St. Paul Town Council Votes Out Police Chief

BY DEBRA McCOWN
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
ST. PAUL, Va. – Police Chief Scott Brooks, who was essentially fired by the town council on Tuesday, wasn’t the first chief to be sent packing by politics in this town, and residents say, he won’t be the last.

George Robinson, who was appointed to serve as acting chief until another chief is hired, said he’s been appointed to act as chief at least half a dozen times during his career with the town’s police department.

“Chiefs come and go here,” Robinson said. “I’ve been acting chief six or seven times.”

Brooks, who has served only a year since the previous chief was fired, was not re-appointed by the council during its reorganizational meeting. The council, with the balance of power changed by the recent election, voted 4-2 to replace him.

He was given two options: either accept a job as an entry-level patrolman and take a $15,000 a year pay cut or go on his way with a severance package consisting of a month’s salary. The council also decided he must give an answer the same night.

“I’m probably going to take the severance package, to be honest with you,” Brooks said after Tuesday’s meeting. “I have some other options, and I’m going to seriously consider where I’m going to go at this point. I have no regrets.”

Brooks said he hopes the next chief continues what he started – establishing policies, getting tough on drugs and seeking grant money to bring technological updates to the department.

“It’s always been politically motivated here for any chief. ... Politics in this town is very bad,” Brooks said. “It’s really hard to hold down a chief job here in St. Paul.”

He said he has no idea why the environment here is so political.

Supporters clapped and cheered when Town Councilman Blake Whitenack said of Brooks during the meeting, “He needs to be the chief of police.”

Jean Kilgore, a supporter, said after the meeting that Brooks was fired as “payback” after campaigning for town council candidates who were defeated by current council members.

“I feel like this man got the shaft,” said Councilman Harry Kelly. “We lost a good police officer – good chief.”

He and Whitenack – the two who voted to keep Brooks as chief – would not compare the incident to last year’s police chief firing, which they favored.

“This today was politically motivated from the go,” Whitenack said. “It had nothing to do with job performance.”

Last year, Whitenack was one of four council members who submitted a letter claiming town residents are afraid to walk the streets at night because of crime. A subsequent vote by the council effectively fired Allen Porter, the former police chief, whom Brooks replaced.

Crystal Kilgore, another Brooks supporter, said she doesn’t see any signs of things changing in the foreseeable future, and longtime public figures in the town weren’t optimistic either.

“I left in 1984, July 1, they did the same thing they did in there today,” said Glen Lucas, who served as the town’s police chief for 14 years. “Every chief that’s ever been here has been run off [for political reasons].”

Mayor Kyle Fletcher described Brooks as “a good police officer” and the public firing as a disappointment. He said Brooks’ replacement will be announced “when the time comes.”

Fletcher, who served on the town council for six years in the 1990s, said sometimes council members work together well – and then, suddenly, the dynamic change and political alliances are formed.

“St. Paul will always be a political town. It always has been,” he said.

“I think [providing efficient and effective law enforcement is] what the people hired Scott Brooks to do, and he did it,” Fletcher continued. “Sometimes in the wrong [political] climate, it’s not enough.”

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