Regarding the continued attempts to accuse Mayor Steve Britton of being a criminal by a former Sentinel employee who has evidently started a blog, Britton advised the following:

Britton graduated from the Academy in December 1979 where he earned the physical fitness award. In 2005 he applied to the academy again for training and was turned down because of a minor incident in 1980. Britton worked in law enforcement as an active or reserve officer for over twenty years. Britton had the opportunity to have the records relating to the 1980 incident expunged at which point he would have been granted admittance to the academy, however, he felt at his age his efforts were better spent opening his own business.

Additionally, Jean Ivey, editor of The Sentinel received an email today from Teresa Reaves, wife of Mike Reaves claiming that her husband had nothing to do with running off the papers distributor for leaving free newspapers at their diner. Reaves claims that she alone ran the distributor off while her husband merely observed. The distributor, however, stands by her statement describing an overweight, gruff angry and intimidating man who along with the missus aggressively assailed her. In her mid twenties, the distributor who had her small daughter with her was understandably very shaken by their rudeness.

During the course of this blog and the formation a year and a half ago of Concerned Citizens of Coquille, many complaints, stories and rumors have been delivered to me or Dian. To protect those complainants who fear retribution by the officers involved we do not report complaints on our blogs that have not also been sent to City Hall. Several incidents of impropriety have been reported to me regarding actions taken by the former chief during his tenure in Coquille and I have decided that three or even four of them, in particular, deserve some serious examination in advance of the November election.

While I do not particularly care what these people do in their personal lives I do care very much how they administer taxpayer money and I think the citizens of Coquille ought to know what the city has spent in the last few years as a direct result of impropriety. More importantly, I think the citizens should be asking city manager, O’Connor, why he has failed to properly manage his administrators. O’Connor will comply with public records requests in a timely manner, of course, if he doesn’t I will report it here and in the paper.

Next Thursday is the candidate forum wherein we the public get to hear the views and opinions of the mayoral and city council candidates. This is an opportunity to find out just how much each candidate really wants the job.