Teaser alert ! Here’s a snippet from one chapter of our current work, Vipers In Pinstripes :
It seems reasonable to conclude that if management could discredit their accusers by arresting and charging them with a crime, the “disgruntled” employee’s complaints would carry little weight in the court of public opinion, and our efforts to shed light on the problems at the Animal Control facility would take a back seat to mounting a defense against criminal charges. As a matter of fact, a report compiled for the City Manager vaguely alluded to their strategy. On November 27, 1985, their own internal “report” stated, in part :
“The overall operation of the department can best be described as a group of ill-trained, undereducated employees with idle, unsupervised time who were egged on by rumor-mongers and quibblers and supervised by similarly ill-trained and undereducated supervisors in a department underbudgeted and physically isolated from city operations under direction of a department without the interest or time to monitor practices. These conditions were exacerbated the underlying existing lack of a coherent procedure of operation within the office.”
(Source – Arlington City Attorney’s office via Freedom of Information Act request, November 2017)
“Underbudgeted” – is that even a word ? Months later, we would learn the extent of management’s disdain when a new Animal Control Officer was “unmasked” as an undercover police officer. Officer Mark Bagnard was tasked with attempting to purchase drugs from Animal Control employees, a job that landed him the title of “Rookie of the Year”.
Rascal Publishing 