Tim Green is the odd man out in Bellevue's recent marshal's office shuffle.
Green, who was the city's marshal until Dec. 1, thinks he got a raw deal. Bellevue's mayor says Green didn't live up to the city council's expectations.
"I mean he was a nice guy, but he just wasn't doing what he was supposed to," Bellevue mayor Jon Anderson said Tuesday.
Green said he knew as early as September that his retention was questionable, but was told by Anderson on Nov. 21 that he had a job through Jan. 1.
He learned otherwise when he read about it in the Wednesday, Nov. 28, edition of the Idaho Mountain Express. Three days later Green was out of a job.
Anderson said that Green should have seen the writing on the wall.
"I told Tim three months ago to get his resume together," Anderson said.
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The Bellevue Marshal's Office was revamped on Dec. 1 when a contract between the city and the Blaine County Sheriff's Office went into effect and Ron Taylor, a lieutenant with the sheriff's office, became the new marshal.
The marshal's office is up and running, staffed by Taylor and two sheriff's deputies who are assigned temporarily until new staff is hired. The contract calls for six employees, including a marshal, four deputies and a clerk who also has receptionist and dispatcher responsibilities.
Susan Ramsey was retained for the clerical job. She is the wife of Bellevue councilman-elect Gene Ramsey, who is also the chief deputy with the sheriff's office.
Anderson said the new arrangement is more economical for the city, will provide 24-hour police coverage and will hopefully stop the job-jumping that has plagued the marshal's office, which has had a notoriously bad time of retaining deputies. They all too often have moved on to higher paying police jobs, mostly in the Wood River Valley.
Staff attrition hit particularly hard starting last summer. By the end of November, Green and Ramsey were the office's only employees.
So why does Bellevue have a marshal's office instead of a regular police department?
Bellevue's charter dates back to 1883 when Idaho was still a territory and the charter specifies that a marshal's office be established. Other Idaho cities founded prior to statehood have since revamped their charters, but Bellevue clings stubbornly to its heritage and remains Idaho's only charter city.
(Bellevue doesn't always follow the wording of the charter. It also specifies that a city councilman be referred to as an alderman rather than councilman.)
In the two years plus that Green was marshal, there was only one publicly aired complaint about his performance. A reader last summer complained in a letter to the Idaho Mountain Express because Green hadn't issued a citation to a man who drove his four-wheeler into the Howard Preserve, a pristine area in west Bellevue along the bank of the Big Wood River. The man eventually stalled the four-wheeler in the river and he and the machine had to be rescued. Green saw the irony of the situation and figured the guy had suffered enough. Besides that, the man suffered from mental problems and Green said he didn't want to aggravate the man's condition.
Anderson could cite no misconduct on Green's part as marshal, but gave three reasons why Green wasn't retained.
One, the city council expected that Green would move to the Wood River Valley when he was hired. He never did. He continued to live in Jerome County and rode his motorcycle to work when weather permitted.
Two, he didn't meet with the public enough. Green claims he didn't have time, especially in the last several months of his tenure when his staff dwindled.
"I met the public, but apparently not the right ones," Green said. "They just wanted me to get out and kiss babies and shake hands and my responsibilities just weren't conducive to that." As marshal, Green said he wore a lot of different hats, including supervisor, patrolman, detective, evidence controller, spokesman, records keeper and so forth.
Three, Anderson said Green didn't patrol enough.
Green said he patrolled when time permitted.
"I know that Tim feels like he got dumped on, but we waited two years for him to do something but he didn't," Anderson said.
Green said that this is the first time as an adult that he's ever been without a job.
He filed for unemployment Monday and has already set up an interview for police work in the Magic Valley.
At age 49, Green has 29 years of experience in law enforcement, 13 of them in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as a military policeman. Some of that time was spent in Saudi Arabia in the 1991 "Desert Storm" war with Iraq.
Discharged following the war, he enrolled in the Idaho National Guard and is currently a military policeman with the rank of sergeant.
Prior to becoming Bellevue's marshal, Green served 13 years with the Twin Falls Police Department.
In spite of being unemployed, Green seems to be maintaining the sense of humor he was well known for in the Wood River Valley. On Thursday his wife had him doing housework.
"When you have a job, you're usually looking for a way to get a day off," he said. "When you don't have a job, you're looking for a way to go back to work."
Tim Green was Bellevue?s marshal until a new contract with the Blaine County Sheriff?s Office went into effect on Dec. 1. Green thinks he got a raw deal.
Courtesy photo
