Overland Park council members seek inquiry into $70K paid to officer after killing
Two Overland Park City Council members are asking the mayor to call for an emergency executive session about a $70,000 severance payment made to the officer who shot and killed 17-year-old John Albers in 2018.
Council members Faris Farassati and Scott Hamblin made the request in an email Tuesday after numerous reports revealed the payment made to former officer Clayton Jenison when he resigned.
Farssati said it’s an important transparency issue for the city.
The Overland Park City Council president, however, said he’d been aware of the settlement for years and that the session would be a “dog and pony show” from which he couldn’t “see anything to be gained.”
The decision on whether to move forward with the session will be left to Mayor Carl Gerlach, who could not be reached Thursday because he is out of town, according to city spokesman Sean Reilly.
Police Chief Frank Donchez and the Overland Park Police Department spokesman did not respond to The Star’s request for comment in time for publication.
In January 2018 Jenison was called to the Albers’ family home for a welfare check on the teen, who was believed to be suicidal.
Dashcam video shows Albers exiting the garage in the family vehicle and backing down the driveway as officers arrived.
An officer is heard yelling “stop.” The van keeps backing out as Jenison jumps aside and fires two shots from the side. The van backs toward the street and then whips back around, still in reverse, in the direction of the officer, who fires 11 more shots from the side.
A month after the shooting, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe announced that his office would not file charges and that the shooting was justified because Jenison feared his life was in danger.
Calls for transparency
Farassati, who was on the council at the time of the 2018 shooting, said he was shocked to learn Tuesday of the payment made to former officer Clayton Jenison.
Farassati said he wanted to know who authorized the payment and why it was made.
Farassati said city officials at the time told him Jenison had resigned for personal reasons before they could take any disciplinary actions or fire him.
“In a normal situation if you are resigning I don’t think that would trigger a severance package as well,” Farassati said. “I find a fiduciary reason for members of the city council to provide an opportunity for our administration — our city manger, and our police chief and our mayor — and whoever had information about this to explain.
“It’s not accusatory to any side of the story,” he said. “I simply just want the fact-finding.”
The session, Farassati said, would seek to obtain documents relevant to the severance and compel the involved parties to speak about it. He said Albers’ case is just one example of Overland Park government failing to act in a transparent manner.
Fred Spears, the city council president, said he was told about the agreement shortly after it was made in 2018 and thought every other city council member was as well.
“We know all the facts at this point,” he said. “I don’t really see the point of doing it.”
The agreement, he said, was a personnel issue and something the city government does not discuss with the public.
“The city manager has full discretion in areas like this,” he said. “He exercised his discretion in what was best for all parties involved and I agreed with it.”
Sheila Albers, John Albers’ mother, said she hopes Gerlach will approve the session. It could answer some of her own questions about her son’s death, she said, and she was concerned about a conflict of interest in the investigation.
“My biggest question is was the city engaging in negotiations on an exit package with this officer and simultaneously investigating police misconduct,” she said.
She said that the fact that some council members, like Spears were aware of the contract while others were not creates an appearance of impropriety and backdoor deals.
“If (the mayor) doesn’t approve (the session) that sends a message that he’s not wiling to have open and transparent conversations about his city’s business,” Albers said.
The Star’s Sarah Ritter contributed to this report.
