HOLLY HILL, Fla. — Holly Hill City Manager Joe Forte’s job appears to be safe—for now—as the city continues to be mired in the fallout from an investigation that shattered its police department.
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After listening to an hour of calls by residents advocating for Forte’s termination Tuesday night, Mayor Chris Via called Forte “excellent.” He said he would personally hold Forte accountable for fixing the crisis.
The turmoil began in March when an investigation led to the resignations of Police Chief Jeff Miller and a captain. A third officer also resigned before the full report from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was publicly released.
It said Miller and the other officers engaged in near constant harassment of the department’s female employees and other members of the community. The alleged conduct included watching inappropriate TV shows in the break room, making lewd comments, inappropriate touching and self-pleasuring while on the job in front of some of the women.
Tuesday’s confrontation centered around Forte’s decision to reinstate one of the four officers under scrutiny, albeit with a demotion and a 10% reduction in pay. A fifth officer was handed a week’s suspension.
“The way you’re handling this is one blunder after another,” one speaker said.
Forte said his decision was made in consultation with the city’s attorney and the reinstatement fell under police union guidelines. He said the conduct of the two officers did not rise to the level of termination.
Read: Channel 9 obtains lengthy report on investigation into Holly Hill Police Department
He also disputed details of a warning made by a retiring officer two years ago who tried to alert the department about the misconduct.
“I do regret not advancing the matter to (Internal Affairs) knowing what I know today,” Forte said, adding that all future complaints would be passed on.
The attempted whistleblower, Robert Milne, called the decision by city leaders to stand by the manager “disappointing” as he left.
“The longer you let people come back to work that were in this investigation… the longer and more it looks corrupt,” Milne said.
Via placed the onus on the city’s new police chief, Byron Williams, to fix the department’s culture. The city will hold a meet-and-greet with Williams on Thursday at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
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