Listeners are outraged over $300k payoff to police chief (05-07-2025--Hour3)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] A couple of remaining points on the payoff of the police chief who is keeping his job as far as I know. I mean, he threatens to sue his employer and they're like, okay, here's your money. And then that's it. And he keeps the job and no harm, no foul, I guess.

[00:00:51] Are we going to overlook the fact that he coordinated with the local NAACP chapter to try to get the complaint against Tark Bakari? Like that, like that's, that's something else. Although Bakari was trying to get, he was calling on Chief Jennings to resign.

[00:01:10] Right? He, he was like, if you're not going to buy these bulletproof vests for the cops and you're saying that your reason is purely aesthetic, you don't like the way they look on the outside of the uniform, even though cops are like, yeah, you could store all sorts of stuff because the vests are on the outside and they're better protection or whatever.

[00:01:29] Um, you need to resign. Can Bakari fire the police chief? No, he cannot. No, he cannot. And he definitely can't now because he's not on council any longer, but he could, he was one Republican vote on an 11 member council, nine of whom are Democrats.

[00:01:48] He was one of two Republicans versus nine Democrats. So you can't, he could not get the chief ousted. So what exactly, what exactly did Bakari, what kind of pressure did he bring to bear on the chief in this very blue city and a blue County?

[00:02:06] There was no, my, my submission is there was no reputational harm. The only harm that resulted in this spat between Bakari and Jennings, the chief was of Jennings own doing because he crossed his own people.

[00:02:22] His own employees wanted the vests. And when Bakari said, I want this to be a budget item, he tried to add the money into the budget and the Democrats would not go along with it because that would cross the chief. Bakari then pulls it from the budget proposal and says, screw it. I'll raise the money myself.

[00:02:44] And then does so gets the money, buys the, uh, the vests. And that's when the chief offers the vests to the rank and file. So if any reputational damage occurred, it was because of his position, but that's it. Now there's another component has to do with the fraternal order of police. I did not get into this yesterday or in the last, uh, hour.

[00:03:11] So I will get into it a little bit deeper. Uh, now this is from, uh, WSOC TV that, and they go through, there are three controversies now regarding the CMPD, right? One is the payoff to chief Jennings. Next, you have the ethics complaint that was filed against councilman, former councilman Bakari for his actions. It was filed by the NAACP president, Korean Mac.

[00:03:39] But Charlotte city council members were not aware of the complaint nor of its dismissal. It was dismissed. Council members were also unaware that two aides to the police chief had advised Korean Mac on what to put into the complaint.

[00:03:59] The city says that the aides did not violate any laws or policies because they were doing it on their own email accounts, not on the city email accounts. No indication that they had done this on company time, right? And there is, there is, uh, no restriction of people, you know, work for the city government. They are allowed to engage in political activity outside of the office.

[00:04:24] And so that's why, um, uh, that's why the aides were not found to be, you know, violating any city policy. One of those aides is Sandy Vestola, the CMPD top spokesperson. She is now suing the president of the Charlotte Mecklenburg fraternal order of police, Daniel Redford. She is suing him for defamation.

[00:04:52] It goes back to comments she claims he made about her because of her response to a reporter. So reporter says something, asks a question to her, whatever she responds. And Redford, the FOP guy, Redford makes some comments about her because of what she said to the reporter. She files a complaint.

[00:05:19] A judge dismissed that claim, but she is now appealing. As for the president of the FOP, Daniel Redford, he was suspended and transferred. And the FOP is claiming that that was retaliatory, which, yeah, kind of seems like it was. Again, don't know any of the details, but that does seem kind of fishy. This was from a couple days ago.

[00:05:50] Yeah, May 5th. Piece by Jonathan Lowe. Also, WSOC TV. In addition to the ethics complaint and potential litigation from Chief Jennings, Sandy Vestola sued the FOP and its president. The lawsuit was filed October 30th. The lawsuit centered around comments she claims Redford made about her because of her response to a story that was pursued by another Charlotte TV outlet.

[00:06:16] She alleged Redford's comments were false and defamatory, but a judge dismissed that case. Court records show she filed an appeal last week. The FOP, citing the ongoing litigation, said that the use of personal emails is concerning. And it called out Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones to hold everybody involved in the matter accountable.

