Dec 21, 2007 8:03 am US/Central
City Leaders Criticize Sheriff's Bridge Video
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
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Sheriff Rich Stanek maintained that he has documentation proving that he made the request, and the entire DVD was fact-checked before it was produced.
CBS
When the 35W bridge collapsed, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek was widely praised for his efforts with first responders. After the recovery effort was completed, Stanek said, the U.S. Transportation Secretary asked him to create a video and present it in front of a national convention of sheriffs.
That video has created considerable controversy in Minnesota. WCCO-TV requested e-mails sent among Minneapolis city leaders regarding the video, and the e-mails show a simmering feud, regarding who did what at the collapse site.
Police Chief Tim Dolan e-mailed Mayor R.T. Rybak and City Council Chairwoman Barbara Johnson writing about Stanek, "His theft of the credit is not going to sit well with my staff and our hard working partners."
In the video, Stanek claims he asked President George W. Bush to send Navy divers to help with the dangerous recovery efforts. "I needed the skills of some specialized divers," he said in the video. "I needed people like those serving in the Navy, the Navy dive and salvage team."
Chief Dolan e-mails, "Mayor and Barb, you were at the meeting with the president – I asked for the Navy divers."
Rybak added in a separate e-mail, "Stanek was standing in the way of getting the Navy divers here. We needed more expertise but he was stopping it because, who knows, he wanted to be in control and go on TV." Rybak added, "To hear that in the video he's claiming credit for this is mindblowing."
"That is not true," said Stanek. "Every component of that DVD, every fact in that DVD, we stand behind," he said.
Sheriff Stanek maintained that he has documentation proving that he made the request, and the entire DVD was fact-checked before it was produced.
Stanek said, tens of thousands of first responders have already been trained with the video. He's upset that news coverage of the controversy has focused on the video while ignoring the PowerPoint presentations and training lesson plans which are also included on the DVD.
The city's top emergency manager, Rocco Forte, was perhaps most colorful in his e-mail, writing, "Stanek is truly a legend in his own mind. It's unfortunate the producers of the video didn't have a fact checker."
City council member Betsy Hodges wrote: "This. Is. Disgusting."
"These are e-mail exchanges, apparently private e-mail exchanges. I don't know what's going through their mind in terms as what they're thinking," said Stanek. "I may be disappointed about the tone of the e-mails. But again, the working relationship between the Hennepin County Sheriff's office and the Minneapolis Police is as strong as ever," he added.
The video was narrated by WCCO-TV news anchor Don Shelby, who said he agreed to narrate the tape as a "public service." Shelby said he did not accept any money for the tape, he did not write the script, in fact, he only saw the script five minutes before the taping.
"T
his was our community, telling the rest of the nation, look how well we performed," he explained. When asked if he expected for it to be shown outside of training sessions, he responded, "Never in my wildest imagination."
"If I thought the video was going to be shown publicly or that it would be rebroadcast I can see very clearly how that would be taken as a political endorsement, that Don Shelby was saying what a great guy Rich Stanek is," he said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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