PCCI told City Commissioners that Rod Jolivette’s punishment, his demotion, was to harsh and asked the Commission to step in and get involved. One person actually told WALB that she thought there should be more discussion regarding Jolivette’s punishment. Excuse me?
Jolivette abused the taxpayer’s trust. That has been successfully established. He lied to investigators and tried to throw a junior officer under the bus. This is established pretty well also. And het gets to keep his job, just a few ranks lower, and this is to harsh?
Mr. Lott laid out a lot of grounds for Jolivette to be fired, and not a single oneabout why he should keep his job. Jolivette should be having to get his resume updated and sent out right now, but he’s not unless it’s by choice. He did everything wrong. Nothing he did in his response to the department is worthy of respect, and yet he has his job. He used fire department personnel and equipment to help out family members in a situation that was not life threatening and did it on the taxpayer’s dime.
What I’d like to know is what PCCI thinks would be fair. Would giving Jolivette Chief Carswell’s job be sufficient? Maybe we should make the man Governor of Georgia, just to be fair? PCCI has no credibility at this point with a large number of Albanians, and I’m definitely one of them. I disagreed with their initial stance on Jolivette, but I could accept that it was just a matter of looking at the same facts differently. Now, I’m convinced that they’re just grandstanding.
A significant number of Albanians are either satisfied with the punishment handed down by Mr. Lott, or thing it’s far to light. I’m in the latter’s camp, for the record. But then PCCI, a group that no one had ever heard of before Jolivette’s firing, steps in and says “no…it’s to harsh!” Well guess what folks? Life is harsh! At least Jolivette doesn’t have to look for a job in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression.
Just accept it and move on!
Tom, you are right on!! This whole mess is about the most ridiculous debate I’ve ever heard. Perhaps one of the “ministers” (and I use the term loosely) could tell me which fire station to contact to get help. I am nearly 65 and really need the help of someone to do my grocery shopping and some yard work. I wasn’t aware that the city offered these amenities to it’s citizens. But obviously the city must when Jolivette used City of Albany property and City of Albany personnel (on duty and paid by the City as a matter of fact) to help out family members who had a problem. And then he lied. I have no use for liars. They have no credibility. And they deserve to be fired AND made to pay restitution to the city for the cost of equipment AND wages earned by the employees who were involved int he cleanup.
Do I think Jolivette’s punishment was fair? Far from it. Alfred Lott should have let Carswell’s dismissal stand. I realize that’s my opinion and everyone has one, but I am sticking to it!
When you do wrong in a decent society, you must pay the price. DO we still have a decent society in Albany, Ga.? I think not.
Yes changes are needed in Albany and if those ministers who are trying to tell Mr. Lott how to do his job would expend as much energy in address the gang problem in Albany, we just might make some changes.
I swiped this from the comment section at WALB:
Jeez people! The man ABUSED his authority, STOLE services, then LIED to cover it up! How in the world can y’all justify supporting him?? If y’all were business owners, would you allow that from your employees? Well, you voted for Obama, even though all his actions and associations were suspect, too, proving that it’s COLOR, not MERIT that drives your decision-making. If Jolivette were a white man, would y’all be concerning yourselves with this? Noooooo….. it’s RACIAL, pure and simple!! Mr. Lott, whatcha say?? Hmmmm???? Please keep in mind the quotes you’ve already made in the newspaper and on video before you say something in response that you’ll regret… Oh, and is Mr. Jolivette back from out of town yet? Last we heard he was off on a church trip deciding if he wanted to accept the offer that someone strong-armed out of Mr. Lott. We haven’t even heard back from him yet, and these PCCI busy-bodies are already back at it. Jeez. This garbage just p*sses me off!
Hey BeJay and Jim Dandy , please allow some more thoughts to be proven….tell me WHO gave the ORDER to send the fire truck…I don’t think it was Jolivette…lets pull the dispatch recording to hear who sent the truck out…let’s see …. 911 probably did not record that….oh by the way Matt Jefferson ( Bat Chief) did he not know the rules? Also the fire fighters that went on the truck are they not aware of the RULES…since when does an off duty officer give orders and the idiots under him obey? I say they are ALL wrong…Jolivette is the escape goat…I hope they keep up the fight…..because the more I hear and see it appears this is a PERSONAL agenda against Jolivette…I bet there is more to come out than what you can even imagine…..
Read all of the news artilces relating to this event, the facts are there. Jolivette called the station directly and told them to send a truck to 1605 Gail Avenue to help an elderly couple with a flooding problem. A flooding problem that had occurred 5 days prior to this day. He did not tell Matt Jefferson that he wanted these men to remove carpet, padding and move furniture around. The lie detector test proved that.
He is a salaried employee, he is paid for duty 24 hours a day. Whether or not he is on duty has nothing to do with his authority. The firemen recognized his authority as assistant chief and followed his directions. He knows he was wrong, and if he had admitted it in the beginning without lying on his men then it wouldn’t have gotten this far.
The PCCI gave documents out last night outlining all calls that were to help people. This was a mistake on their part because it shows that when they are sent to a house that has something like this that needs to be done they refer the people to another area for help.
Donna, what kind of documents? 911 transcripts? How would they LEGALLY get their hands on these? These PCCI people should just tend to the spiritual needs of their community — which is SORELY needed! — and leave the city personnel business to the city administrators.