[00:06:44] Yeah, there needs to be an investigation, guys. I'm sorry. I know you probably tried to keep a lid on all of this, all these shenanigans, but it's time for some sunlight. Everybody's going to have to open the books here. Show us what's been going on. What are these games you guys have been playing? This lack of professionalism, hurt feelings, complaints, allegations of defamation and all of this other stuff. Let's hear it all.

[00:07:14] Let's just get to the bottom of it. Hey, you know what? Jeff Jackson is our Attorney General. Why don't you ask the city of Charlotte should ask Jeff Jackson, the Attorney General, to come in here and figure out what the bleep has been going on? I am always reminded there was an officer I knew up in, well, I'll just say in Western North Carolina. And we had a bunch of scandals up there at the time.

[00:07:40] Retaliation, inter-office politics and squabbles, people getting suspended and all that sort of stuff. It was pretty nasty. This was out of the Asheville Police Department. And I had a law enforcement officer tell me, he said, in a lot of ways, it's like high school. Like with all of the cliques and the groups and stuff and the pettiness and the, yeah. It's like high school, but we all have guns. That's what he said.

[00:08:11] And when I see stories like this, I am always reminded of that comment he made to me. Because that does kind of seem like that sometimes. The FOP says that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department suspended and transferred its president due to statements the organization made against CMPD. Now, the Charlotte FOP has more than 2,000 members. A lot of them are CMPD. And they put out a statement saying,

[00:08:39] We will not be threatened, intimidated, or coerced by any entity to uphold our members' rights, wants, and needs. Regardless of rank, Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones must hold everybody involved in this matter accountable for their actions. Yeah. There is a lot of smoke here, people. I'm not saying there's fire. Maybe somebody is just smoking. But there's a lot of smoke. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events.

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[00:10:01] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Let me get to some emails. We got a bunch wanting to talk about this, quote, settlement with the chief of police because he threatened to sue because he claimed that he had reputational harm from a public fight over police vests.

[00:10:29] DG says, maybe start a GoFundMe page to pay Tark Bokari's legal fees as he sues the city council and chief of police for damaging his reputation. Might be the only way to figure out what game is being played here. Well, yeah, see, that's the thing. You settle when you don't want there to be discovery. Right? When you don't want this stuff coming out, that's why you settle. And so that has to be part of our analysis.

[00:10:58] There was obviously six council members. Well, five voted, one left early, and their vote counted as a yes for the settlement. So five of the 11 council members agreed to pay this for some reason and some reason might be the discovery phase.

[00:11:23] If you go to court, when you file a complaint, then, yeah, you have to list the stuff and you got to show evidence to support your allegations. And so maybe they didn't want this stuff coming out in litigation. What stuff? I don't know. John says the city council and mayor would be good to remember when they go begging for more transportation dollars hat in hand in Washington, D.C., that they'll be bowing before Tark Bokari.

[00:11:52] Yeah, because he took a gig with the transportation department up there, like deputy secretary or something up there. Lance says, howdy, Pete. Howdy, Lance. It looks like Chief Jennings took a page from Reverend Jesse Jackson's shakedown playbook. Well, I don't know. This is a formula that we have seen other people and organizations run. Right?

[00:12:18] Make a big deal about something, threaten litigation, promise to make things differently. Difficult or embarrassing. And then the organization that has the deep pockets just pays them to go away. Is that what happened here? Again, we don't know. Because the elected officials that agreed to this dumbassery have not told us what the rationale for it is. They've not told us what reputational harm was suffered.

[00:12:47] Bob says, I am a proverbial taxpayer and I am outraged. If Chief Jennings has $300,000 worth of dirt on council, terminate him now. It's not healthy for one city employee to hold such a blackmail card. But this isn't about morals. It's politics. That's yeah. So right. But is that part of it too? Are council members somehow compromised into just going along with this, even if they don't want to?

[00:13:14] But they're like, I have to go along with it because the chief is going to in discovery, you know, prove stuff about me. I don't know. Jabril. First of all, he says, I like the chief and I think he's a respectable and stand up guy. With that said, I would not have voted to give him that money. They're calling a settlement without even a lawsuit.

