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Local business owner accuses police chief of retaliation during council public comment
Summary
James Loftus, owner of the Gardner House Cafe and B&B, used his public-comment time to accuse Chief Johns of converting his emailed questions into an official complaint, described the action as retaliatory and defamatory, and asked risk management to meet with him to resolve the grievance.
During the council’s public-comment period, James Loftus, owner of the Gardner House Cafe and Bed and Breakfast, accused a member of the police department of retaliatory conduct and said a chief’s earlier statement to the council mischaracterized the incident.
Loftus said he requested a rebuttal at the last council meeting after staff ‘took some questions that I had asked in an email and attempted to convert it into an official complaint.’ He said that amounted to a retaliatory action that defamed and slandered him and that the police chief had told the council the incident took 'less than 5 minutes,' which Loftus disputed using the police report and employee time records as his basis.
Loftus said he called the police chief and spoke with a sergeant who 'intercepted' the call, and he described the remarks he made during that call — language he said he had since cleaned up for public testimony — and asked risk management to meet with him to resolve the grievance before he took the matter public.
He closed by saying he preferred an administrative resolution and that silence from the council or staff would be taken as consent to the alleged conduct.
No immediate staff response or formal action was recorded during the meeting; the council noted public comment and moved on to the consent agenda.