Donna is right. Salaried people ARE on duty 24/7 so WHY has the chief not lost his job for helping his lover move into a house on CITY TIME, driving a CITY VEHICLE and dressed in CITY UNIFORM? There are documents to prove this that will come out in time. Jimmie, you are right also. There is a LOT more to this than has come out and a LOTT (excuse the spelling) of people are going to eat crow. I am not for or against Jolivette I am for doing the right thing. And if they are going to adhere to city policy and fire Jolivette for “breaking the rules” and “using the tax payers money” for personal use, then they should adhere to the same policies for the Chief and any other person who has broken this rule. This is NOT a black/white issue, it is a right/wrong issue and if Jolivette loses his job or gets demoted for breaking the rules and the others known to have done the same “INCLUDING THE CHIEF” are not fired or demoted how CAN this be right ! Its not. But as Jimmie says, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot more to come. I am fed up with the politics in this town from ALL of our leaders. I think we need to clean house from Alfred Lott, To Chief Carswell, Albany PD , commissioners, Mayor and all the other dirty crooked snakes running our city.
An employee went into the ‘run reports’ and copied and pasted them. This was on the department’s computers. If it were 911 dispatch records they are available to anyone making a a request under the ‘open records’ act. They want to make this a vendetta against Jolivette and that simply doesn’t appear to be the case. The Herald requested his personnel file, and it was at least an inch think with discipline actions. Mr. Lott mistakenly thinks that you cannot use any disciplinary action that is more than three years old. I would love to see that in writing, I do not think that it exists.
I feel for the men and women who will have to work beside him if he decides to take the new position. I can’t imagine putting your life in someone’s hands that you know you can not trust!
Celeste, if he called a crew over to a personal home and had them move furniture, you are right and he should be punished.
A salaried employee would not have been disciplined for taking care of personal business in uniform during a work day because they are not bound to the traditional 40 hour work week. They are always on call and get paid the same if they work 30 hours or 60 hours in a week. So, if Jolivette had gone to his aunt and uncle’s house during the work day, in uniform, there could have been no disciplinary action against him as long as he did his work he is paid to do. They are paid on the work you produce not the hours it takes you to do it.
Hey Donna – don’t get so wrapped up, was something said that offended you? 9:45 pm, 10:00 pm and 10:18 pm.
Let’s look at this way. Everyone at the AFD knows the rules. Including the one that was on duty Chief (Jefferson) and the other fire fighters involved. Then why punish one, they all need to get reprimanded. I guess they were playing that game follow the leader. Come on. Reminder just last week, Jefferson was aware and choose to keep it quite about what we read in the paper involving the fire station where all that sex stuff was going on. It happened on June 5th why did it take so long for the media to print the story. Ugh!Strike two Jefferson, or should we say strike two Chief!
Can you answer this question why did Chief Carswell go to the extreme to try to pin criminal charges on Mr. Jolivette? Boy was that a dumb thing to do, it took the DA to let him know that would not work. So the Chief decided to use the lie detector as a way to TRAP Jolivette. FACT, you can create the out come of a lie detector test that is one reason it is not used any more. Our [edited] Mayor tried to pull that stunt on Ms. Fullerton by hollering let’s submit to lie detector, he just stuck his tail and back down.
Donna – since you know so much about 911 being public records print those records for us to see. Since you have already done that show us! Just last week I believe the new APD Chief was having some problems with 911 dispatch time. The public is still waiting on that out come!
Our city government has learned nothing but to cover up their mistakes. They are all liars.
Donna – we wait to see the proof.
Jimmie, no I wasn’t offended. I should have made one post to answer all of the statements I questioned.
I’m a political junkie and have always been very passionate about our government, on every level.
The sex at the station incident, I believe I saw that the firefighter’s captain was suspended because he knew about what the man did/said and didn’t take action.
Matt Jefferson, the batallion chief, knew about this after IT discovered porn on the computer at the station.
It was discovered when the IT department was checking the computer because of a virus and discovered inappropriate material under the firefighter’s id that he admitted he had downloaded.
As far as the DA’s office, Mr. Cohilas wrote it is ‘arguably criminal’ but because the City has so many administrative remedies he thought it would be best handled that way.
Anyone can get any city documents by filing a open records request with the city attorney’s office.
You just have to pay for each page that you get.
As for the dispatch records, that should be easy to reconcile, they have tapes of every call that comes in and word spoken.
Hey Donna – just curious do you work for the city, based on your knowing so much about what the departments within the city are doing. I use to work for City HR division, where I would be in the KNOW….so let me share some facts, there have been several employees within the City of Albany ( some are AFD employees ) that so called misued equipment and their authority at the fire station, and it took several offense ( key word several offense )before they were fired, as you stated it’s open records. Since I probably know more, see if you can find out who they are and share. I believe in people being treated fairly, nothing more.
Oh by the way … I’m voting on Mattie to win!!!!!
Let’s see who knows the TRUTH.
Lott verses PCCI.
Donna’s knowledge isn’t exactly classified or cryptic in the least. There’s a lot of people who simply have friends or family who work for the City of Albany who are familiar with a lot of that same stuff…plus political junkies have a tendency to know that kind of thing as well.
As for what other employees have done, that’s past tense. What matters is what’s being done now. Jolivette did everything wrong, and deserved to be fired. Everyone currently doing similar acts should be fired as well. It doesn’t matter what happened way back when simply because those people should have been fired as well…we just can’t change that now.
Im with Jimmie and Curious on this one.. They are all liars and when the TRUTH does come out(and its coming Chief Carswell and cronies) a LOTT of people are going to be exposed.