Wortham council orders police improvement

Wortham City Council ordered Chief of Police Kelly Butler to comply with a personal improvement plan during a special meeting Tuesday, July 23, according to City Secretary Kasi Wright.

Wright added that the written plan will be delivered to Butler within seven days. The council also decided corrective action would be taken if the plan is not met, she said.

Because the council discussed the plan in closed session, no other information is available to the public, which is routine with personnel matters.

The action follows a complaint heard July 9 by the council during its regular meeting. Dana Pillans, who operates the Primary Care Streetman Clinic on Houston Street, complained to the council about the length of time it took for a police unit to respond to a 911 call July 1. The Wortham Police Department has an interlocal agreement with the Streetman area to provide services.

The 911 call at 6:40 a.m. concerned a suspicious vehicle with two sleeping people in it, and it took about an hour for the police unit to arrive on the scene, according to Butler. He attributed the delay to scarce police resources.

He called the 911 call a “low priority” and said the car with the sleeping people had left the scene by the time the police unit arrived.

After The Mexia News reported the council was planning an internal review regarding the complaint, Pillans contacted the newspaper. She said the story was factual, but it was “not the full story.”

Pillans made two calls to the newspaper, but both times she declined to provide any information about the details she claimed were missing. She did mention Butler was the responding officer, and that he entered the clinic upon arrival and made statements that puzzled her.

“I don’t have anything else to add,” Pillans said when contacted July 24 after the special meeting. The Mexia News was not able to attend the special meeting at which Pillans said she planned to address the council again durng the citizen comment time before the executive session.

Butler did not respond to an email from The Mexia News seeking a comment about the council’s action.