Letters and Comments for April 11, 2009

Citizens deserve explanation

To the Editor:

I was wondering what ever happened to Officer Welberg who was placed on paid leave the end of April last year.

So, I called up to the Safety Center and asked to talk with Officer Welberg. I was told that he no longer works for the La Grande Police Department.

The question would be, “Why?” He was on paid leave for almost a year, or should it be called an extended paid vacation of taxpayers money?

I, being a taxpayer, would like to know what has taken place for this to happen. If he was under investigation during his paid leave, what was it for? Why did it take so long? How long with the city recoup the money spent on the paid leave?

It is my understanding that police officers are paid upwards of $5,000 a month, plus insurance for the officer and their family. If he was off for 10 months or so, that is a nice sum of money. I think that the citizens (taxpayers) or La Grande are owed an explanation of what happened and why.

Darrell Tennant

La Grande