Snyder and Nelly of the MCRP Board of Directors Receive Awards

John Snyder and Nelson Rieffannacht (a.k.a. Nelly) each received a distinctive award from the Mifflin County Blog. Snyder was honored with the “Talking Out of Both Sides of Mouth” award and Nellie “The Gross Exaggeration” award. Both were recognized in their respective categories for their performances at board meetings in the months leading up to the firing of former Police Chief William Herkert.

Snyder separated himself from the other pretenders in July when he made the motion to allow Chief Herkert and other authorized personnel the authority to make purchases for the MCRP for $1,000 or less without board approval. Then in the same meeting he commented that he believed the police chief had too much power to make financial decisions.

Not satisfied that this statement alone would bring him victory, one month later he asked Herkert why the board did not vote on the purchase of 2 guns at a cost of $1,000. Recall that one month earlier he gave Herkert the authority to make such a purchase.

Did John think this was enough? No, he didn’t. Like the 2007 New England Patriots, he put the hammer down on the opposition. Granting permission for the chief to purchase patrol scooter for $2,300 at the August meeting, he did a big about face in September to rescind the purchase, claiming that the costs of training, clothing and accessories to the scooter would bring the total to over $4,300. One can only speculate about the grades John got in 3^rd grade math because financial records show that total costs associated with the scooter amounted to $3,180.

Had enough yet? Sorry. Even though we are all crying “uncle” by now, Big John launched a 90 yard touchdown bomb against a hapless secondary back in April by questioning Herkert about why he would purchase rain coats for the force at $90 per coat. John wondered why they couldn’t be purchased more cheaply from another vendor. Have you been to a clothing store in the last 15 years John or are you a regular customer at Goodwill?

Now we move on to Nellie. As reported by the Sentinel, Nellie made the following statement at the September 29 board meeting as justification for firing Chief Herkert: "We're looking at willful misconduct and insubordination, (involving) budgeting and operations. Monies have been used for purposes for which they were not originally intended."

To anyone hearing this who doesn’t know Nellie, one would think that Herkert was the Bernie Madoff of Mifflin County, abusing the public trust for his own gain. So, let’s look at Herkert’s high crimes and misdemeanors according the public record reported in Saturday’s Sentinel:

A. Charging the MCRP for turnpike fees for officers receiving police training. This expense makes all of us shudder. The officers could have taken a longer alternative route to spare the county the burden of these fees. And to offset the extra cost of gas, they could have turned off the engine when on downhill segments of the highway.

B. Charging the MCRP $116 for fuel costs to and from this same training. Oh my God…Do you know the price of gas? Couldn’t the officers have hitchhiked? Yes, I know hitchhiking is dangerous but these are trained police officers who are very capable of defending themselves against assault from criminals who might pick them up.

C. Not charging officers for mileage to and from work when they take MCRP vehicles home. Never mind that they are on call 24 hours a day. There are many days when they are not called. Not charging them for mileage bleeds the public like a paper cut and is much worse in the wintertime when officers might use up all the window washer fluid driving to and from work in bad weather.

D. Charging the MCRP $90 apiece for raincoats (Recall earlier that Snyder cited this as a high crime). Why do officers need raincoats anyway? It’s just water and they can always dry off when they get home. Work is not the place to keep our officers comfortable.

E. Hiring Damon Lewis Peachey to administer an email program for block watch groups. Even though Herkert twice discussed this with the board, he failed to recognize that good memories are not a strong suit of this board. Why do we need to keep block watch groups informed about anything pertaining to the public’s safety?

F. And finally, making the MCRP pay the insurance deductible for the body repair of Car 17. Why worry about Car 17? There are 16 other cars without any body damage. Why can’t the officer driving Car 17 deal with it. Maybe driving a wrecked car would inspire him to improve his performance on the job and become one of the top 16 officers in the force who get to drive an undamaged car.

Of course, we must recognize that the above examples are only the serious crimes that got Herkert fired. We don’t know anything about the minor violations. Like for example, did Chief Herkert ever take home a MCRP ball point pen and allow his family to use it for reasons other than police business? And what about toilet paper? Did Chief Herkert ever authorize the use of extra soft toilet paper when he could have gotten single ply paper for $2 less per case? Or, God forbid, did he ever take a roll home for private use? We’ll never know the answers to these questions but I’m sure Nellie does.

In conclusion, I have to wonder what Snyder and Nelly will do for an encore. Do they have the capacity to top themselves and further separate the MCRP from the other police forces in Pennsylvania? Rest assured that the sky is the limit with these two superstars. Every meeting is a new opportunity for them. No doubt that when their term is up, they will be elected into the Hall of Shame on the first ballot, while continuing to make the Mifflin County Regional Police board the laughing stock of Pennsylvania.