Newtown residents have made it clear they want Police Chief Tom Synan to stay | Opinion

It’s a big furor in our little town.

I knew our now-embattled police chief long before I knew any of our neighbors. That could sound like a bad thing, but not in this case.

A few years before we moved to the Village of Newtown, east of Cincinnati, I had gone there to do a story on Chief Tom Synan and his leadership in the year-old Hamilton County Heroin Coalition. Synan was promoting the need to emphasize treatment, not punishment, to deal with drug addiction, and my Associated Press story came during a September 2016 spike in Cincinnati area overdoses blamed on an influx of carfentanil, a powerful animal tranquilizer. Among other things, Synan called on then-Gov. John Kasich to take more action.

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The story ran nationally, one of the first of many to draw wide attention to Synan’s empathetic approach to the opioid epidemic. He’s been on CNN, most of the other U.S. networks, the BBC, and testified in a U.S. Senate committee hearing.

When we decided to move from our native Butler County to get closer to Cincinnati, I remembered how much I liked the friendly, small-town look and feel of Newtown. We wound up joining the community of some 2,700. Chief Synan is part of the appeal: having coffee with folks in a village shop, mingling in local events such as the Winter Fest, visible and friendly.

So the developments of the past few weeks, with Synan suing the mayor and village over what he calls an effort targeting his job, have stunned much of the usually bucolic village.

With his case pending in U.S. District Court, Synan was reluctant to discuss the situation and also didn’t want to appear to be seeking news media attention. But he agreed to sit down with me, with his attorney Nicole Lundrigan present.

Synan, who joined the department in 1993 and has been chief since 2007, expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support from the community, which packed the municipal building for the March 12 village council meeting soon after his lawsuit. Nearly all defended Synan, with several calling for Mayor Mark Kobasuk to step down.

"I think the community made it pretty clear," Synan said. "As hard as this has been, and although you have your ups and downs, in the first meeting it was clear that I’m welcome here, that the community wants me here, and my goal is to stay here. I just want a fair work environment."

Douglas Seaman was among several more people who spoke out for Synan at the most recent village council meeting on April 9. The former Marine (as is Synan) and Veterans Affairs employee talked about how Synan and his officers repeatedly helped and supported his son, who had become addicted to painkillers after being badly wounded while serving in Iraq in 2005.

"They’ve done a lot," Seaman said emotionally. "They probably saved my son’s life."

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When I asked Kobasuk about the strong support for Synan, he replied: "They’re just getting one side of the story."

He declined to comment further, referring me to a public statement he had issued saying he was shocked by the lawsuit, which was "unnecessary and unwarranted." He said he had no "personal vendetta," was simply doing his job in providing oversight, and hadn’t expressed a desire to remove Synan.

He had raised questions about Synan’s performance, including communications issues, police morale issues and possible misuse of village time and resources on the chief’s outside activities.

When I told Synan some of us in the village see this as two strong personalities butting heads, with the mayor perhaps resenting his chief’s notoriety, he replied that it’s not "a personality conflict." He said he’s dealt with strong personalities here before, but not with such "bullying and harassment" and attacks on his reputation.

He dates the conflict to soon after Kobasuk became mayor in 2016 and wanted him to help with a time-sheet scheme to go after an employee. Synan wouldn’t go along and told council members.

There have been periodic issues since then. In the aftermath of last November’s village council elections, Synan said, Kobasuk has stepped up pressure on him to account in detail for his time − even though he is a salaried employee − gave him only a 1% annual raise (while most got 4%) because of alleged performance issues, and left Synan with the belief after a Feb. 21 meeting that his firing could be imminent.

"I’ve tried to keep this in house," Synan said, but he became convinced a lawsuit was needed to save his job.

He continues involvement in the countywide drug coalition, now called the Hamilton County Addiction Response Coalition, and said it helped achieve a milestone last year with a decline in overdoses from the previous year.

"It brought a community together. We were seen as not just local, but national and international, leaders in how to respond to addiction … We changed the culture."

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At 56, he would like to continue as chief four more years.

As a resident, I see a community where violent crime is virtually unknown and even thefts are rare, and a police force that is responsive and caring with a chief who has drawn positive attention to the village.

So I don’t see any need for a change. And I’m confident that’s a majority opinion.

Dan Sewell is a regular Opinion contributor. Contact: dsewellrojos@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Newtown police chief grateful for villagers' support | Opinion