Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Shaw Local News Talk with Charlene Bielema and Payton Felix

Transcript

Shaw Local News Talk with Charlene Bielema and Payton Felix · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Salt Valley. You're listening to the Waking Crew
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: here on AM fourteen sixty FM ninety five to one
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: w I x N. And now we are joined for
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: my first time on this side of the booth from
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: our good friends from Shaw Local Media, the managing editor
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of the Telegraph and Gazette newspaper, Charlene Beelam A good
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: morning hello, and reporter Peyton Felix, good morning, good morning.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: It is great to be here today. It's I've missed it.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: We've been out the last couple of weeks being at
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: a trial, and of course we miss having Brandon in
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: our newsroom and his little Yoda toys and his little
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: things they have around the desk, or just being able
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: to kick ideas around there.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: They're back in there in my office and they'll they'll
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: start creeping their way here like naughty little uh you know,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: where's the buddy, elf. I've got my little see no here,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: no speak no evil monkeys reminding me to keep it
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: positive on the radio airwaves. So they're always they're reminding
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: me in this little alien dude who just popped up
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: in the booth one day, so we'll see where he
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: ends up. But we're here to talk news, you guys,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: you have so much going on. And one is a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: You've had a lot coming out of rock Falls lately, right,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: poor rock Falls. One is a vote on mayorial powers.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yes, So the rock Fall City Council they were
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: voting on this ordinance last night. It was a no vote.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: It was basically a tie because one of the council
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: members were absent and the mayor broke the vote, and
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: that felt kind of weird because the ordinance was intended
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: to limit his powers to appoint department heads, most importantly
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: the police chief, which is where this ordinance stemmed from.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: But the ordinance would have made the all these positions
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: promoted by council majority vote, and then it would have
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: added a committee review process. But without that, it's basically
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: up to the mayor with the consent of the council.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: And what they're talking about with the police chief is
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: that the former police chief retired that end of September
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: and now without them, they have appointed in an interim chief,
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: but they don't have an actual chief right now because
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: the mayor's brought them a candidate that they want to appoint.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: And they did bring a cant he did bring a
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: candidate forward after the retirement, just like that same day,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I think the retirement happened. And then later that day
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: there was a candidate brought forward, and you had already
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: serving police officers that said, we apply to nobody. We
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: don't believe anybody looked at our applications. And so you
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: have the council that says, hey, what about these other applications,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: And then it turns into hey, maybe we need maybe
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: we need an ordinance, maybe we need something to change
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: this process around. And then there was an appointment of
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: an interim chief and that's kind of they're in that
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: holding pattern and he's basically said he's not in a
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: hurry to appoint a chief.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: So, but the normal process would have been for all
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: of those applications to have been brought forward, right because
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: it seemed to reading the initial story and comments from
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: city Administrator Robert Blacker that that one application seemed to
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: be the only one that came across her desk. And
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: then that surprise of police officers who showed up the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Tech Council meetings saying, hey, we have been properly considered.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Right, if even I would think even if you are
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: like in that position, were you determining who's looking at
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: those applications, it would do you well to look at
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: all of those applications as a point as a you know,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: just in that leadership position, fairness, respect for the people
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: who did turn in their applications if in fact they
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: weren't looked at, you know, but that it was a
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: nice filled out review process they wanted to do and
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: it didn't move forward.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think that the people voting know, they
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: kind of gave short reasons as to why, but mainly
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: they felt that it should be the mayor's responsibility to
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: do that, and then the council can vote it no
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: if they don't want it. But then you run into
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: this problem where the mayor never brings another candidate. They
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: could sit there without a police chief for years and
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: just have this interim chief.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: So who would have the responsibility but not the full
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: on title. So yeah, there is that, and I think
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: they'll bring it forward for another form of ordinance. That's
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: kind of what I got from that.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the council member that brought it, she said she
