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your support. Okay, So, as I said in the last
segment there in the last hour, I know it is
the honeymoon period for the new chief of Charlotte Mickleburgh
Police Estella Patterson. I say again, I wish her all
the best. I want her to be successful. I want
her to to be able to reduce the vacancies. Right,
these are the things that she said. She's going to
focus on, getting recruitment up, reducing the number of vacancies
on CMPD staff, working with the community to basically convince
members of the community to help police. That's a big deal.
She also wants to implement technology solutions to help with
the crime fighting. I like all of that and I
want I want that to work. I want cops happy.
I want them trained, I want them compensated, I want
high morale. I want them to have the support of
the local court system when they arrest particularly repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat,
repeat offenders. I want those offenders to stay in jail.
I don't want cops demoralized because they are still doing
the paperwork on an arrested offender and then the person's
already walking out the jail house door. Right now. That
being said, I have some questions, and I feel like
these questions should be answered. I'm not making these as accusations.
I am just asking questions. I am I'm just kind
of curious about the timing, and I feel like the
City of Charlotte should explain what occurred here. So Number one,
there was a story back in well, actually this thing
dates back years, okay, years and years ago. There was
a dispute in twenty eighteen, so seven years ago, a
legal dispute between Battalion Chief Lance Patterson of the Charlotte
Fire Department and this of Charlotte. Lance Patterson is Estella
Patterson's husband. Okay, he sued the city and that case
has been going on for seven years. And at the website,
Law three sixty dot com story dated October twenty seventh
of this year. So like a week ago headline, NC
fire chief settles race bias suit for real this time.
So they settled the case like a week ago. Now,
far be it for me to suggest that the City
of Charlotte, maybe Charlotte leadership, city manager, mayor, and council.
I don't know who would be involved in that. I
do actually it would be Yeah, it would be the
city attorney, the city manager, and the mayor and council.
If they're going to enter into a settlement, they would
have to sign off on this, perhaps in a closed session,
and by perhaps, I mean definitely in a closed session.
And then they should be releasing that vote. They should
be releasing that information after the settlement is agreed upon.
And is it weird that that settlement happened a week ago?
After seven years in the court system? Now it is
kind of coincidental in that the timing of the case,
and I'm going to go through this because the timing
of the case ended up they were going to trial
in like I think December second was when they were
expected to go to court. December ninth, jury selection was
set to begin December ninth, so they still had a
month's six weeks, all right. So this first from July
twenty ninth this year over at fire law blog dot
com and it focuses on fire department, firefighters and stuff
like that, lawsuits and such piece by Kurt Varone. A
long running employment discrimination case involving the Charlotte Fire Department
is heading back to trial after a federal judge ruled
that enforcable settlement was never actually reached between the City
of Charlotte and Captain Lance Patterson, a twenty year veteran
of the department. So this is why I say, like
this could be completely coincidental and the timing just fell
this way. It just landed like this, okay, Because Patterson,
along with a co plaintiff, Captain Sylvia Smith Pfeiffer. These
two Charlotte Fire employees alleged that the city engaged in
systemic race and gender discrimination in violation of Title seven
forty two USC. Nineteen eighty one, nineteen eighty three and
the North Carolina Constitution. Both plaintiffs claimed that they were
denied promotions, special assignments, and training opportunities due to race, gender,
and prior protected activity so I'm not sure what that
amounts to. So this again goes back to a complaint
from twenty eighteen. That's when this dispute first arose. Fast
forward four years November twenty twenty two, Captain Smith Peiffer's
trial was underway, but her case was resolved through a
written settlement Captain Patti And by the way, that happens
all the time. Okay, like a lot of lawyers, you know,
they try to avoid going to court if at all
possible because it's expensive and so if you can avoid
the trial, best to do so. And a lot of
times that happens, like during jury selection, even as you
know you're you're like, oh, yeah, well we'll see you
in court. Okay, that's fine, Yeah, that's fine, that's fine.
Everybody talks real tough. And then when you get to
the courthouse and you're sitting through jury selection, it's like,
you know what, maybe we'll go ahead and just settle
now because you don't feel as confident as you've been saying.
