Opinion: The first to go

The resignation of City Manager Phillip Waldron starts the process of restoring confidence in Plant City government. It's unfortunate Waldron was the first to go, for the man who most needs to be replaced is the city's police chief, Bill McDaniel. It is McDaniel's department at the center of the federal corruption probe, McDaniel's former officers who admitted breaking the law and McDaniel's presence that's keeping a cloud over the city.

It's not that Waldron's departure wasn't warranted. As city manager, he bears ultimate responsibility for the level of professionalism in Plant City government. That includes the conduct of the police as much as it does the people who collect the garbage. But the police chief in any city carries added prestige, given the nature of the agency he leads. McDaniel is not just a department head, he is the face of Plant City justice.

The guilty pleas of three former officers in a probe of a special police unit McDaniel supported raise new questions about his management. Even the most charitable view of the record the city government established so far shows McDaniel inexcusably out of touch. Former officers said their colleagues stole from suspects and lied to judges to obtain search warrants. Such illegal acts pervert the presumption of innocence. McDaniel had an obligation to know what was going on and an ensuing duty to stop it.

The chief has not been charged with any crime, and McDaniel's lawyer, who does the chief's talking, calls him "an honest man and an innocent man." We hope the allegations by prosecutors are soon resolved in court. But that aside, how could the chief of a small police department not control what was going on? Why did McDaniel trash the federal probe if he was unaware of the seriousness of the problem, and why has he not stepped up to face the shame his department caused?

As of Thursday, the Hillsborough state attorney's office had mailed 538 letters to defendants and lawyers informing them the Plant City probe may have compromised some criminal cases. This was a huge and preventable mess, expensive and embarrassing to the city, and it calls for new leadership.

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