Exeter City Council votes to terminate Police Chief at hearing
August 22, 2018
Charlea Estes-Jones
After many weeks of controversy, Exeter Police Chief Kenen Martinez was terminated after a hearing last Friday afternoon.
The meeting was opened just after 3:30 p.m. on Friday, August 17, and shortly after closed to the public except for council members Rhonda Scott, Keith Johnson Jeff Scott and Tasha McNabb, mayor Rusty Reed, court clerk Marissa Robbins, Martinez, Martinez’s attorney Michael Horn and city attorney Jim LeCompte.
After approximately three hours of deliberation in the closed meeting, the meeting adjourned, opting to terminate Martinez’s employment. LeCompte released the vote to remove him was three votes in favor and one abstention. Rhonda Scott, Tasha McNabb and Keith Johnson voted to remove him, and Jeff Scott abstained from the vote.
LeCompte said, “They have agreed to terminate the employment of Kenen Martinez as chief law enforcement officer for Exeter.”
Following the meeting, Martinez addressed approximately 20 supporters who showed up to the meeting after the decision was made. He said, “It’s not about my job, it’s about clearing my name. They committed libel, and I just wanted to clear my name and have some transparency.”
He said later he was pleasantly surprised with how many showed up to support him.
Martinez also revealed following the hearing that he and his attorney would be pursing the matter in circuit court as a civil suit as well as a suit to reinstate.
Additionally, Martinez submitted an affidavit to the Missouri Attorney General’s office accusing council members of nepotism a few weeks ago.
Mary Compton, communications director for the Missouri Attorney General’s office, said, “We have received the complaints and we are investigating.” She could not comment further.
Martinez told supporters that he would be running for office to have a position on the City of Exeter’s council in the next election. He said, “Next year, I’ll run for mayor. A group has already contacted me to ask me to run.
“It’s time the secrecy and closed meetings for everything end. If I can’t do that as chief, I’ll do it as mayor.”
Following the hearing, Martinez was obviously frustrated with the outcome. “They refused to release any type of evidence until the day of the hearing and then redacted it. They wouldn’t give us any opportunity to subpoena witnesses, and when we asked them to produce witnesses, they wouldn’t.
“We’d discovered evidence that the city had been buying personal items on the city’s [debit] card, so they redacted it so that wouldn’t be seen,” Martinez claimed.
Rhonda Scott, who is serving as mayor pro tem, and court clerk Marissa Robbins answered questions and responded to some of Martinez’s accusations following the hearing.
Robbins said they wanted to show the city’s rebuttals but were unable to do so until the hearing was conducted.
The city denied claims regarding any refusal to release information. While the city did redact information from the bank statements, LeCompte said it was only the account number and information irrelevant to the hearing.
Robbins said the city simply did not have time to produce the information Martinez’s attorney was requesting. She said, “He said his due process was violated. He was given due process. He and his lawyer chose to terminate the hearing.
“They were given the amount of time provided by state statute to make requests. We heard nothing until the 15th. He asked for new information that we did not have ready.”
Robbins said part of those requests were for two years worth of bank statements for the city with no information redacted.
Martinez confirmed he and his attorney chose to terminate the hearing. “The decision to rest early was a tactical legal decision; we achieved our goals to preserve an appeal and further presentation of the case was a waste of time based on council members’ comments in the public and the way in which due process was denied. It was evident that this hearing was a show trial and nothing more,” he said.
He also said the request made for a continuance in order to subpoena witnesses and give the city time to gather information requested was denied.
LeCompte confirmed Robbins’ account that the city did not have time to produce what Martinez’s attorney requested. He said, “There was no way to produce those. He’d asked for discovery for some documents. It was physically impossible for the city to honor that request less than two days before the hearing.”
LeCompte also said the information redacted from the city’s bank statements were only items unrelated to the single-item agenda for Friday. He said, “The redaction was the bank account numbers and anything that was not related to police information. For example, a water department expenditure was redacted out. The agenda was exclusively related to Mr. Martinez as the law enforcement officer. It was a single item agenda.”
Robbins said, “It was done to protect the financial information of the city.” She added that sensitive financial information was also shared on Martinez’s Facebook account.
With Martinez’s use of city funds called into question, Martinez claims multiple employees have used the debit card for personal purchases. He said, “They said I misused the city’s funds when there was a tacit implication that it could be paid back.”
However, Scott adamantly denies that claim. She said, “That’s not true. Nobody uses that for personal use on anything.”
She said there was no reason for Martinez to believe he was able to use the city’s debit card for unapproved purchases.
