A finalist for Bluffton police chief was suspended in 2005 from his last chief job. Why?
A finalist for Bluffton’s Chief of Police, who served as police chief of a Mississippi town when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, had a history of butting heads with the city’s mayor, which ultimately led to his suspension and resignation.
Michael Ricks, director of the criminal justice program at Technical College of the Lowcountry, served as Chief of Police in Moss Point, Mississippi — about 20 miles east of Biloxi — where he said he was suspended for taking charge after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
“Some of the decisions I made probably should have been (the mayor’s) decisions,” said Ricks, “but they had to have been made.”
Ricks is one of four finalists selected by Bluffton Town Manager Marc Orlando, who is meeting tonight with the Town Council to discuss his choice for Chief of Police of the Bluffton Police Department. Ricks is the only resident of Beaufort County — or South Carolina — among the finalists.
‘We clashed publicly’
Ricks was in his third year as police chief when Xavier Bishop was sworn in as mayor of Moss Point in July 2005, his first-ever post as an elected official.
One month later, Hurricane Katrina hit.
Like much of the Gulf Coast, Moss Point was in bad shape. The hurricane’s east side walloped the area, leaving homes flooded and power out across the city.
That is when tensions began between the police chief and the newly inaugurated mayor.
“Things came to a head,” Bishop said. “We butted heads on several occasions. We clashed publicly.”
“I made it very clear I was not going to stand for what I perceived as insubordination, put up with someone who was not following policy.”
What Bishop called “insubordination,” Ricks called taking charge in the aftermath of a devastating storm.
Ricks said, for example, that in the weeks after the hurricane, some residents were unable to reach the designated spot for emergency supplies because their vehicles were still under water, so he told one of his captains to deliver the supplies instead.
That earned Bishop’s ire, Ricks said, because he hadn’t gone through the mayor.
Bishop also pointed to other things causing strife in their relationship, claiming Ricks had “public displays of anger” and that he created “chaos within the department” by playing favorites with certain officers.
Ricks calls the allegations an “outright lie.”
Billy Broomfield, a retired member of the Mississippi legislature and, later, mayor of Moss Point, summed it up this way: The mayor wanted Ricks “to get approval for every little thing to help people.”
Suspension and resignation
The final straw between the two city leaders was nearly two months after Hurricane Katrina.
The American Red Cross was criticized in 2005 for not assisting enough in the Gulf Coast region in the storm’s aftermath.
In September 2005, Moss Point hadn’t received any supplies from Red Cross, Ricks said, while other communities nearby had.
Ricks took it upon himself, he said, to meet with an executive from Red Cross’ leadership in the Southeast to begin the flow of supplies to the city. During that meeting, he recalled, a Moss Point officer told him the mayor wanted to see him, but Ricks told him he would get back to him afterwards.
“He got so angry,” Ricks said. He claims Bishop relieved him of duty as a result, though he didn’t have the authority to do so.
Ricks said Bishop then did an about-face, calling and asking him to come back to lead the department.
“The hierarchy was very clear: I was the mayor, he was the department head under my purview,” said Bishop. “The line of authority was very clear no matter how he resisted my personality, my management style, I was not going to relent.”
On Sept. 20, 2005, the city’s Board of Aldermen voted 4-3 to suspend Ricks for three days for “behavior not becoming of a city employee,” according to a Sept. 27, 2005, story in the Biloxi Sun Herald.
A week later, Ricks resigned, the article said.
“Since 2005, I’ve had a lot of time to contemplate the decisions, and I’d probably make them again,” Ricks told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. “At some time, your ethics have to be greater than your loyalty. And it would have been unethical to watch our citizens suffer.”
