The City of Italy Fired Officer Kevin Oginski. A Councilmember Found Out From a Citizen.
Two members of the Italy City Council said publicly this afternoon that nobody told them an officer had been terminated. One of them learned about it from a resident, two hours after asking the city administrator directly.
The City of Italy fired police officer Kevin Oginski on Thursday.
This afternoon two members of the city council said publicly that nobody told them.
Council Member Raymond Mosley wrote that he asked City Administrator Keith Whitfield about Oginski on Thursday morning around 11:45. He asked whether the investigation was over, and Whitfield said he could not tell him much about it. Mosley wrote that he told Whitfield the council needed to be informed of the findings. Whitfield, he wrote, "did not say one word about him being terminated."
Two hours later Mosley learned Oginski had been fired. He learned it from a citizen.
"This is totally messed up," Mosley wrote, "and the whole investigation needs to be investigated."
Council Member Billy Long wrote that he is pissed. "That's why it's hard to keep good officers," he said, "because they run them all off."
There is a great deal more to this than what I am putting in front of you tonight. The council meets tomorrow evening, and the city should get the first chance to explain it in its own words, in its own room, with the people who live here sitting in front of them.
I will be plain about my own stake. The city spent months looking into whether this officer talked to me. I am a party to these events and I am going to say so every time I write about them.
The Italy City Council meets Monday, August 10, at 6:00 PM, at 161 W. Main Street. Citizen Comments come near the top. I expect the city and members of the council to address this, and I will be there with a camera, going live.
Mosley asked for the same thing this afternoon. "Please show up to tomorrows council meeting at 6pm and ask questions," he wrote. "We lost a great officer and we ALL deserve answers, the whole truth and nothing less."
After tomorrow I start publishing. Near daily, for weeks. Each one takes apart a different piece of what has been going on in this town, and they run backward through the calendar, meeting by meeting, until we reach July of 2025.
Tomorrow night belongs to the city. Whatever is said in that room, on the record, with the public sitting in front of them, is what they will be held to.
Come see it for yourself, or watch it live right here tomorrow at 6:00 PM.
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