Martinez’s charges on city’s debit card purchases the city listed in the hearing information as misuse of funds spanned from February 9, 2017, to July 5, 2018. When asked if Martinez had been told to stop using the card, Scott said he was told multiple times. She said, “He was told at different times to get pre-approval. It was never anything written, it was just a verbal reminder.”
Martinez refuted that claim, saying, “It’s not true. I never received any written reprimand. I never received any verbal reprimand.”
Scott confirmed there was no formal reprimand or complaint against Martinez during his time as chief, but she says he was told on more than one occasion to get all purchases pre-approved by the city council or by the mayor if it was under $500.
Robbins claimed Martinez made the purchases through the city’s account because it was tax-tree. She said, “No one knew he was buying things for the city. When you buy through the city’s account, it’s tax-free. That was troublesome. He was spending on the city’s account for personal charges and not paying the taxes.”
Martinez claims all purchases made save for a fee that were pre-approved for him to pay back were for the police department, not his personal use.
Other items Martinez was accused of included dereliction of duty, acting in a manner solely to further himself, alleged threats to city employees and insubordination to city council directives. One of the claims was that Martinez left boxes of evidence out in the open, which was a threat to the security of sensitive files and information.
Robbins said, “I would like to say when he said there was no evidence left in the open, we have photos. What he did was dangerous to our city.”
Martinez admitted there were storage space issues for the files, but that nothing sensitive was left out.
With the hearing over and the city trying to move on, Robbins expressed frustration at how Martinez handled the accusations. She said, “On a personal level, he is still using Facebook to attack city employees.”
When asked if he regretted releasing as much information to the public through his personal Facebook account, he said he didn’t. Martinez said, “As far as airing the nepotism complaints and giving the citizens insight into what was going on in their city? I have no regrets, and I would do it again.”
For now, the City of Exeter does not have an acting chief of police. Scott said the decision to put out an employment opening notice will be decided by council members at a future date. She said, “We haven’t made any decisions yet. Barry County has been taking calls in the city.”
Scott said the city has one officer, Mackenzie Lowe, who is an unpaid reserve for the city with other officers on commission. However, there are no paid officers or any council-approved police enforcement hours in the city right now, nor is anyone being paid.
The city did hire former chief Willie Stephens on a contract basis to have a presence during the hearing on Friday. He stood outside the city hall door during the closed session.
LeCompte said, “They can choose to have it vacant for a period of time. They have a mutual contract with the Barry County Sheriff’s Department to provide a certain amount of services. There is no timeline for when that needs to be decided.”
Charlea Estes-Jones
After many weeks of controversy, Exeter Police Chief Kenen Martinez was terminated after a hearing last Friday afternoon.
The meeting was opened just after 3:30 p.m. on Friday, August 17, and shortly after closed to the public except for council members Rhonda Scott, Keith Johnson Jeff Scott and Tasha McNabb, mayor Rusty Reed, court clerk Marissa Robbins, Martinez, Martinez’s attorney Michael Horn and city attorney Jim LeCompte.
After approximately three hours of deliberation in the closed meeting, the meeting adjourned, opting to terminate Martinez’s employment. LeCompte released the vote to remove him was three votes in favor and one abstention. Rhonda Scott, Tasha McNabb and Keith Johnson voted to remove him, and Jeff Scott abstained from the vote.
LeCompte said, “They have agreed to terminate the employment of Kenen Martinez as chief law enforcement officer for Exeter.”
Following the meeting, Martinez addressed approximately 20 supporters who showed up to the meeting after the decision was made. He said, “It’s not about my job, it’s about clearing my name. They committed libel, and I just wanted to clear my name and have some transparency.”
He said later he was pleasantly surprised with how many showed up to support him.
Martinez also revealed following the hearing that he and his attorney would be pursing the matter in circuit court as a civil suit as well as a suit to reinstate.
Additionally, Martinez submitted an affidavit to the Missouri Attorney General’s office accusing council members of nepotism a few weeks ago.
Mary Compton, communications director for the Missouri Attorney General’s office, said, “We have received the complaints and we are investigating.” She could not comment further.
Martinez told supporters that he would be running for office to have a position on the City of Exeter’s council in the next election. He said, “Next year, I’ll run for mayor. A group has already contacted me to ask me to run.
“It’s time the secrecy and closed meetings for everything end. If I can’t do that as chief, I’ll do it as mayor.”
Following the hearing, Martinez was obviously frustrated with the outcome. “They refused to release any type of evidence until the day of the hearing and then redacted it. They wouldn’t give us any opportunity to subpoena witnesses, and when we asked them to produce witnesses, they wouldn’t.
“We’d discovered evidence that the city had been buying personal items on the city’s [debit] card, so they redacted it so that wouldn’t be seen,” Martinez claimed.
