To the Editor:

The Public Safety Building (Police Department) building should be condemned and the Police Chief should be removed.

How have we in city government let the building become so contaminated by mold that the entire third floor of the building has been closed off, the Traffic Division Office has been closed, officers are sick from the toxic mold, and the city does nothing about the problem.

While the City Council has received and approved proposals from the Mayor to spend some $45,000 to paint and put new carpet in City Hall so that the incompetents as well as the qualified who work there can work and relax in luxury, public safety personnel are shuffled from building to building praying that they do not come down with a myriad of serious symptoms and illnesses such as chronic bronchitis, bleeding lungs and much more.

While the City Council has received and approved a proposal from the Mayor to spend $49,000 to dredge the City Marina – a project which is a financial and public relations disaster and fiasco – we have received no proposal from the Mayor to repair the Public Safety Building.

While the City Council has received and approved a proposal from the Mayor to spend $282,000 for five months of Trust Build – a duplication of what the city code already requires the city to do – we have received no proposal from the Mayor to protect the health and safety of people who are expected to work in a contaminated building while protecting the public.

While the City Council has received a proposal and will no doubt approve $180,000 for a Skateboard Park, we have received no proposal to combat the airborne mycotoxins in the Police Building which can definitely destroy one’s health.

While the City Council will spend thousands of dollars in legal fees to prosecute two contractors who put up a tower at the County Courthouse, we have not had a proposal to repair the roof of the Public Safety Building where the Mayor wants the tower put and which is the root of the toxic mold problem which is destroying the public safety building floor by floor.

You can be sure that if toxic mold were destroying City Hall and affecting the political favorites who work in City Hall and who cost the taxpayers $1.3 million a year in salaries and benefits, the roof of City Hall would have been repaired before the sun went down.

It has long been apparent that the Police Department is the least favored step child in this administration and does not have a leader who will stand up for the health, welfare, and safety of his officers and personnel.

Cecil Williamson

Councilman Ward 1