MONTICELLO, Ind. — Residents of Monticello said goodbye to two of their police officers Monday night after Curt Blount, the newly appointed police chief, was sworn in at January’s city council meeting.

The officers, Lt. Travis Clark and Patrolman Phillip Foerg, handed in their resignations to the city council to display their disapproval and lack of faith in Blount’s appointment.

“I’m here tonight to talk to you about the current condition of the Monticello Police Department and what has caused that condition,” Foerg told the Monticello City Council and mayor.

“Ever since members of the police department heard word that Curt Blount was going to be appointed chief of police of the Monticello Police Department, the morale and productivity of the police department took a 180-degree turn.

“We were a happy police department and a productive police department,” Foerg said. “Since Curt Blount was made chief of police, the atmosphere in the department became almost instantaneously negative.

“Good men stopped being productive and simply took their calls for service and went home,” Foerg said. “I was extremely bothered by this decision and even lost sleep over it.”

The decision to appoint Blount was made by newly elected Mayor Aaron Sims. That decision received strong opposition from residents, as many — both in person and online — expressed their disapproval of Blount’s potential leadership of the department and criticized the process in which Blount was selected for the position.

Blount’s character was questioned by those during the meeting, pointing to a lawsuit that was filed by an inmate at the White County Jail against Blount when he served as jail commander. The lawsuit alleges that Blount and his staff violated the inmate’s 14th Amendment rights.

The lawsuit claims that the inmate was placed into a holding cell as segregation punishment for 10 days and then later moved to a segregation block as an unprovoked punishment from Blount.

Blount denies the claims made against him by this lawsuit, which is still pending in the White County courts.

Residents also voiced concerns about Blount’s potential leadership over his recent decision to demote Tony Stroup, who previously served as a captain and who had served the department for more than 19 years.

“He’s already demonstrated an authoritarian type of leadership, which is not what the Monticello Police Department needs. The Monticello Police Department needs a leader, not a boss,” Foerg said.

Police Chief Blount’s defender

However, not everyone who spoke at Monday night’s meeting was against Blount’s appointment as chief, as Paula Norwood spoke up in his defense.

“That man (Curt Blount) has went out of his way to represent this county and this town for the past 20-some years. And if all of you people have this much gripe, you should have started way back when Jason Thompson was mayor,” Norwood said at the city council meeting.

“Has everything he’s done been perfect? No. What you guys do, is it perfect? No. Nobody in this building is perfect.

“As far as I’m concerned the officers who have resigned are throwing temper tantrums because they didn’t get their way,” Norwood said.

This statement from Norwood led to an audible grasp from people attending the meeting.

Former Chief Kyburz’s resignation

Prior to the new year, Jeremy Kyburz served as police chief. Kyburz is a 16-year veteran of the department and an officer reportedly viewed as a reputable leader for the community.

Kyburz had only served as chief of police for a little more than a year after Chief Jason Lingenfelter retired on Nov. 7, 2022. Within that period, he and his team had updated several aspects of the police department, including improvements to the report-writing system, the department’s evidence procedures, the aging vehicle fleet, and the department’s body cameras.

For many within the community, the direction that Kyburz was leading the department was received positively, which is why many in the city and Kyburz himself were perplexed when Sims decided to appoint Blount as police chief rather than leaving Kyburz in the role.

In Indiana, police and fire chiefs are appointed by a city’s mayor, and they may be removed by the mayor.

Sims’ decision to appoint Blount and demote Kyburz ultimately led to Kyburz’s resignation from the department at the start of the year.

“Despite the great career that I have had to this date, I will be resigning from my position with the Monticello Police Department,” Kyburz wrote in his final letter to the city of Monticello on Jan. 3, 2024.

“Recent events have transpired that have changed my outlook on my future. I no longer feel that remaining with the Monticello Police Department is what’s best for me or my family. The environment has quickly shifted from the best I’ve seen in my career, to the worst. The citizens of Monticello deserve better and I cannot stand by and be supportive of the direction that things are headed.”

Marcia Kyburz, Jeremy’s mother spoke at Monday’s meeting but specifically noted that she was not there to speak on behalf of Jeremy but as a citizen of Monticello.

She specifically aimed her statement at the new mayor, criticizing the decisions he’s made so far as a leader and shared her concern about how this decision has tarnished the trust many held with him.

“This is about me being totally appalled to what has happened already and how we’re supposed to be an office of transparency and yet everything is kept secret,” she said.

“You had all these people warning you, speaking to you, telling you from citizens to police officers to other members of government, telling you what a horrible mistake it would be to bring Curt Blount back in here,” she said during the meeting.

“I’m here to ask how you have this concern face on, when you done something as atrocious as bringing Blount back ,” she said. “You have knocked the morale not just of the city police department (but) of the whole town and their faith in the city police department.”

Mayor Sims declines to comment; Chief Blount remains confident in his leadership

After the meeting, the Journal & Courier attempted to ask Sims questions about the comments during the meeting, but Sims declined to comment. Sims appeared dazed from the emotions of Monday night’s meeting.

After the meeting, the Journal & Courier spoke with Blount and asked him about his reaction to Monday night’s meeting and the opposition that he’s facing from the community.

“I feel confident after this meeting because my record as a former officer in the Monticello Police Department is solid. I’ve never had a write-up as a city police officer, I’ve never been suspended, I’ve never been demoted,” Blount said.

“I think a lot of the problem from here tonight is some people don’t want to be held accountable, and so they can question my record.”

When asked about the flood of resignations that the department has experienced over the past few weeks, Blount said, “Treavor Cox resigned. He is going to the Delphi Police Department to make $12,000 more a year. And to be honest with you, there was one tonight that surprised me, and the other one tonight did not surprise me. He, for some reason, can’t get past something.”

When asked if he was worried about the challenges of hiring a significant number of new officers within a timely manner, Blount did not seem concerned.

“In the last few days we’ve had, I believe, four people come in to pick up applications. Two of them already being police officers at other departments,” he said.

He also mentioned that he will ask the city council on Jan. 22 for permission to hire new officers.

As of Tuesday, five officers have left the Monticello Police Department either resigning their positions or retiring over the past two months. During the meeting, Foerg noted that between eight to 10 officers may ultimately leave the Monticello Police Department due to Blount’s appointment.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: New police chief appointment leads to resignation of officers