by Ken Crowder, Director WSRPOA
On April 8 some of you received an email from WSRDSPOA, that appears to have been written and forwarded by Joyce Willms to them to forward to their members. I am disappointed that Joe Dawson, President of WSRDSPOA, allows his organization to be manipulated by Ms. Willms and the Coalition. By not fact checking what they disseminate lessens their credibility. Ms. Willms on the other hand has no credibility as far as I’m concerned and has demonstrated a lack of truthfulness as well. The most accurate way to describe this is the disclaimer in the Coalition annual report which is produced by Ms. Willms company Washington Media Services. It reads in part “the LEOFF 1 Coalition, Washington Media Services and Joyce Willms assumes no responsibility for the correctness of the information supplied herein”. Sounds like to me that truth and facts don’t matter to her. This brings me to the point of this letter.
On April 8 Ms. Willms sent an email to WSRDSPOA for forwarding to their members attacking me and the Washington State Retired Police Officers Assoc. (WSRPOA). Without doing any fact checking she claimed that WSRPOA has no Board, secretary or treasurer. It appears from conversation the only research done was checking for a website which we do not have. Had she actually checked with the Wa. Secretary of State she would have found that WSRPOA is in fact registered and the Board of Directors, myself included, is listed. WSRPOA has been in existence since the 1970’s. Our filing complies with all requirements and suggestions of the SOS office. WSRPOA is an organization of local police organizations and does not collect dues from individuals. But Ms. Willms probably knew that but chose to put out false information instead because that suited her purpose which is to disparage any legitimate LEOFF organizations other than the Coalition. I’m sure her BOD eats that up and apparently that’s what they pay her to do. Since they don’t disclose their financials we don’t know how much they do pay her. In conversation with Bill Dickinson, President of the Coalition, he admitted he didn’t know anything about the email Ms. Willms sent out. He further stated that his BOD doesn’t want to micromanage Ms. Willms. They don’t have to micromanage her just make sure she puts out accurate information. Her untruthfulness reflects negatively on their organization and the WSRDSPOA for sending it out to their members without checking if it’s factual.
Next Ms. Willms takes credit for passing HB2051 with an amendment to not allow anyone other than LEOFF 1 members to sit on local boards. The Coalition stated they would not support any bill without that amendment, yet they did just that. Apparently, they don’t know what they want and more importantly they don’t know what they did. I guess she missed the part about the bill being passed by the Senate and House and signed into law by the Governor without the amendment she claims to have championed. What is correct is that Dick Warbrouck and I testified against the amendment. We believe that every LEOFF 1 member should have the right to select whomever they feel will best represent them on their local board. Ms. Willms and the Coalition apparently do not support your right to choose. Contrary to what Ms. Willms would have you believe Mr. Warbrouck and I also supported Sen. Rofles amendment to make surviving spouses of LEOFF 1 members eligible to be elected to the boards. Sen. Rolfes staffer even contacted Mr. Warbrouck to ask if we would support the amendment and she was told absolutely we would.
If Ms. Willms wants to show any level of truthfulness and integrity, she will admit she misspoke and print her admission the same way she printed her lies. Remember Ms. Willms…..you’re dealing with law enforcement and firefighters and TRUTH matters to us.
Sincerely,
Ken Crowder
Editor’s Note: Ken Crowder is a Director of the Washington State Retired Police Officers Association. It is a group of other organizations representing retired deputies and officers from across the state. Ken has been active on LEOFF 1 issues for many years and frequently testifies in Olympia on various bills.
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