I was unable to make it to this months meeting, and was gone for most the last two weeks, on vacation. What I have been told by John Smith and Scott Crouch is that things have been heating up in Charleston and South Charleston. I have read some of the blogs on the WSAZ. I have read a few from Troops saying the WVTA is doing nothing about the problems. First off since I have been there no one has filed a grievance on these problems, And as most of the complaints are coming out of Troop 4, none of the Troopers there would run to be on the board. I know as well as you that if you stand up alone in this department then you are targeted. So what is the answer, well I think we need to change the way that the whole department thinks. We need to have supervisor's decisions on things like punishment, days off, transfers, anything that is going to effect our lives and the lives of our families reviewed by someone that is outside the chain of command. Think about it I am a 1/Sgt and one of my detachment commanders has punished, or changed a troops days off. If I don't back him or her up then that detachment commander loses some of the respect of the troops working under him or her. So while I may think his decision was a bad one I have to back him or her up. This, along with poor leadership training leads to the issues that we have now. This poor work environment has been here for a long time. It did not start with this administration but just maybe it will end with it. We have a lot of supervisors in this department that don't want the dictatorship to end, to them I say, it is time for change, a good supervisors can lead effectively with a dictatorship, if you can't your not cut out to be a leader. That's why I think there needs to be a board set up not unlike a Civil Service Board to review grievances. I also think that we need to work on a change in the grievance procedure so that the Association can file grievances that are effecting troopers as a whole.

By now you guys should have received John's letter, I need you to contact me with any issues of mistreatment from your supervisors. I would hope you would understand what I mean by mistreatment, if you were wrong and got punished then you got punished, if you were belittled, or threatened, then I need know. I don't think we should be using instances that will embarrass the whole department. We already have two guys coming out against this administration, but both of them, from what I hear should have been fired and if the reason why they were fired comes out then we are all going to be embarrassed and start losing the support of the public. So if you were right and treated badly then I need to know, if you did something that would embarrass the whole department, then I don't think we need to use that instance.

I think we need to take this time to remember that even though sometimes we don't act like it we are a family and need to surround the Gonzales family with loving arms and try to make sure that the issues that Cpl Gonzales had with this administration does not happen anymore, with this or any future administration. Make sure you contact me with any of your questions or concerns at wvagreen@verizon.net.