Burlington City Attorney Eileen Blackwood urged the Police Commission to not discuss a resolution that would ask three officers who are named in police brutality lawsuits to resign at Tuesday’s Police Commission meeting.
The Vermont Racial Justice Alliance has called on the city to fire Officers Jason Bellavance, Cory Campbell and Joe Corrow, all of whom are named in federal police brutality lawsuits filed by Black men. In a separate incident, Attorney General T.J. Donovan declined to charge Campbell after he punched Douglas Kilburn, who died days later and whose death was listed as a medical homicide by the state medical examiner.
Over 1,000 people have called into Burlington city meetings in the past couple of weeks expressing support for the alliance’s demands.
During Tuesday’s meeting, commission chair Jabulani Gamache said he had been planning a discussion on a statement about Bellavance, Campbell and Corrow but instead called on City Attorney Eileen Blackwood to explain “why I can not talk about this right now.”
Blackwood said that since the commission plays a role in employment of officers, commissioners are agents of the city. If an officer appeals a disciplinary decision handed down by the chief, the commission has to issue an opinion on that appeal, she said.
“You have an intimate role here in the discipline of officers, and you need to stay impartial and need not prejudge things that are not in front of you, or make comments about officers that can be seen as negative or derogatory,” she said.
Blackwood said she was concerned that asking officers to resign could be construed as constructive discharge, which is equivalent to firing someone.
“If somebody in a position of authority over someone’s job puts pressure on them to resign, those are the kinds of claims that come back against folks,” she said.
Commissioner Mark Hughes asked Blackwood how that related to the commission, which serves in solely an advisory role.
“Our capacity is advisory-only, we never have the ultimate say in anything, and even our advice is just that,” he said.
Blackwood said the commission is in a position of influencing the disciplinary decision-maker, the police chief, when there are disciplinary matters before the commission.
“You are talking about discipline that is not live before you,” she said. “This is discipline that has been completed, it’s over.”
Hughes said that he believed the statement would relate more to the department’s morale, reputation and legitimacy in the community than discipline.
“I think it’s arguable that what we’re dealing with here is just that, and from that perspective, Commissioner Hughes says, we have a problem in the ranks, and we should have the authority to address it,” he said.
Hughes said while the police commission had little power, he believed it should at least be able to make public statements.
“We ought to at least be able to make a public statement if we think something or someone is harming the department’s ability to effectively carry out its responsibilities,” he said.
Gamache said while he wanted to put the statement to a vote, he said he was willing to table it or discuss it in executive session due to the “murky waters” the commission found itself in.
Blackwood encouraged Gamache not to make the statement public, and the commission voted to table the discussion until the executive session. The commission entered executive session at the end of its meeting.
