* Kevin O'Neil Responds

Craig, your misinformed post this morning prompts me to write.

Let's start with your headline: "CAPS is broken under Alderman Moore's leadership". Then you go on to report that Beat 2431 has had four different beat team leader in the last year, implying that it's Joe Moore's fault. The alderman does not determine which sergeant is the team leader. The district commander does. And I've found that often the commander has to replace team leaders because sergeants are promoted and leave the district. So while it isn't a great situation, sometimes stuff happens and sergeants move on.

And as it happens, the new team leader, Sgt. Baranowski, previously was a Beat 2431 team leader, so I'm real happy to have him back.

And while there has been some turnover in sergeants, Beat 2431 has been blessed with great stability in the actual cops on the street. For instance, Officer Norma Guerrero has served our beat well for more than 10 years. The other cops on the other shifts have been in place for well over a year, some longer. So I'm real happy about that. So your notion that CAPS in Beat 2431 is not "run by the same officers covering the same beat, to ensure everyone knows who everyone is" is just plain wrong.

And you make a big deal about the fact that I wasn't there last night. So what? Life goes on. I'm not going to make it to every single meeting. And give poor Jayne Hoffman a break. She facilitates her very first CAPS meeting and you're all over her with criticism. She volunteered to do a job that's difficult under any circumstance, and made all the more difficult with you disrupting the meeting as you always do. So I applaud Jayne for volunteering to do a difficult job.

Then you say "isn't that what the CAPS meeting is for? For the 'community' to talk about crime problems in their beat?" Yes, that's right Craig. And even though I wasn't there, I made sure that Hugh Rider WAS there to talk about crime problems in his 1340 W. Morse building. I wrote a memo about a meeting that the city attorney called so that the public would know what CAPS was doing about the crime problems at 1340 W. Morse.

You say "no one from the real 'community' was involved at all. This was another behind close door meeting with Alderman Moore's handpicked 'community' of one, Kevin O'Neil." This meeting was called by the city attorney, not Joe Moore. I was involved because I am the beat facilitator, and have been for the last 14 years. And I do think that my 14 years as beat facilitator of Beat 2431 qualifies me as a member of the "real community."

You actually do ask one good question about where were the security guards on Jan. 21. They weren't working, because the agreement Hugh Rider and Realty and Mortgage signed with the city stipulated that the security would end Jan. 15. But I knew we needed to restart the security, so I went to the meeting and demanded that Rider bring back the security guards. And he readily agreed to do so.

Kevin O'Neil
Beat 2431 Facilitator
*****
Don Gordon, who was at the CAPS 2431 meeting in question, responds: When there's a breakdown in communication, or as in the case of CAPS, a complete void of communication, then people will fill that void with hearsay and assumptions. Nothing new here. Happens all the time in the corporate world. The difference is that in the corporate world good leadership corrects the problem.

It IS the alderman's responsibility to be involved in correcting this void of communication. Every single thing that goes on in the 49th ward is eventually the alderman's problem. The buck both stops and starts at the alderman's office. That doesn't mean he has to personally correct it or even that his staff has to correct the numerous problems that face us. But for god's sake we at least expect that he's paying attention to his community.

It IS the alderman's job to facilitate solutions and more importantly to work proactively in keeping problems from occurring. And by the way, if our alderman spent as much time with Commander Rottner as he does schilling legislation for his union buddies, raising a quarter million dollars from his developer friends or cavorting for cash with PETA, then he'd have some input and feedback from Commander Rottner as to the situation with the rotating officers.

Don't get me wrong, Kevin. No one, including me, thinks you or Jayne or the officers are the problem. Nope. The problem is this alderman and the sooner he's out of here and we have someone who actually gives a damn about this community, the sooner we'll all be on the road to recovery.