So while their trials underway, the co or coplaintiff in
this case, she settles, but Captain Patterson's case was scheduled
to start a couple weeks later, and so he entered
into settlement talks and they that appeared to result in
an agreement. This is twenty twenty two. So a mediator
circulates the terms of this agreement, including a one hundred
and eighty thousand dollars payment, of which seventy nine thousand
goes to Captain Patterson and one hundred and one thousand
goes to the attorney, plus twenty two one hundred hours,
so two two hundred hours of sick leave, which would
bridge him to retirement at twenty five years. To get
him to the retirement period, the city responded with what
Patterson viewed as a confirmation of the deal. So the
mediator sends the terms around. Patterson sees the reply from
the city. He thinks, okay, we're good. But when the
city sends over its draft legal agreement, it cuts the
twenty two hundred hours down to thirteen seventy five of
sick leave, a difference of about eight hundred and twenty
five hours, and they say that's all that's required to
get him to the twenty five year retirement mark. The
city also contended that the seventy nine thousand dollars payment
to him would not be pension eligible and that Captain
Patterson would retire. So that's what the city thought the
mediator had worked out. So when the city drafts its agreement,
it sends it out. The negotiations then break down. That
prompts Patterson to seek enforcement through the court of what
he argued was a finalized agreement. He's like, hey, the
mediator sent this agreement around. Look at the city. It
seems like they said yes and then they come back
with something else. So the court needs to enforce the
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so where we left off here? Twenty eighteen complaint filed
by two members of the Charlotte Fire Department. One is
Captain Lance Patterson, husband of now the CMPD, newly appointed
newly hired chief Estella Patterson, twenty five year veteran of
the CMPD and former police chief of Raleigh, most recently.
Lance Patterson one of the complaint one of the plaintiffs,
I should say, twenty years in Charlotte Fire his co plaintiff,
Captain Sylvia Smith Pfeiffer. Her case goes to trial. First,
they allege bias due to race and gender and prior
protected activity quote unquote, So they both go to or
she goes to trial, and then it gets settled. They
so the trial ends with a settlement. Captain Patterson has
a settlement agreement drawn up with the city where apparently
the city agrees to pay one hundred and eighty thousand
dollars in November of twenty twenty two. We're going to
pay you the money you're asking one hundred and eighty
k seventy nine thousand to go to Captain Patterson, one
hundred one thousand to the low. And then there was
a chunk of sick leave that would be used to
basically get Patterson to retirement eligibility, twenty two hundred hours
of sick time that would bridge that gap that would
get him to retirement. So the mediator sends out the
terms of this agreement. Patterson thinks the city has agreed
to it. But the city then sends out like a
draft of its agreement and it doesn't have the twenty
two hundred hours. It has thirteen seventy five. And they
in the city says, well, that's all that's needed to
get you to the retirement Oh and also your seventy
nine thousand dollars would not be pension eligible. So they
go back to court and they go to the district court.
Captain Patterson files a motion to enforce the mediator's agreement.
The district court grants that motion to enforce. The city
then appeals. Now we're into twenty twenty four. The Fourth
Circuit vacates the order, so this is now in federal
court right. The Fourth Circuit vacates the order so gets
rid of it, saying the factual disputes existed over whether
a binding agreement had been reached and whether the parties
intended to be bound absent assigned writing. The case was
then remanded for a full evidentiary hearing. Now we're into
June of this year, they have a hearing. Captain Patterson's
council argues the mediator's email and the city's response constituted
mutual agreement or assent. The city counter that all parties
understood the settlement would be contingent on assigned written agreement
and city approval. Testimony from the city's attorney confirmed that
approval by the city and a full executed document were
prerequisites to any final deal. Then in July of this year,
a couple months ago, Judge Timothy Raith denied Captain Patterson's
motion to enforce the settlement on the terms that he
sought concluding the email exchange represented only a preliminary agreement
in principle, not an enforceable settlement. The court emphasized that
the absence of assigned written agreement and unresolved material terms
meant that there was no meeting of the minds necessary
to form a binding contract. As a result, the court
returned the matter to the trial calendar, setting jury selection
to begin on December ninth, so in like six weeks
from now until October twenty seventh. A Charlotte, North Carolina,
fire chief says he has reached the settlement with the
city over his claims of racial bias, years after he
thought the deal was done the first time. Battalion Chief
Lance Patterson of the Charlotte Fire Department was headed for
trial in December after a federal court found the twenty
twenty two settlement he tried to enforce was never fully finalized,
but he told the court last week the parties have
reached another deal. The settlement ends a dispute from twenty
eighteen in which Patterson and a colleague claimed they hit
a glass ceiling in the fire department because they are black.
In November twenty twenty two, they allegedly reached separate agreements
with the department that included early retirements, but claimed the
city wasn't honoring their deal by deducting retirement funds from
their settlement payouts. And then this is from Law three
sixty dot com where it goes through sort of the
lengthy process that led to here. Okay, twenty twenty, so
this goes back to twenty eighteen. I don't know. I
wasn't here in twenty eighteen, so I don't know all
the ins and outs of the case. I haven't seen
what the evidence they had to support this. I just
note the timing that this settlement finally gets done after
all these years. It gets done just as Patterson's wife
is selected to be the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police chief. And again,
like I cannot speak to the merits of the claim
of the court case or anything like that, I have
no idea. What I do see, though, is the City
of Charlotte once again doing a settlement with somebody in
there soon to be employee, much like the Chief Johnny
Jennings settlement. And that makes me pause. I think, I
think we need some additional information from this, and I
know it's Chief Patterson's honeymoon. I understand that, not like intermarriage,
but like with the city. So right now, everybody's feeling
good about it, everybody's like happy and all of that,
but the timing of yet another settlement it raises questions.
