MARYSVILLE (KSNT) – The Marysville Police Department chief has lost his job, and his wife alongside multiple others confronted the city council Monday over his departure.
A spokesperson for the small Kansas town could not provide details on why former MPD Chief Todd Ackerman was removed from his position, but did confirm to KSNT News he has not been arrested. The city administrator cited his removal as a personnel issue.
“As a practical matter and as good government practice, personnel matters are routinely handled confidentially. This practice protects the employee as well as the governmental body with regard to private, personal information. As far as City knows, there is not any signed release on file with the City that would be necessary before any confidential information can be released.”
Austin St. John, Marysville City Administrator
During the Monday city council meeting, a recording shows multiple people come to the podium to discuss the police chief’s removal including his wife, Jada Ackerman. She brought a quarter to make an analogy about there being two sides to an unspecified situation that cost her husband his job, and invited the council to ask her about what really happened.
“Maybe some of you are questioning if I’m being honest. Fact is, you can see one side right?” Ackerman said, holding the coin up to the city council. “What if the people that elected you to your position want you to question me, to see the other side, to take a look? … The truth is, the seats that you hold belong to them, they don’t belong to you. The decisions that you make in those seats should represent what they want … Maybe I need to see both sides of that quarter because guess what? There’s two sides.”
As she left the podium, the audience at the meeting began clapping. Watch public comment begin over Ackerman’s removal in the meeting recording below:
Another man approached the podium and read a letter from Ackerman’s son, Noah, who said he is “devastated” over what happened to his father.
“… Today I’m not proud to call this place my home. To see people wanting to take away a community-leading figure like my father is gut-wrenching … This town’s rightful chief of police is the most upfront, honest and trustworthy man I have ever met, and if some of you up there were half the man he is, I would not have to write this letter today.”
Noah Ackerman
The man reading Noah’s letter, Tyson Anderson, made comments of his own that that further implied the chief was removed from his position.
“I’m embarrassed and dumbfounded at the actions taken to remove Chief Ackerman from his position on Friday, Sept. 3, with absolutely no reason or just cause given,” Anderson said. “It is your job as city council to do what is in the best interest of the community, and allowing one individual to have sole power to fire who he wants certainly is not in the best interest of the community.”
An attorney for Todd Ackerman later told KSNT News a different date that the chief was terminated, that being Sept. 9. Anderson hinted the city council was “manipulated” by the city administrator in firing Ackerman, and that the possibility of a wrongful termination lawsuit over his removal could economically hurt Marysville. His comments were again met with applause from the audience.
The city council did not respond immediately in any way to Ackerman’s wife, Anderson or the letter from the former chief’s son at the meeting. At least fifteen other members of the audience also spoke at the podium in support of Ackerman. When one woman in the audience directly asked the city council what Ackerman did to be removed, a member responded that they can’t comment.
When KSNT News asked the attorney for Ackerman for more information, he couldn’t comment, but did say “no criminal allegations have been made and there’s nothing to suggest as such.”
KSNT News is working to find out more about what happened in Ackerman’s removal as police chief.
