BOISE, Idaho — Tuesday was the first day the Boise City Council met with a regular agenda after Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee was asked to resign by Boise Mayor Lauren McLean on Sept. 23 -- and soon after, the council went into a private session to discuss "personnel matters."
Out walked Jimmy Hallyburton, a city council member. Hallyburton was approached by KTVB in city hall to address further response to the investigation. He said that the council is continuing to seek further answers amid what happened during the investigations into Boise's police chief.
"We're trying to figure out, were there breakdowns in the system with things that were not working well, or did things work the way that they needed to? And it just so happened that it turned out in a way we are still not happy with," Hallyburton said.
When asked about further action, Hallyburton said keeping the conversation and communication open is important.
"I think it's council requesting any information that we would still like to have, and trying to make sure that we have access to all that information so that we can make sure that things were done right," he said, and later elaborated to say they want to make sure "everyone feels comfortable and safe at work."
Lee resigned on Friday at the request of McLean, 24 hours after a KTVB investigation was published into officer complaints within BPD. Former interim chief Ron Winegar, with 27 years of experience as a BPD officer, became acting chief on Tuesday.
Retired officers in the KTVB investigation spoke about how they were unsure how the investigation to their complaints against Lee was handled by the city. An Office of Police Accountability memo recommended Lee be placed on leave, and that complaining officers be interviewed further, but neither of those things ever happened, they said.
Lee was never placed on leave pending the investigation, or placed on leave pending a criminal investigation into him alleging he broke an Sgt. Kirk Rush's neck during a briefing -- that later resulted in no charges. This is because a third party investigation was conducted by the Mayor's Office and found no violation of policy, McLean told KTVB on Friday.
KTVB previously received the 72-page investigatory report from the Idaho State Police this month, containing comments from witnesses in the briefing corroborating Rush's statements. After this alleged incident, Rush no longer reported to Chief Lee, according to the report.
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Hallyburton said he had a good relationship with Lee, so he was shocked to see the press' reporting coming back from a trip he took over the weekend.
"There's a lot of people out in the community who want to know what's going on. There may be some people who are scared. You know, our priorities are always going to be public safety, and making sure that everybody knows that things are going to be okay," Hallyburton said. "There's a lot that I'm still learning."
Most of what Hallyburton found out was from the press, he said. No officers had come to him before the news broke on Thursday to address any complaints, but he cannot speak for other councilmembers, he said. Hallyburton also said they would like to have more interaction with the Office of Police Accountability after all of this.
"I think council members would all say they would like to know more. It's a hard balance to find, just between the Mayor's office management and that the council members' roles is oversight," Hallyburton said. "I would support us taking a really close look at our systems that are in place and see if there was anything wrong with our system if we realized something should have been done different along the way."
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