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: is going to rewrite it and bring it forward again,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: So I guess we'll see what happens.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: There.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we will definitely have to wait and see what happens.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Always some interesting news coming out of rock Falls and
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: continuing in that same vein. One of the reasons that's
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: kept you out of my booth, Charlene, is the Garrett
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Ramos trial.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Right that started a week ago last Monday, so it
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: was actually a two week trial. They knew that going
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: into it, But what it was was a wrongful death
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: lawsuit filed by Garrett Ramos's widow and the two children
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: on behalf of the estate. Everybody, i think pretty much
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: knows that story. But just a quick recap is that
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Garrett Ramos was a Sterling firefighter and he was working
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: the night of December three, twenty twenty one, when there
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: was a house fire in rock Falls, eleven four in
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: the evening. So it's late at night, and rock Falls
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: and Sterling have a joint mutual aid agreement joint agreement
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: where one rolls the other one goes with him, and
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: so in this case, Sterling set a truck over to
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: this rural rock Falls residence. The house was actually an
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: attached a attached garage, so it was attached to the
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: house and that's what was burning. Rock Falls gets to
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: the scene, Sterling pulls up and this trial was based
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: on the fact that when Garrett Ramos was fighting the fire,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: he fell through a basement and was not detected as
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: being a missing firefighter, And there were a lot of
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: different components to that. It wasn't just one issue. It
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: came down to the family saying in a lawsuit they
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: had sued the city of rock Fall by extension because
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: they were actually naming Chris Bowens, who was the chief
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: at the time, and Ken Wolfe, who's now chief but
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: was a deputy chief. Ken wolf was running the accountability
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: officer title that night. Basically he'd been appointed to make
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: sure that they knew where all the firefighters were, and
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: then chief found being the first one there was the
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: incidant commander. So how did they not know what there
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: was a basement, how did he fall through and not
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: be detected there was? Did they run their power a
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: personal accountability report in asking where's everybody at? But remember
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: we have ten fire departments there. I think they've over
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: thirty firefighters there at the scene. And after fourteen days
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: it came back a verdict in favor of Brittany Ramos,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: and it was a thirty one point five million dollar
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: verdict for the loss, and it had a line item
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: for each different for the loss of the children and
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: loss of withsortium. What Garrett Ramos had gone through in
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: those minutes they say, seventeen minutes from the time he
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: fell into at the time they believed that he had died.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: It was a very emotional trial because of of course
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Britney Ramos took the stand. Family members and friends that
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: talked about what that loss meant to them, but it
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: was also hard on the Rock Falls firefighters, many of
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: them who were first on the scene, some who were
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: in the house. And of course we heard from Chris Bowens,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: and we did hear from Ken Wolfe, who said, you know,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: I heard Wolfe's testimony. I know you heard Bowen's testimony
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: in the case of Ken wolf I know that he
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: said that if he could just go back, he relives
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: that day every day he was newer to that job.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: It was chaotic at that scene and you could definitely
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: see I always say this an accident, isn't one thing,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: like there's not usually one thing what put you in
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: that place at that time. Every day it seemed like
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: we had a different issue that they were looking at.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: So I mean, in the end it is it's yes,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: it's a lot of money, it doesn't bring him back.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: I've talked to Brittany afterwards a little bit about it,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: and she said, you know, it's about making sure that
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: when we send our loved ones to fight a fire
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: that they're safe. They're the training that is necess that
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: was also hit on. Was there enough of it we
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: could alway say everybody could use more training in this case,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: I think they proved that. So yeah, but now what's next?
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, yesterday I gave a call to the city administrator,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: because when you're talking thirty one point five million dollars,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: the question then becomes, how are we going to pay
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: for that?
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: That is not a small price. It's staggering any community,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: any town, let alone.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Right, it's staggering these ones. I think then, you know,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: the question becomes, how do you pay for that? Yesterday
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: when I talked to her, she was not ready to
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: address that yet, but said a statement would be forthcoming
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: about what they would be doing. My question becomes, you know, insurance,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: do you have an insurance clause for something like that?
