands in the City of Bloomington that it's the priority to protect and serve.
During a follow-up conversation with Brady, the mayor expanded on the concern he voiced during the interview that the city administration did not communicate with him promptly about the traffic stop and attendant controversy. Brady said staff informed him about the incident weeks later, after word of Williams’ controversial actions had begun to percolate through the community.
“There was a delay in getting information out I thought would be important for the council to know,” said Brady.
Brady said he will be looking to improve that process.
“We, as a city, want to be as transparent as possible,” said Brady. “Sooner rather than later.”
Brady said he was told of the incident before the lawsuit was filed against the city and before Williams filed for retirement.
“Internally, I intend to work on this,” said Brady. “Everybody can have a role in good communication. It starts with the police department.”