[00:13:41] How did Corinne Mack of the NAACP get involved and why? Jabril, I can tell you that according to our news department, which reported this yesterday. That Jennings apparently asked Mack to file the complaint. Against Bakari. And then two of his, you know, chief staffers gave her the language to put into the complaint.

[00:14:11] Which was dismissed. And she is appealing. His email continues. If there's any issue between the chief and Bakari, that should be between. Them and not the council or the taxpayers. That is correct. This is another case of Charlotte Govco dishing out taxpayer money like it's candy. We saw this not too long ago with the school board and the former superintendent. This is so Charlotte. Yeah.

[00:14:38] I remember they did this with Jim Pusley several years back, you know, 20 years ago. Where the school board just threw a whole bunch of money at him because they were like, he should be the highest paid official. Because I think Harry Jones or Pam Seifert, the city and county managers, they had gotten pay raises. And so Charlotte Mecklenburg school board was like, well, education is the most important. And so therefore he should be the highest paid. They just threw a bunch of money at him.

[00:15:06] They held a closed session one time to yell at Larry Gavreau. But they went into closed session under the premise that it was a personnel matter. And the way they argued it was that if we didn't go into closed session or if we don't yell at Larry, then the superintendent may quit. Because Larry's been dragging him and fighting him in public all the time. And so he's feeling really bad about it. He wants to quit. So we got to go in there to make sure he doesn't quit.

[00:15:32] And so they just like bashed Larry Gavreau in closed session for like an hour. That is not an appropriate use of a closed session. You don't get to do that and disguise it under the premise of personnel. It wasn't personnel. See, this is why actual journalism and getting sources is so imperative. And kudos to the local reporters that have developed sources that we can now find stuff out that occurred in closed session.

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[00:17:15] Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. When asked by a reporter from the Charlotte Observer after the Monday night closed session about the city council approving a settlement before a lawsuit is even filed, the mayor, Vi Lyle, said, She's not the right person to ask. Quote, I'm not a biologist. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. She says, I'm not a lawyer. Yeah, you are the right person to ask.

[00:17:45] Mayor! Mayor Lyles. You are the right person to ask. Why would y'all entertain settlement when there isn't even a lawsuit? This is so dumb at best. Corrupt at worst. And there was a time when I would think, surely there's no way they would do such a thing.

[00:18:15] But that was before our mayor went to federal prison. And as somebody called in to remind me, that was before we had a county commissioner who was bedridden with Alzheimer's and had family members voting for her via Zoom. And everybody covered it up in order to keep her collecting health insurance. So, yeah, no, I no longer believe that our local government would be above doing something like this.

[00:18:45] I'm sorry. You guys got to come with some receipts. You got to show me something. Otherwise, like, this is on all of y'all. And I'm just going to assume default position. Y'all are corrupt. Mark says, you are exactly right. He was either worried about optics rather than the safety of his men. Right. The vests. Yeah. The fight over the vests. See, I said this, I think, last hour.

[00:19:13] Whatever reputational harm Police Chief Jennings suffered, and I would submit there wasn't any, at least among the public, I've never heard anybody say anything negative about our chief of police in Charlotte. The only negative reputational damage that could have occurred in my mind that I can think of that's like logical, that's reasonable, is among his officers. But that was because of his position, not because of what Tark Bokari did.

[00:19:40] It was because he said no to his rank-and-file officers who were asking for better vests. And when they were presented with an ability to get the vests with a budget request, and Jennings refused. Now, maybe Jennings also refused because here's a, just thinking this through, like literally just thinking this right now, but here's a possibility.

[00:20:06] Maybe Jennings was open to the idea, but then council members said no. We're not going to spend that money. Don't ask us for that money. You have to, you have to oppose this ask. You have to say no. And that's why Jennings comes out against him. And so he was doing the bidding of the council. Not doing what was right by the officers and making the request, and letting the request get shot down by the council, because that would jam up the council.

[00:20:36] See, the council can fire Jennings, so maybe, maybe Jennings didn't care one way or the other. And maybe council members didn't want to give the cops what they wanted, didn't want to spend $500,000 out of their $2 billion budget or whatever it's up to now. I think it is probably somewhere around there. And so he does what the council demands of him. He starts getting attacked for it.