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: How do how does it affect the individually named defendants.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Both of them were found to be fifty percent at
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: fault based on the verdict. That was part of what
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: they had to judge was who was at fault at
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: what percentage? Because Rock Falls was named, do they have
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: the backing of the city in that in any way?
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: I think that's what we have to see. How does
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: that sort out? I'll turn that over to Peyton because
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: she was there last night. They had an executive session
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: where they talked about that verdict. Executive session we're not
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: in that they're able to close for litigation discussion, but
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: they did have a statement afterwards.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, so the city administrator, Robin Blacker, did give a statement.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: She did talk about all that new training that the
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: fire departments have been implementing since this incident happened. She
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: did say that the amount owed for the settlement thirty
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: one point five million far seeds what the city has
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: available for insurance coverage. So beyond that, she said they're
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: looking at all possible options, but that she wouldn't be
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: making any more statements about the topic other than that.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: So, well, you know, it's difficult because when you start
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: looking at what insurance won't cover, then the next question
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: can be has to be what is borne by the
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: city itself taxpayers? Are you selling things off? I've you've
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: seen government sell things off for to cover expenses. I
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: don't know how that offits together. So it's definitely something
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: that we have to keep an eye on, is how
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: is because if you live in Rock Falls, you probably
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: have the question of where does this come from? When
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: I talked to the Plane of attorney after the verdict
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: came in, I asked him specifically, what's the scope the
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: size of this amount, because they had alluded to tens
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: of millions of dollars that they were going to ask
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: for throughout the trial. And he said, as far as
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: his research could tell, it was the largest civil verdict
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: that he had seen recorded in Whiteside County. So that
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: just kind of tells you to the scope of that.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Then that leads my question to be, well, what was
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: the next lowest or the next highest? So so then
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: you know, how does that fit in the scope of things?
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: And if we've seen anything in the state where you know,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: we talked about Rider Cornwell yesterday, but that would have
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: been you're talking about a criminal case as a post
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: of civil case, which have their own burdens of proof
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: and all of that that comes in. So yeah, she pleaded.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that's been our last two weeks. It's it's
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: been heavy, heavy within the court system itself.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: The rough weeks for Rock Falls.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: This certainly certainly is and we will, you know, keep
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: our eyes peeled for the headlines as you two will
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: be continuing to cover this and have them, you know,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: coming up, So keep your eyes peeled to you know,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: shaw Locle dot com and you know, watch for those headlines.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Turning our attention to maybe something a little bit more
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: positive and bright. There's some some Christmas events happening through
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: our communities you wanted to talk about.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like like we have that, you know, we have
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: the heavier stories and we're still you know, keeping the
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: train in the tracks without with what other items are local.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: So for us, we're seeing a lot of Christmas things
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: that have been announced. I mean, we know that Rock
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Falls has their event coming up. I think their Bengo
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: is sold out. I think I might have seen that
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: on their Facebook page, which looks like a ball to
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: go in there and play like Bengo. I'm getting older.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: That sounds great. And then you add to it that
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: we have house decorating contests. It seems like many of
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: our towns in the region are doing that, and so
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: keep an eye on their page for that. We have
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: run some information. We have Sterling's Christmas Walk coming up.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: I know Dixon's is December five, so yeah, it's gonna
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: be fun. Start hitting. Oh yeah, the Christmas season.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: It's the time of year. We've got the Dixon Bridges.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, those Neon tree lanes.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Beautiful.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Starting to see more of that, so I'm certainly excited. Well, guys,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: were bailed out of time for today. I certainly appreciate
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: you joining me and now hopefully you'll have a little
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: bit more time to come in here each Wednesday. Peyton,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: thank you for accepting my invitation to come in and
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I hope we can continue this.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Guys, it's great.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: I woke up early today. I was so excited get
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: to go back into the booth.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I know, I had my note. I'm like, you gotta
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: adjust things. I'm like, they're coming in the booth today,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: So there you go.