Rhonda Scott, who is serving as mayor pro tem, and court clerk Marissa Robbins answered questions and responded to some of Martinez’s accusations following the hearing.
Robbins said they wanted to show the city’s rebuttals but were unable to do so until the hearing was conducted.
The city denied claims regarding any refusal to release information. While the city did redact information from the bank statements, LeCompte said it was only the account number and information irrelevant to the hearing.
Robbins said the city simply did not have time to produce the information Martinez’s attorney was requesting. She said, “He said his due process was violated. He was given due process. He and his lawyer chose to terminate the hearing.
“They were given the amount of time provided by state statute to make requests. We heard nothing until the 15th. He asked for new information that we did not have ready.”
Robbins said part of those requests were for two years worth of bank statements for the city with no information redacted.
Martinez confirmed he and his attorney chose to terminate the hearing. “The decision to rest early was a tactical legal decision; we achieved our goals to preserve an appeal and further presentation of the case was a waste of time based on council members’ comments in the public and the way in which due process was denied. It was evident that this hearing was a show trial and nothing more,” he said.
He also said the request made for a continuance in order to subpoena witnesses and give the city time to gather information requested was denied.
LeCompte confirmed Robbins’ account that the city did not have time to produce what Martinez’s attorney requested. He said, “There was no way to produce those. He’d asked for discovery for some documents. It was physically impossible for the city to honor that request less than two days before the hearing.”
LeCompte also said the information redacted from the city’s bank statements were only items unrelated to the single-item agenda for Friday. He said, “The redaction was the bank account numbers and anything that was not related to police information. For example, a water department expenditure was redacted out. The agenda was exclusively related to Mr. Martinez as the law enforcement officer. It was a single item agenda.”
Robbins said, “It was done to protect the financial information of the city.” She added that sensitive financial information was also shared on Martinez’s Facebook account.
With Martinez’s use of city funds called into question, Martinez claims multiple employees have used the debit card for personal purchases. He said, “They said I misused the city’s funds when there was a tacit implication that it could be paid back.”
However, Scott adamantly denies that claim. She said, “That’s not true. Nobody uses that for personal use on anything.”
She said there was no reason for Martinez to believe he was able to use the city’s debit card for unapproved purchases.
Martinez’s charges on city’s debit card purchases the city listed in the hearing information as misuse of funds spanned from February 9, 2017, to July 5, 2018. When asked if Martinez had been told to stop using the card, Scott said he was told multiple times. She said, “He was told at different times to get pre-approval. It was never anything written, it was just a verbal reminder.”
Martinez refuted that claim, saying, “It’s not true. I never received any written reprimand. I never received any verbal reprimand.”
Scott confirmed there was no formal reprimand or complaint against Martinez during his time as chief, but she says he was told on more than one occasion to get all purchases pre-approved by the city council or by the mayor if it was under $500.
Robbins claimed Martinez made the purchases through the city’s account because it was tax-tree. She said, “No one knew he was buying things for the city. When you buy through the city’s account, it’s tax-free. That was troublesome. He was spending on the city’s account for personal charges and not paying the taxes.”
Martinez claims all purchases made save for a fee that were pre-approved for him to pay back were for the police department, not his personal use.
Other items Martinez was accused of included dereliction of duty, acting in a manner solely to further himself, alleged threats to city employees and insubordination to city council directives. One of the claims was that Martinez left boxes of evidence out in the open, which was a threat to the security of sensitive files and information.
Robbins said, “I would like to say when he said there was no evidence left in the open, we have photos. What he did was dangerous to our city.”
Martinez admitted there were storage space issues for the files, but that nothing sensitive was left out.
With the hearing over and the city trying to move on, Robbins expressed frustration at how Martinez handled the accusations. She said, “On a personal level, he is still using Facebook to attack city employees.”
When asked if he regretted releasing as much information to the public through his personal Facebook account, he said he didn’t. Martinez said, “As far as airing the nepotism complaints and giving the citizens insight into what was going on in their city? I have no regrets, and I would do it again.”
For now, the City of Exeter does not have an acting chief of police. Scott said the decision to put out an employment opening notice will be decided by council members at a future date. She said, “We haven’t made any decisions yet. Barry County has been taking calls in the city.”
Scott said the city has one officer, Mackenzie Lowe, who is an unpaid reserve for the city with other officers on commission. However, there are no paid officers or any council-approved police enforcement hours in the city right now, nor is anyone being paid.
The city did hire former chief Willie Stephens on a contract basis to have a presence during the hearing on Friday. He stood outside the city hall door during the closed session.
LeCompte said, “They can choose to have it vacant for a period of time. They have a mutual contract with the Barry County Sheriff’s Department to provide a certain amount of services. There is no timeline for when that needs to be decided.”