I’ve been getting some flak from Oakley residents over my statements earlier this week accusing Councilman Randy Pope of undermining Police Chief Bani Kollo. Now that the video has been made available, it provides proof that backup my statements and apparently Mayor Kevin Romick agrees with me as he admitted Mr. Pope provided misinformation at the council meeting.
I would encourage Mr. Pope to issue an apology at the next meeting for essentially stating that staff didn’t do their job correctly or properly research for correct information. Mr. Pope has been proven wrong in his actions.
Here is what transpired at the meeting which can be verified by going to the video.
Pope: “I spoke to the Chief before the meeting and I know we have differing opinions on this. What I guess what I am asking is postponing this item until CHP sorts out there RFP process. The reason being is that the BMW that are being proposed are going to cost us $25,000. The Kawasaki that CHP had adopted and has been running for about 2-years on the state bid would cost us $16,900.”
He went onto explain that other agencies adopted the bikes and found the Kawasaki was a better, safer machine, and cheaper. He went into the maintenance costs being more expensive on the BMW such as the clutch.
“I know the Chief feels strongly about this, but I don’t believe this to be in our best financial interest,” stated Pope.
Mayor Romick then invited up the Chief to give additional comments.
Kollo: “The information I have, and I am not going to debate councilman Pope… every brand has its advantages and I can understand and appreciate his position. We actually tested the Kawasaki (Kawi) and were locked solid into buying the kawi… we really liked the bike. The $16,900 number, I’d have to see it to believe it but we were ready to go and in fact called CHP to piggy back on their contract and the information I got from CHP, not from the Sargent he spoke to but from the gentleman who does all their RFP process was that they terminated the contract with Kawasaki. The reason they terminated the contract with Kawasaki is because they couldn’t keep up with the numbers,” explained Kollo.
The chief went onto explain that there is a lot of conflicting information on Kawasaki and none on BMW while sharing that even if he wanted to buy the Kawaski locally, Kawasaki could not even get him the bike.
The entire exchanged can be seen on the City of Oakley website between the 47:15 to 54:36 minute mark.
I asked Mayor Romick in the comments section of my original post the following question:
Kevin… correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Mr. Pope has now been proven to have been given “bad” information from his source about the bikes. Kawaski is no longer making the bikes available to the State.
He replied,
It would appear that is true. The first two paragraphs from the link provided above:
“Kawasaki Motors Corp. has suspended its Concours 14P police motorcycle program, after determining that dealer modifications were causing a blown main fuse, increasing the risk of a crash.
Kawasaki’s decision deals a blow to the cycle’s prospects for wider police adoption and curtails the return to the police motorcycle market of a company that produced the “CHiPS”-era KZ1000P.”
While Councilman Pope may be focused on price, it really doesn’t matter if the vendor cannot deliver the bikes. More to the point, the Chief questions Popes $16,900 figure. In doing my own little Google search, I found prices ranging just $2,000 less than comparable BMWs and Harleys (a total savings of around $4,000) which likely will now be wasted using staff time for more research.
Mr. Pope, either be a councilman or a police chief, but you can’t do both!
10 comments
What they should do is buy American made products and support this country! Harley Davidson Police Motorcycles!
amen Chuck. Buy American baby!
Okay Burk, you were right. Now what? I know, Mr. Pope admits he misspoke at the last meeting and appologizes to the council and most importantly Chief Kollo.
@Chuck, I agree with you. Buy American and buy Harley’s!
Question for Mayor Romick since he reads this blog. Where was he the night of the meeting to defend Chief Kollo instead of letting Mr. Pope make accusations that basically says the police department did not do his job and doens’t know how to research? Maybe it is Mr. Pope who needs a tongue lashing at the next meeting.
I take back my original comments earlier this week. After watching the video (thank you for linkng it), Councilman Pope did undermine the Chief. Shame on councilman Pope and agree with James above, He deserves a public scolding.
Attention Oakley Residents Oakley has just named its class clown of the council and It’s Randy Pope by a landslide! What a butthad this guy is.
For someone who claims to support Oakley, you sure do attack Councilman Pope on anything. You should say thank you for him trying to save money on police bikes. Instead, you are a troll blindly following your police chief.
Since I was one of the people that was defending Mr. Pope, I will stand up. Maybe I am being dense here but I still don’t see how he was “undermining” the “Chief”. I am a little surprised with the information Randy received since I had already been told that the Kawaski’s were off the states list. Guess my informant is better. I was also told that Beamers were “a sweet ride”. But in the major point here is that there may be other options that are cheaper. And what is wrong with that????????
one bike was totaled so we have to replace that one but do we have to replace the second one? I mean its 4-5 years old and I have always been told that Harley’s last forever if taken care of and hold their value well. I understand that it has been a nightmare in repairs due to several reasons. I heard that there is a serious electrical issue because of the way the aftermarket police equipment was installed. Would it be more cost effective to take it to a reputable establish police equipment company and get it repaired properly. Or has it reached the point of no return?
Concord uses Honda and are happy with them, at least the two guys we spoke with. And they have worked the bugs out on setting them up. Were the Honda’s looked at? Or was it a case of “we want Beamers, so we half a** looked at other motors” (We all know how to do that for something we really really want!)
And one final thought. I was always expected to use the equipment that my employer purchased. While I may have had some input, the final decision belonged to my employer. Ok so the police dept is requesting Beamers, staff (??) may recommend them, but the final decision is the councils. And as a citizen I would expect my council to make the best decision possible and if someone has the capability to get better information to do so. And to ask that a decision be put off for two weeks to check into the information, to me that is not undermining anyone, that is being responsible. Again just my personal opinion, not that it matters in the big picture.
If you had the more up to date info than councilman pope, You should probably be sitting in his council seat instead of him. In reading both of Mike’s articles, I think his beef was with pope basically telling the chief he didn’t do his research and had bad info in a public setting. When reading Kevin Romicks comments, its as if mr pope did not even bother to read the staff report because it states in there the bikes are not available. All the comments on this blog are interesting to say the least. I don’t think councilman pope is very popular with this crowd.
With all due respect to your last comment, I could imagine pat anderson and carol rios out testing police bikes to approve the chiefs recommendation. A little common sense barbara.
Thanks for the best laugh of the weekend. The mental picture of Pat and Carol on motors
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