Brier hires replacement for police chief

BRIER — Just a week after Mayor Gary Starks fired Brier’s police chief, the City Council confirmed a new one.

At a special meeting Sept. 21, Don Lane was made the new city’s police chief on a 6-0 vote. Council member Sasha Doolittle was absent.

Lane will start as the city’s police chief Oct. 4.

Lane, now police chief in Wapato, Yakima County, is vice president of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs and has spent 16 of his 25 years in law enforcement as a police chief.

Lane said he and his family decided to come to the west side of the mountains to be closer to his wife’s family. Lane has three adult age children. “Wapato has a great amount of crime and I’m looking for a more crime-free area to work,” he said.

As a victim of crime twice himself, Lane said he can relate to people he comes across in his job.

When asked by City Council member Catie Corpron-Smith how he would help focus the police officers after they have been through the resignation and then firing of former chief Jeff Holmes, Lane said he would talk to each of them separately and have them set goals for themselves and the community.

Corpron-Smith also asked Lane if he would consider adding detectives or other ranks in the department. Lane said at this time he couldn’t give a definitive answer, and that he would have to see what’s in place and what’s planned.

Brier has five full time officers but no detectives, sergeants or other higher-ranking police officials. Officer Patrick Murphy is temporarily in charge until Lane begins work.

City Council member Dale Kaemingk said at the Sept. 21 meeting he has confidence in Lane but questioned the administration in the timing of hiring a new police chief. Kaemingk said he wanted an opinion from the Council’s newly hired attorney, Eileen Lawrence of the Cedar River Law professionals.

The Council hired Lawrence a week ago to represent them and city employees because of personnel matters and allegations that the mayor has created a hostile work environment.

Other Council members said they understood Kaemingk’s concern, but added that they see hiring as separate and needed.

Former chief Holmes was serving as part-time chief after resigning in June and then agreeing to stay while Starks filled the position. Holmes has said he quit in June because, “Starks is out of control and unreasonable to work for.”

Holmes now works for the Mountlake Terrace Police Department.

Holmes said Starks fired him last week in retaliation for refusing to give the mayor a letter written by a custodian which was first thought to have accused the mayor of carrying a gun on City Hall property, which violates city policy. Starks denied the allegation, and also declined to comment on why he fired Holmes.

The letter, read aloud at the Sept. 21 meeting by the custodian, Oneta Griffen, included that she had startled Starks in his office and “Mr. Starks said something like, ‘I’m glad it was you and not a burglar, or I might have had to get my gun and shoot you.’ We both laughed, and I went on about my cleaning duties,” she said she wrote.

Griffen, a contract employee, said she didn’t believe he actually had a gun and that the letter was a misunderstanding. However, she didn’t comment on why she wrote the letter if it was a misunderstanding.

Corpron-Smith said while she was glad to hear directly from Griffen on the matter, there is more behind the Council’s hiring of attorney Lawrence.

Lane said he is aware of the current issues but said he is in no position at this time to comment, adding he assumes Lawrence will resolve them.

Lane did say he looks forward to meeting the citizens of Brier and they can be sure he’ll be out and about.

“I hope that they’ll come by once I get there and introduce themselves and I’ll be out in the community,” he said. “We can get together and work to make the Brier Police Department better than its ever been.”