Meadowlakes mayor defends dismissal of patrol officer
Mayor John Aaron Tuesday said the decision to let Steve Koenning go as a part-time officer was based on the city’s budget and the officer’s performance review. The city had employed Koenning, who is also a Burnet County Sheriff’s Office patrol deputy, and John Nathan Dodd, who is a Burnet County Jail officer.
Recently Aaron announced he was letting Koenning go from the part-time Meadowlakes position while retaining Dodd, a move that has drawn the ire of some residents.
“The deputy was let go as the culmination of a budget adoption the City Council approved,” Aaron said.
The mayor said this wasn’t an easy decision, but one he had to take in order to meet the city’s new budget needs.
“It wasn’t that Steve was performing at low levels. He wasn’t,” Aaron said. “If it wasn’t for the budget cuts, there would not have been a need to let him go.”
Under the 2008-2009 budget, the council slashed spending to keep the tax rate from increasing, including trimming the traffic enforcement budget, Aaron said.
In order to meet the new budget, the mayor had to let one of the patrol officers go. Koenning had been authorized to work 34 hours a month while Dodd was authorized to work 24 hours a month, he said.
“The cuts were made to bring the budget in line with our overall philosophy and pledge not to raise the tax rate,” Aaron said. “The council worked very hard to come up with this budget. That set in motion for the supervisor of the two deputies to get that budget item in line.”
The mayor is the immediate supervisor of the part-time patrol officers, Aaron said.
“It was up to me,” he said.
But the mayor said he stuck with the city’s personnel policy when he made the eventual decision to let Koenning go from the part-time position.
“Our personnel policy states when making a reduction in personnel, or RIP, we must retain the employee with the higher job performance review,” Aaron said. “In this case, that was Deputy Dodd.”
Meadowlakes resident Ben Bryan isn’t quite satisfied with the mayor’s decision. He was one of several people protesting Koenning’s dismissal Monday outside the front entrance to the city.
Bryan said he had doubts of Dodd’s performance in lieu of a February 2005 arrest in Reeves County in West Texas. A Reeves County deputy arrested Dodd for traveling eastbound in the westbound lane of Interstate 10.
The Reeves County deputy reported Dodd had forced 28 other vehicles from the roadway over the course of 14 miles. Dodd was charged with deadly conduct.
At the time, Burnet County Sheriff Joe Pollock reassigned Dodd to jail duties. But after an investigation, no other actions were taken against Dodd, officials said. Reeves County officials said the deadly conduct charges were also dropped.
Aaron said the performance review looks only at Dodd’s and Koenning’s performance while serving in the city’s patrol officer capacities.
Aaron pointed out Koenning is still employed as a full-time deputy for Burnet County.
Still, Bryan said the people who support the retention of Koenning aren’t giving up.
“I think we created a little attention with our demonstration (Monday),” he said. “We just wanted to find out if anybody was aware of what happened. We talked to several who didn’t know about it, but were concerned. Now, we can work on our plan.”
daniel@thepicayune.com