Dan Petrella
The State Journal-Register
Jul 19, 2013
A week of relative silence from Springfield city hall amid a widening controversy over the destruction of police internal-affairs records ended late Friday afternoon with Mayor Mike Houston’s announcement that the city’s top cop is retiring and its top attorney will resign.
Police Chief Robert Williams, a 26-year veteran of the department, called Houston on Friday to announce his plan to retire, effective Oct. 22, the mayor said. Corporation Counsel Mark Cullen also called the mayor Friday to make known his intention to resign upon his return from a trip out of the country.
“We will work out a mutually agreeable timetable that will allow for an orderly transition,” Houston said.
The mayor said he plans to name an acting chief in the near future and take applications from people interested in becoming the permanent replacement.
Deputy Chief Cliff Buscher, whose internal-affairs file is at the center of the controversy, is not interested in becoming acting or permanent police chief, Houston said. Buscher will remain in his current role.
The controversy began when it came to light that Williams, without the approval of the mayor or city council, had signed an agreement with the president of the police union April 25 allowing internal-affairs records to be destroyed after four years instead of five.
That same day, the department shredded records that included documents related to Buscher’s 2008 arrest for firing his service weapon while drunk on a fishing trip in Missouri. Calvin Christian III two weeks earlier had requested those records under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
Documents leaked to television station WICS Channel 20 and posted on its website this week show that Lt. Christopher Mueller, head of police internal affairs, voiced objections to assistant corporation counsel Geannette Wittendorf and Williams and requested a direct order from the chief before proceeding with the shredding.
One email shows Cullen giving the final legal OK. However, several aldermen said Cullen told them during a closed-door meeting that he hadn’t seen the agreement until after the documents were destroyed. Wittendorf, who had only been the police department’s legal adviser for about two weeks at the time, initialed the memorandum of understanding that Williams and union president Don Edwards signed.
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‘Necessary steps’
Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin called the announcements “difficult but necessary steps.”
“I think we really need a marathon session with our mayor behind closed doors,” McMenamin said. “We’ve had a lot to digest, and we need to talk about, analyze it. And hopefully the mayor will be receptive to what the council members have to say.”
Edwards said he thinks that discussion should take place in public. McMenamin said he’d be open to a public discussion as well.
Some still have questions about Buscher remaining in his role as the department’s main spokesman and public face. For his part, Houston said it will be important to let an independent investigation of the events surrounding the destruction of the police documents play out.
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Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 