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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I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app
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as they make the media landscape more transparent. From the
WBT text line, this is from Happily Retired, who says, Pete,
I am a retired firefighter, and I knew both of
the plaintiffs in these cases, one of whom is the
husband of the new Charlotte Mecklinburg police chief. He says,
or she says. It was I don't know who this
person is, but it was not discriminatory practices. It was
their abilities. Neither one should have made chief. They're both
great people, but were not battalion chief qualified. They used
the race card to get the positions that they wanted, right,
And so that's going to be the accusation, of course,
because that's you know, they were suing over this in Charlotte,
and like I feel the need to point this out,
Charlotte has had for quite some time now a black
police chief. Right before Jennings at Rodney Monroe, black city manager,
black city attorney, black mayor, majority black council like this,
So now I don't know what the racial makeup of
the Charlotte Fire Department was in twenty eighteen and may again,
I cannot speak to the merits of their complaints, but
the settlement that was arrived at a week before the
announcement of the new police chief being hired, and that
settlement is with her husband. And this case had been
going on for a very long time since twenty eighteen,
but it had been working its way up and down
through the court. So they were fixing to go to
trial in December. And you know, his co plaintiff had
settled when she went to trial, So it seems like
they were close to terms three years prior. And I
don't know what the nature of the agreement. I don't
know what the terms that they eventually did settle upon were.
I don't know what they were, but I feel like
the city needs to provide that information now. Especially. Look,
and here's the thing. If we hadn't just come through
the Chief Johnny Jennings settlement, if we hadn't just gone
through that whole scandal, then this would not be landing
the same way. It just wouldn't. But it is. It's
landing this way now because you had a Charlotte City
Council within the last six months that gave three hundred
thousand dollars to the police chief on his way out
the door, and then didn't want anybody to know the
terms of the deal. So yeah, then there's this from Jason.
Not that it matters, but this new chief of police
will get my support until proven otherwise. Right, I'm in
the same like, I am cautiously optimistic. I'm giving her
a wide berth let like wide lanes to run down.
We'll see how she does. Right, The proof will be
in the pudding, he says. I do cringe a little
with her getting such high praise from this city council,
but that's just me not being a huge fan of
the council say the best. Yeah, that's that's the Yeah,
that's that's. Part of the problem is that you're being
hired by this city, this city manager of this city council.
And it's kind of like, mmmm, I do take some
solace in the FOP endorsement because they would know. Now
another issue. This was from local blogger Cedar Posts, and
this was from September eleventh, twenty twenty five years ago.
There was apparently an event held at the YWCA Central
Carolina and the YWCA. According to them, they are quote
on a mission to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, freedom,
and dignity for all. They held a panel discussion focusing
again this is September twenty twenty. They held a panel
discussion on ending violence by law enforcement, also fearing deportation,
slash detainment, keep being safe from mass shootings and gun violence,
ending sexual harassment at work or sexual assault and domestic
violence at home, and fearing consequences of white nationalism and
hate crimes. That was the panel discussion, although they were
going to cover all of those topics, and one of
the panelists was then Deputy Chief Estella Patterson. She spoke
at this event and according to the YWCA Twitter account
that posted her comments, she is quoted as saying, when
solving white nationalism, we need to look at the places
where this exists, especially people's places of work, to see
some hidden or overt biases and racism. People may have
you start where you are, You start in your home
and your work and determine white nationalists and expose them.
So I would like some further clarification about that is
this a big problem. Are there are the white nationalists
in the room with you right now? Where are these
white nationalists? Do you encounter them often? Are they in
the police department? Were they in the fire department? How
big of a problem do you think this is? Like
I would just I have some follow up questions. Again,
not an accusation. Don't know the context that this was
spoken in, except that it was this panel discussion. But like, yeah,
like Cedar Post points out, like what crimes of white
nationalism is she speaking of? How many have there been
in Charlotte? How many hate crimes have been committed by
groups like the Proud Boys or the White Arian Nation
or something? Are these groups active in Charlotte? Because I've
not heard that that would be a big deal. No,
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bring these issues up regarding Charlotte's new police chief only
because they require further examination and follow up questions. There
may not be anything to them. That's why you need
to do the follow up questioning, right, That's why people
need need to explain some of these decisions and comments.
