Associated Press
ABILENE, Texas (AP) - The Ranger police chief, who says he has been investigating the city’s finances, has been fired.
Ranger city commissioners cited “insubordination, neglect of duty and absent without leave,” in the resolution to fire Tom Million on Tuesday.
Million disputes the allegations. He said he plans to turn over his evidence of financial wrongdoing to another law enforcement agency.
“I think my investigation had a lot to do with my firing,” Million said Wednesday.
Sheila Jalufka of Austin, one of the city’s attorneys, said she knows of no investigation by Million into Ranger’s finances.
“There are reprimands in Million’s file, and ‘insubordination’ would be violating a reprimand,” she said.
Million joined the Ranger Police Department in 1996 as a patrolman and was promoted to chief in December 1999.
A month later, 30 people appeared at a commission meeting demanding that he be fired. The same night, 12 fires broke out in abandoned buildings in town. Million said the arsonists and his critics were upset about his crackdowns on drug dealers.
Ranger has about 3,000 residents and is some 50 miles east of Abilene.