"Specific to your question, I have no doubt that firing me for not showing up for work was a shortcut to deal with me in a way they couldn't have done if I had stayed in Eureka on administrative leave."

 

I reached out and contacted former EPD Officer Mark Meftah. I appreciate his detailed and prompt response. 

If you read my previous posts, I brought up the mental health/lack of and sure enough, after the fact, EPD officers are offered counseling. Not enough but better than a hotline. The City of Eureka always reacts to a lawsuit/to a scandal/to being called out; never proactive. 

Clean up trash, call EPD. Instead of Code Enforcement, call EPD to go check on reports of violations at residences during the pandemic. EPD's job is public safety. Why are they doing jobs we pay others to do?

The City of Eureka doesn't deserve a single police officer. Politics drive away good officers. Work a day in EPD's shoes and then let me check your texts. 

"John

Hello.  Hope you are doing well.  Thank you for reaching out to me for a comment.

Let me give you a little backstory to help answer your question.  I was a cop in Ohio from approximately 1996-2016, at which time we moved to Eureka and I worked for EPD from 2016-current.  

Doing the math on that means I've served honorably and made helping people my life's mission for 24 years.  It also means I've got the time in to GTFO and fly the bird as I go to all those who would question my integrity and motives.

About 2 years ago my wife and I began looking at moving away from Eureka, mainly because it represented all the problems California had AND was a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, which seemed to magnify those problems.  We found it to be a dismal place.  People that only know California or Eureka might think it is normal.  As an outsider, I'm here to tell you it is so far from normal that a scale hasn't been invented to measure how fucked up it is there.

Despite this, for family reasons, financial reasons, promotions at my wife's job, etc., we decided to stay in Eureka, and committed to each other we'd stay for a total of five years and sort of reassess after that "five year plan" timeframe had ended.  This would put us looking to move around late 2020, early 2021.

The five years began drawing to a close and we again began looking to move.  In about December 2020 I was offered a job in Tennessee and we planned to be gone by March.  I informed EPD of this.  I was specifically sought out by the chief after I notified them of my intent to leave and was asked to reconsider.  In part because of that appeal, and in part because my wife was having a hard time finding a job, we did reconsider, and elected to stay in Eureka at least a while longer.

Then, just about a month or so later, this great TEXT MESSAGE CAPER OF '21 hit and I was placed on administrative leave.  I complied with the terms of the leave, even going so far as to get dressed in business casual every day and sit by the phone, waiting for it to ring.  It never did.  A few months passed, and I was still on  leave, and no one from the department had bothered to contact me.  My wife came to me and indicated that she was willing to relocate if I was, and after thinking about it... I was.  What was really here for me?  Even if Eureka called me back to work, I was unwilling to work for a mayor, city manager, and police chief who were lacking in cojones.  If they were willing to throw Rigo and I to the wolves for some private, constitutionally protected workplace banter; but were unwilling to discipline officers engaged in egregious uses of force, sick leave abuse, perjury, and the like - then this wasn't a place I wanted to work.  

I told my wife to start looking for a job and a house, if she wanted.  I held off on looking for a job, waiting for EPD to do something - anything - with me, so I could explain what had happened to prospective employers.  They never did.  No one called.  No one came to the house.  I just kept on getting paid twice a month and languishing on administrative leave... a purgatory between working and being able to quit and take a new job.

It's now mid-May /early June; and my wife indicated to me she'd be flying back to Ohio to interview for several jobs.  I remained in Eureka, tethered to the city by the chain of administrative leave.  After my wife got to Ohio, she was offered a brilliant job, and she began looking for housing.  She found a house, made an offer on it, and it was accepted.  She then flew back to Eureka, and we began the process of readying to move.

If you've ever bought a house, it isn't an overnight process.  I remained on administrative leave, hoping that in the thirty days before we closed and moved the city would do whatever the city was gonna do so I could resign and go off to a new place unencumbered... as unencumbered as I could given that any Google search of me would immediately return the results that I was a racist, sexist, misogynistic asshole, who ate babies, and shoved old ladies down in the street.  And still... no one from EPD called with any sort of directives. 

I did get one call during this time, from Captain Stephens, who offered me mental health counseling - all officers of EPD were being required to meet with a counselor for an hour, they could talk or not talk, their choice; but the city was making everyone do it.  No doubt this was because the city realized that the way officers currently dealt with stress - talking shit to each other - was now no bueno since an army of the woke was feeling triggered by other people's private words.  The words hurt them in their no-no spot, see.  Anyway, I digress.  I was not being mandated to the mental health counseling because I wasn't a real cop anymore, just a stay at home by the phone cop.  But, the city wanted me to have the option to go if I felt I needed to talk to someone.  Other than that call, I had no contact with anyone from EPD for damn near five months.

So to catch you up here, we're now 5 months in, I'm still getting paid, my wife has accepted a new job in Ohio, and we're in contract on a house there.  Related: you know what kind of a house you can buy in Ohio for the cost of a ramshackle trailer in Eureka?  Ummm... a pretty damn nice one.  We bought 8 acres, a barn, a pond, woods, a two story house with 5 bedrooms...when I couldn't even afford to buy a house in Humboldt County.  Punish me some more, Eureka!  

We closed on the house remotely around July 9 and on July 10 I called Captain Stephens to let him know we were moving effective the following day.  He obviously, and rationally, expected I was going to tender my resignation at that time.  However, I refused to do so... I was not going to resign while under investigation, as that has a terrible connotation.  I told him as much - I'm not resigning while under investigation.  Clearly, the smart thing for the city to do would have been to close out my investigation at that time and render a finding, and I would have happily resigned.  They didn't.  Instead, the chief called me and ordered me to report to work Monday July 12 for desk duty at the city manager's office.  I told him I wouldn't be there, he told me I'd be fired if I wasn't, and that was that. 

We moved, set up a home in Ohio, and I waited to see what Eureka was going to do.  Even though they knew I had moved out of state, and the chief had ordered me in back in July, and had told me I'd be fired if I didn't go in, and I had not gone in, they continued to employ me.  They actually paid me for OVER TWO MONTHS that I lived in Ohio, up until the week of September 13, when I had some Zoom meetings with the chief and HR, and some consultations with my attorney.  I was ultimately ordered by the chief to report to work Friday September 17 for desk duty, and I didn't go, at which time they finally terminated me for not reporting to work.

The timing was brilliant though, as I had been applying for and interviewing for jobs ever since we landed in Ohio.  I had several offers, and in fact I start a new job tomorrow, Monday September 27.

Specific to your question, I have no doubt that firing me for not showing up for work was a shortcut to deal with me in a way they couldn't have done if I had stayed in Eureka on administrative leave.  

As an example, Rigo is still on paid admin leave and wasn't ordered in to work, so it's obvious that ordering me in was a plan built on ulterior motives.  

I'm unsure how I plan on handling the termination; at this point that is still being discussed with my attorney and I'm sure you understand that I can't discuss those details. 

I will say that the city is or was shitting razor blades about actually firing me, because they made a lot of offers to me to just resign - money, a 'sanitized' personnel file with no mention of this investigation in it, etc.  All I had to do was sign a document that said I wouldn't sue them.  I did not sign said document.

I think this answers your questions and probably provides you with a bit more information than you wanted, but - hey -  you asked!

Take care of yourself.

Mark Meftah