[00:21:03] And so now he's going back to council saying, hey, where are you guys giving me cover on this? And they just let him twist in the wind. And maybe that's what his lawsuit does. Because he couldn't get, he couldn't get them to stand by, stand with him or whatever. I don't know. Stand by, stand down, to quote Donald Trump. Maybe that's what happened. I don't know. I don't know. I wish I could tell you.

[00:21:28] But like I'm just, like I said, I'm trying to just game out the different theories, trying to see the different angles, trying to make it make sense. Jonathan says, you may have already touched on this. I only just started listening. How dare you, Jonathan? You should listen, get the podcast at thepeatpod.com. Okay. He says, do we know which five council members voted yes for this please pipe down package? We do not. We do not know what the vote totals were.

[00:21:57] But I will say this, and this was in a piece over at the Charlotte Observer by Mary Ramsey. State law allows for closed session votes on settlements. But the terms must be made public, quote, as soon as possible with a reasonable, yeah, with a reasonable time after the settlement is concluded. That's according to attorney Mike Tadic that the Observer spoke with about the matter.

[00:22:26] The Charlotte Observer has filed a public records request for the settlement reportedly approved Monday. So we should know the terms of this settlement. Let me see here. This is from Seth. What exactly does Jennings have on city council members for them to fold like that? 100% shakedown. Yeah. I don't know. And again, it could be anything. It could be nothing. We don't know.

[00:22:54] There was also a component here where the Bokari and the FOP were of a like mind on this vest issue. And I think it was the FOP that originally said it and then Bokari amplified it, retweeted it or whatever, Facebook posts or something. But somebody made a reference to Jennings Lakehouse.

[00:23:23] Does he have like, and they made a comment about how he has CMPD officers providing additional security for him at his lake house. And that's what they call doxing him. They're like, oh, they told him where, where he lives. I'm not so sure that's the same thing as doxing. I don't believe they said where he lives. They were pointing out that he's bringing officers over to stand guard for him.

[00:23:50] But when presented the opportunity to give them additional protection, he said no. This is Jim. I agree. Chief Jennings seemed more professional than Sheriff Gary, not my fault McFadden did. But like others before them in that position, he finally showed his true colors. Ken, not sure if this has been touched on yet.

[00:24:18] I try to listen to everything, but I am supposed to be working. Come on, Ken. Where are your priorities? Maybe the chief has a lot of undisclosed information, dirt, that would be spelled out in any actual lawsuit filing. Granted, there's no way the city leaders should have personal concerns. But maybe they are simply trying to protect otherwise innocent city administrators from unsubstantiated claims that would have to be addressed. Yeah. Again, like we're all just spitballing.

[00:24:44] We're all trying to think of like, why would you do this as the police chief? Why would you do this? All right. So spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by, are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, 8mm films, photos, slides? Are they preserved?

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[00:25:41] Creative Video, preserving family memories since 1997. Located in Mint Hill, just off 485. Mail orders are accepted too. Get all the details at createavideo.com. Let's jump over onto the phones and talk with Snake. Hello, Snake. How are you? I'm good. I've been in like a doghouse. I put myself in after I accidentally referred to fertilizer last time I talked to you.

[00:26:11] Yeah. So I apologize for that. See, I forgot all about that. Yeah, I totally, I did not remember that you had done that. So let's try to keep it clean here, Snake. We're going to try to remember we're on the radio. Yes, thank you. I was just going to say like the, you know, law enforcement, as you know, often knows what kind of nonsense the politicians are up to.

[00:26:35] And so when push comes to shove, it's easy for a lawyer to work all that into a complaint and make it public. And so you kind of get what you want, right? Yeah. In discovery. And if you're trying to avoid the discovery phase where that stuff would then be put to paper, you're absolutely correct. Yeah. So that's, you know, that's my best guess. Or he could have actually just been entitled to damages. Who knows?