That's all, and then we move on. But again, like
I want this chief to be successful in you know,
reducing crime, in filling the vacancies CMPD, improving morale, hiring
more police, all of what she said she wanted to do.
And I I support that. I think everybody should support that. Well,
not everybody, Shirley the lefty over on the WBT text
line driven by Liberty Buick gmc. Well, the text line
is driven by Liberty Buick GMC, not Shirley. But this
is typical of how Shirley engages. In fact, if I
were to scroll back through, I could see all of
her comments and they are all basically the same, which is,
we don't care, move on, talk about Republicans crawling at
the feet of King Trump. See, this is how broken
of a brain Shirley has when it comes to Donald Trump.
A new police chief in the city of Charlotte will
have more impact, more direct impact on your life than
Donald Trump. But Shirley's a hate listener. She loves to
hate listen. It's sort of along the lines like some
people aren't happy unless they're miserable. You know, they discovered
this a long time ago with Howard Stern, right, it
was in the movie Private Parts I believe was the
name of the movie based on the book written by
Howard Stern, And what they found was that the people
that hate Howard Stern listened for longer than the people
who liked him. I don't know why that is. I
don't generally like I will not listen to people that
I don't like. I'm not going to sit there and
listen to I'm not going to sit there and be
outraged and just keep listening to it over and over
and over again. Not going to do it. But surely does.
She sends me these messages periodically. Oh I missed this
earlier when new police chief overqualified. That's how get the
big jobs overqualified, like pilots, et cetera. I don't know
what that means. And then here's another one cheaters talking
about cheating. Move on? Move on? Yeah, so anyway, doesn't
want me talking about the police chief. Doesn't want us
looking at, you know, her record and qualifications and these
outstanding issues. Move on, I don't want to talk about this.
I want to be mad about Donald Trump. That's what
animates me, and that's all I want to talk about,
those dastardly Republicans crawling at the feet of Trump. Like, why,
I don't even know what you're talking about there? I
don't like, I don't even know, Like that's just. And
also when you tell me to talk about something, especially
as nebulous as that, I'm not going to talk about it.
That's just I got a bit of a contrarian streak
to me. So, but if you have any uh, I
was going to say links, but I don't open the links. Oh,
she just responded, I not miserable. You are bashing people
on a daily basis for money. I'm good. You might
want to work on the texting, Sureley, Like there's a
lot of grammatical mistakes there. Again, did I thought I've
been pretty clear? Have I registered an opinion about the
new police chief and whether or not I hope she's successful,
and whether I think she's qualified for the job? Oh?
I yes, I did. Actually, I've said it repeatedly. She
is supremely qualified for the job, and she has the
endorsement of the FOP. She has a lot of support
among rank and file cops. She made the right decision
in the Keith Lamont Scott investigation. I hope she's successful.
I've said all of these things repeatedly, but to Shirley's ear,
that doesn't register. None of that registers. That's why I say,
you're not happy unless you're miserable. I've not bashed anybody.
I didn't bash the fire Captain Lance Patterson. I didn't
bash him. I didn't bash his co plaintiff. I didn't
even bash the city council or the city manager. I
haven't bashed anybody. I pointed out that because of the
settlement with Chief Jennings that people now have questions about
this settlement to Patterson's husband, that just coincidentally lined up
with her hiring as the police chief. Now, I also
made it very clear it's possible that the timing was
simply coincidental, because if you look at the timeline, it's
been going on since twenty eighteen, it's going back and forth,
it's been going up and down in the court system.
So yeah, see, surely just here's what she wants to hear.
You might call it a dog with right. Jim says
the CMPD chief hiring topic is fair game. Sureley should
go pound sand and focus her wrath on King Donald. Also,
I loved here are the white nationalists in the room
with you now, President. I thought Shirley was an important person. Yeah,
I don't. Everybody is important in some way. Okay, Now
there is one other one other interesting note here is
that the same firm, the City of Charlotte used Ralph
Anderson and Associates to do this nationwide search to find
the woman that worked here for twenty five years and
then went to Raleigh for three and a half years.
A nationwide search, and like, it does make you wonder, like,
how how many times like we keep hiring these national
search firms and then they end up finding the guy
who's like or gal who's you know who worked for us? Oh,
look at that, a nationwide search and they happened to
be in house the whole time. But the same firm
is the one that brought Johnny Jennings in and apparently
the city attorney Andrea Leslie fight and the placement of
Shahid Reina as Director of Economic Development in Charlotte, who
came from Mecklinberg County. Ath so there's that too, all right,
that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much
for listening. I could not do the show without your
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