(WBIR - OAK RIDGE) - The Oak Ridge City Council is moving forward with a review of its police department.
At a special meeting Friday evening, council members chose an agency to conduct that review. It was a decision that left some people happy and others upset.
Despite the meeting's agenda containing only four items, the gathering lasted nearly three hours and saw heated discussion regarding how to go about looking into a police department that has received multiple complaints in the recent past.
Ultimately, council members voted to approve a proposal from the Municipal Technical Advisory Service, or MTAS.
MTAS is a publicly funded state resource, so the review is not expected to cost the city of Oak Ridge any money.
Some council members and citizens praised the move, including Councilman Kelly Callison, who sought out and brought to the meeting the MTAS proposal.
"MTAS is going to come in and do a random sample of our police force, from the officer level down to the actual people on the street, and look at morale, look at issues with turnover and look at administrative policies," he said after the meeting.
The MTAS consultant who the council approved to work with the city is a man named Rex Barton. According to documents presented to council members for their review, Barton worked from 1977 to 1995 as administrative captain with the Athens, Tenn. Police Department. He has worked for UT's MTAS since 1995.
Other people at Friday's meeting, however, said the council should have done more to consider other consultants that submitted proposals.
"This council did not uphold the commitment that we made in (our meeting in) February. In February, we committed to the citizens of this community and to the Oak Ridge Police Department that we would embark on a fair and thorough, unbiased investigation, and tonight we did no such thing," Councilwoman Trina Baughn said.
As WBIR has previously reported, a number of citizens and former police officers have raised concerns about Oak Ridge Police Chief James Akagi.
The review MTAS will conduct will take a look at the entire police department.
The council also faced a motion brought by Baughn to discuss whether Akagi should be put on administrative leave during the course of the review.
"I think that's a pretty standard practice across the country in both government and in the private industry," Baughn explained. "It's just a simple precautionary measure to limit any potential appearance of impropriety or possible undue influence on the participants of any kind of an investigation."
Akagi was not present at the meeting, but an attorney representing him - Hilary Williams Burgin - addressed the council before they voted on whether to -- according to the agenda -- "discuss and possibly vote on the merits of placing Chief of Police on administrative leave for the duration of the investigation."
Williams Burgin said council members do not have the authority to place Akagi on administrative leave, since that is a power that lies with the city manager.
Oak Ridge city attorney Ken Krushenski affirmed that statement. He said while council members cannot vote to place Akagi on administrative leave, they can vote to direct the city manager to do so.
The council failed to pass that motion, however, and Akagi will remain in his position throughout the review.
"I believe that the voices of the people who brought this issue to the forefront were completely ignored," Baughn said after the meeting.
Callison, however, was decidedly more satisfied with the outcome.
"I think there's citizen concern, which we need to address. That's why we're doing this," he said.
For more information on MTAS, click HERE.
According to its website, "MTAS provides this assistance with consultants who specialize in most areas of municipal operations. MTAS annually completes more than 1,000 major municipal management projects and provides an average of 6,000 other services each year."