[00:26:59] But the only other thing I want to add is, I don't know if you talked about it today, but if you didn't read George Will, that's worth reading. I know it's in the failing Washington Post, but that was worth reading. What was it about? Trump and Ukraine. Oh. The master negotiator. Yeah, it's pretty good. Okay. No, I haven't seen it, but I generally don't have access because they paywall everything at the WAPO. So I don't generally get to see it. But I'll see if I can find it. Thanks, Snake.

[00:27:28] I appreciate it. Take care. All right, you too. Let me go now talk to Kirk. Hello, Kirk. How are you? I am good, Pete. How are you? I'm doing okay. I appreciate you taking my call. Sure. Do you remember a while back, I was talking to your other gentleman there in the studio,

[00:27:51] that somebody either donated or raised money for the police department to purchase a number of vests? Yeah. That's how it, yeah. Because the city council would not, apparently there were not enough votes to put the $500,000 into the budget to pay for the vests. And so, Bakari himself pulled that out of the budget proposal and then said, I will raise the money privately.

[00:28:20] And then proceeded to do so and bought the vests. And at that point, the chief said, fine, if anybody wants these vests, they'll be allowed to wear them. Do you suppose that maybe the chief could have taken that as a slap in the face? Well, that, I mean, that's what I think he is claiming. That all of the, that that entire fight over the vests did him some reputational damage, or as the FOP called it, hurt his feelings.

[00:28:52] Have you ever heard the one about sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me? I have actually heard that, although I think that is of an older generation, because nowadays words are violence. I'm not sure you're aware. The kids, yeah, the kids changed that whole thing. I've heard that crap, but I still don't believe it. That's right. Kirk, I appreciate the call, man. Yeah, that's the thing. When you walk into the political arena, and I tell people this all the time,

[00:29:21] when I speak in front of groups, which I do, I give them this, you know, if I'm giving some advice and for some reason people ask me to come and speak to them and ask for advice on stuff, I don't know why. But I try to figure out some, you know, things that I think might help them. And one of the things that I tell people was, or is, that, and see now I'm giving it away, not that I charge for speeches, but whatever. Like, if you're going to make the decision to engage in the political arena,

[00:29:50] if this is what you want to actually do, okay, then you have to walk towards the fight. You have to be the happy warrior. You have to have your information. You have to know the topics. You have to understand your opponents and what they think and why they think it. Right? If you decide to enter the political arena, you don't get to pretend that you're not in the arena.

[00:30:15] This is one of the beefs I have with a lot of reporters, is that they pretend that they're there just as, like, you know, observers. That's not a, as I was saying it, I'm not attacking the Charlotte Observer, I swear. I really, I swear. But a lot of these reporters will pretend that, oh, I'm just here off to the sidelines, and I'm just, like, documenting what's actually happening. Yeah, but when I read your finished product, I can tell that that's not simply what you're doing.

[00:30:41] You're telling a story about what you saw and what you think people need to know. And in that process, subjectivity is involved. Nobody is completely objective. And reporters who engage in political news coverage are in the political arena. And so you have to be aware of that. Reporters have to be aware of that.

[00:31:06] When reporters develop sources inside politics, you're using them, but they're using you. Never forget that. I never forgot that. You can't forget it. I use you. You use me. That's why, like, when anonymous sources give fake information, false information to reporters who then run with it, and then the story turns out to be, you know, fake news, I'd burn my source. You do that to me, you're burned.

[00:31:36] You give me a bunch of fake information, and there's no way for me to confirm it because it's anonymous source. You're the only one in the room that saw this, you know, top secret thing or whatever. And that turns out to be a lie. You told me a lie. Then you're torched. You're torched. So, I mean, people think that there aren't, you know, there's no code in journalism. There is. Everybody's got a different one, though.

[00:32:03] So, Jennings is in the public limelight. He is a political actor. You do not get to engage in the political arena and then pretend that you're not in the arena. And that's what I feel like he's doing on this. Like, oh, look at me. I was just, you know, I'm just a, you know, a beat cop here and I'm being savaged by the, by, you know, Bukhari with his, you know, power of one vote on the council. Like, please.

[00:32:30] But again, I cannot confirm any of this because I don't have any information because nobody is talking. You guys need to say something and you need to say something soon. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com.

[00:32:57] Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.