Gus Philpott: Man of Insight

Over the years I have read what Gus Philpott has written and sometimes I have agreed with his viewpoints and sometimes not. I don't recall ever meeting him in person, if I did and forgot please accept my apology Mr. Philpott. I will say this about him: he appears to be fair and balanced and tends to stick to the facts and does not appear to have a personal agenda that he pushes.

On Wednesday, June 4, 2008 Gus Philpott on his blog wrote about "The Saga of Sgt. Gorski". This caught my attention because Sgt. Gorski, is known to me as Steve, my oldest son. Mr. Philpott pretty much got the story (Saga) 100% correct. Read it and you will understand what the Chief of Police Robert W. Lowen Jr. and the hired city attorney, Ann Brophy has put the Sergeant through for over a year now.

I believe the Chief allegedly launched a series of events, perhaps with the consent of authorities above his pay grade to get rid of a senior patrol sergeant with a work related spinal injury because the Sergeant believed he worked for the people of Woodstock and did not want to be a "team player" of the Chief. So lets get rid of a higher paid officer and a possible workman's compensation problem and a non-chief-team player in one felt swoop; lets get him fired under unproven accusations by the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners. Unfortunately for the Chief and the city attorney the Board saw through this charade and found in favor of Sgt. Gorski 3 to 0. The story however continues because the Chief can't accept the decision of his superiors on the Board and did not follow their orders and wants this to continue for another 6 months to weaken the spirit and financial ability of the Sgt. to continue the legal battle with the city with deep tax payer dollars funding the entire fiasco.

I believe the Board did the correct thing and did not rubber stamp what the Police Chief wanted and so the Saga of Sgt. Gorski continues until someone with guts and legal authority over him says to him....STOP and even maybe goodbye! Maybe it will be a judge or a mayor or a city manager who takes the action...someone needs to act.