LETTERS

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PARK POLICE REPLY Please allow me to set the record straight regarding your park district police article [see “Law enFARCEment,” June 11, at illinoistimes.com]. In this article, information provided by former Captain Jonathan Davis was not factual. It was misleading and, most importantly, appeared to be intentionally damaging to my reputation.

Davis stated that I failed the written exam. On June 23, 2012, applicants reported to the Illinois State Police Academy for a physical and written test to be eligible for the park district police hiring list. The exam was administered and hand-graded by Davis. Davis identified a group of applicants by name who did not pass the test, asked them to line up at the door and released them. Davis then read the list of names of those applicants who passed the test. I was a member of that group who passed the test. There are numerous witnesses who could attest to that fact. Those who passed were given an appointment for an oral interview. My appointment was on June 26, 2012, at 1:30 p.m. For these reasons, it surprises me that Davis would make such an allegation. It’s important to note that of those interviewed I was the only applicant with police experience.

Davis stated that I choose which orders I want to follow. The afternoon I was closing on my house Davis texted me and insisted that I expect to arrive late for the closing because he wanted me and another officer to pick up a police vehicle that had been repaired. I clearly stated that my shift ends in a matter of minutes and that I had an appointment for a legal matter, which was a closing on my house. I was willing to go back to the department and pick up the patrol car after my closing. I returned to the department after the closing, waited about an hour for the other officer to finish a call, and we picked up the vehicle as requested. There was no legitimate need to pick up the squad car that day, as I confirmed with the other patrol officers. This along with Davis ordering me to do this minutes before the end of my shift is just one of the ways Davis exerted his controlling and sometimes abusive behavior towards the officers.

Davis stated that I am unwilling to work extra shifts. Davis asked me to work an additional 18-hour shift after recently working two 18-hour shifts two days in a row, and chose to ignore my concerns that working an additional shift at that time was an officer safety issue. His focus was placed upon my declining the extra shift rather than the safety component I emphasized. As a dedicated officer I have been mandated to work multiple extra shifts including 29 days in a row, 13 days in a row and multiple 18-hour shifts.

The inaccuracies supplied by Davis impact my reputation, my integrity and possibly my future in law enforcement, which is my passion. Davis’ decision to incriminate others and place blame while misrepresenting the truth appears malicious, or may just be an act of desperation. I believe Davis chose to resign and he has a right to state his opinion. However, while going down that road, he chose to share information without being factual and taking incidents out of context to make his case. Davis’ actions are highly objectionable and at times blatantly dishonest. Offi cer Lawrence Bomke Springfield

NO LAKE II A second lake will not correct the conflict between critical water supplies and CWLP power generation during future severe droughts.

When CWLP customers demand more air conditioning (and outdoor water use) during summer’s hot, dry weather they threaten the water purification and delivery system supplying their critical daily needs for drinking, cooking, personal hygiene and sanitation. Forced evaporation of lake water from waste power plant heat adds about two feet of lake level drop to natural evaporation accounting for three feet of loss in a historically average year. In a prolonged drought or change to a drier climate, CWLP will have to reduce the use of surface water (lakes) for power plant cooling of its existing coal-fired units.

The proposed second lake, with its watershed half the size of Lake Springfield’s, will not be an adequate response to prolonged dry weather. Drought-resistant underground supplies dedicated for critical needs are the appropriate alternative. The South Fork/ Horse Creek Pump Station, finished at the end of our historic 1953-55 drought, has already solved the surface water supply problems experienced since. It is a 1950s engineering solution that still works today at much lower cost.

CWLP customers are fortunate to have their water and electricity needs stabilized and their noncritical uses less water and energy intensive since the National Energy Efficiency Act of Jan. 1, 1994. With a stable customer population and some lost water sales, CWLP price rates should only include costs to operate, maintain and replace wornout equipment.

Don Davis Pleasant Plains TAKE RAUNER SERIOUSLY I was distressed to read in last week’s Illinois Times that neither the mayor nor the city council has spoken out against the proposed closure of the Illinois State Museum [See “Editor’s note” June 25].

This is a shame, since no other city in the state will suffer as much as Springfield if this museum closes. Closure will be a big blow to our city economically, i.e., loss of jobs at the museum, less tourists or less tourist time here and the subsequent loss of the money they would otherwise spend here eating, lodging, etc.

Springfield will become a less desirable place in which to live without the museum. While many museum visitors are from out of town, many are from the Springfield area and cherish having such a fine facility so close at hand.

Some pundits are saying the governor’s statement of closure is just a bluff to force the legislature to adopt some of his measures. However, we cannot risk that kind of thinking. We need to take the governor seriously. It would be extremely embarrassing to the mayor and the council if the museum ends up closed, and the excuse for having taken no action opposing the closure was something lame like, “Well, we didn’t think the governor would actually do that.”

The governor certainly can do that, and city government needs to be doing everything practicable in an effort towards preventing that. Dick McLane Springfield

THE GOVERNOR’S AQUEDUCT I would like to reply to Craig Williams’ letter in the June 11 Illinois Times. Governor Rauner said he wanted to create jobs in Illinois. Is that true? I recall that before Rauner became governor, he had a business. He closed the business and his employees not only lost their jobs but their pensions. The governor sent the business to China, and he got how many million for doing that?

I also read that he is taking his own money to pay for repairs the mansion. Is the governor using the money he took from his employees to make those repairs? How thoughtful of the governor. The governor’s well didn’t run dry. He put a cover on the well and funneled the water to China so his employees had to find water someplace else. Delores Williams Springfield