This story was published in the Delaware Coast PressCity opens secret file on former police chief
By Terry Plowman
Coast Press EditorOn the advice of its attorney, the City of Lewes this week allowed the Coast Press to view its previously secret files on Harold "Hal" Barber, the former police chief who recently settled a lawsuit against the city over his 1994 demotion to corporal.
The file contains previously undisclosed allegations by a woman who said Barber harassed her by showing her pictures from Playboy magazine.
The file does not, however, contain details of the March 24 settlement because the city has yet to receive those details from its insurance company, according to Mayor George H.P. Smith.
When the Barber file, a large box containing several thousand pages of information, was opened on Monday, May 5, in response to a formal request by the Coast Press, it was the first time it was seen by anyone other than city officials and lawyers involved in the case.
Although it revealed few facts not already reported about Barber's probation, demotion and subsequent lawsuit, it does contain previously secret minutes of executive session discussions, interviews with police officers about Barber's leadership and complaints from women about his conduct.
Barber scrutinized
Barber, who was promoted to police chief in 1985 after serving as a patrolman and a corporal, came under intense scrutiny in 1990, when then-mayor Al Stango hired Jack Warrington as Director of Public Safety, to supervise the police department.
Beginning in March 1991, Warrington began amassing documentation regarding Barber's performance.
In addition to copies of Warrington's written criticisms, the Barber file contains previously unreleased comments made by city police officers in closed interviews in June 1991.
They gave Barber mixed reviews, saying he was not a good leader and that he caused morale to suffer. He was "sometimes demeaning and overbearing," said one officer.
These interviews and other personnel conflicts led Warrington to tell the city council in 1993 that Barber "has developed dysfunctional relationships with his subordinates."
Barber on probation
In May 1993, Warrington placed Barber on six months' probation. During the probation, Warrington presented Barber with more than 50 written reprimands.
Among the areas in which Barber allegedly came up short were completion of time cards, scheduling of officers, managing report writing and resolving personnel problems.
New revelations
Just days after the probationary period ended in November 1993, the city council met in executive session to discuss Barber's performance. Warrington had written a letter evaluating the probation, which said, "Chief Barber doesn't possess the managerial character required to be a good chief of police."
At that closed session, city council members heard about complaints from two women who said Barber had made unwelcome advances that they found threatening. Until this week, the nature of those complaints has been secret.
In one complaint, a woman alleged that Barber had repeatedly followed and "harassed" her. She said Barber often waited for her to get off work and made statements such as, "(I) saw you uptown last night" and "I'm going to catch your ass one of these days." Then-mayor John Adams said, "He's obviously following her around -- and she (is) pretty upset about the whole thing."
But in what Adams called harassment "of a more serious type," a woman accused Barber of making suggestive comments and of bringing her "things from Playboy with her picture pasted over." Adams said the woman accused Barber of saying "some fairly suggestive things, like 'you ought to go out with a married man.'"
Attempt to fire Barber
Several weeks after hearing those accusations, the city council, in December 1993, moved to fire Barber for incompetency and inefficiency, for lacking the respect of subordinates and for "improper conduct unbecoming a police officer towards members of the female sex."
But the city backed off from the firing, and in January 1994 demoted Barber to corporal instead. Barber maintained that the demotion was in effect an illegal firing, and filed suit in August 1995 for reinstatement as chief, as well as back pay, punitive damages and compensatory damages.
In January of this year, Superior Court Judge Henley Graves dismissed most of Barber's claims against the city, and on March 24, Barber and the city's insurance company agreed to an out-of-court settlement, the details of which remain undisclosed.