Didnt SHOPO push her out by saying 'Her Quota demands were too high" thus admitting quotas do exist, which AFAIK are not legal, even tho EVERYONE knows they exist but pretend they dont?

According to the news last night, she decided to retire after she received a poor annual performance review from the Police Commission last week.

Her take on it is she's lost the trust of the Commission members and the new mayoral administration, and she's been a victim of rampant rumors (which she didn't elaborate on).

The Commission said the performance review was less than satisfactory, but it was done to provide a specific list of areas that need improvement -- something the Commission said was a list they looked forward to working closely with Ballard to correct and improve on during the next year.

In my opinion, this is typically what results from an evaluation system that is usually inflated to make the leadership seem outstanding even when there have been failures.  Performance reviews become necessary administrative exercises that are never used to document problems unless you are trying to limit the person's ability to get promoted or to build a case for termination.  I've seen this in both military and DoD civilian performance review systems. 

So, Ballard saw the poor performance ratings as a scathing rebuke of her capabilities, and the commission saw it as constructive criticism.  That's how I see it, anyway, based on what the news showed.

The Mayor was surprised that Ballard made the comment that his offices had no trust for her.  He would have tried to have her replaced if that were the case.

I hope the tax payers don't get stuck with some kind of massive severance payout and $175K annual retirement package like we were with the previous former police chief!   

Coul swear I saw some mention recently of Ballard being involved in some sort of corruption.

Guess she will never get the thrill of putting some firearm owner "through the system" as punishment for defending themself.

Coul swear I saw some mention recently of Ballard being involved in some sort of corruption.

Guess she will never get the thrill of putting some firearm owner "through the system" as punishment for defending themself.

Ballard said when she was appointed that she wanted to eliminate police corruption.  That's why she moved oversight for the Intelligence Enforcement Unit (the one Kealoha used to frame his uncle) from under the Deputy Chief.  However, an audit of police misconduct under Ballard had this to report:

Audit finds Honolulu Police Department not preventing police misconduct

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/12/04/hawaii-news/audit-finds-hpd-not-preventing-police-misconduct/

Basically, the department tracks misconduct when they find it, but it does almost nothing toward preventing misconduct.

This must have been written just before she announced retirement.  It outlines quit a few details of her performance review, and the areas she was most downgraded in.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/honolulus-police-chief-has-60-days-to-make-big-changes-what-happens-if-she-doesnt/ar-BB1frOw0

She made her “big three” as Chief.
She’ll be retired with a better annual pay than most of us working stiffs based on pension alone.

It's "high three" and yep, her pension is based on 2% per year of service.  A 30 year career would net 60% of the average of her "high three" years of salary.  Legislators also get the 2% rate, as do firefighters and judges, if I'm not mistaken.  Legislators are vested in the retirement system's health care benefits after 10 years.  Every other state worker earns 1.25% per year of service and has to put in 25 years to be vested. 

Don't even get me started with the double-dipping scam the fire chiefs have been pulling for years.  Some "civil servants" can do very well for themselves, which is probably why they're not willing to make waves (and get terminated early) or do much more than the minimum. 

And are people really surprised by the corruption that's going on?  DPP may be just the tip of the iceberg. 

Sadly this is the case in many instances and even in all aspects of work professions.  The inept, ass kissing, and least effective people move on to become the governors, administrators, and police chiefs.

I worked in construction and I remember the old saying: When a worker fails out in the field and nobody wants them on the team, the boss steps in and makes him work in the office or promotes him to foreman.  It's a curse to be a productive, responsible, and profitable worker.  Your chances of promotion and advancement is slim or non-existent.

People get promoted to their highest level of incompetence. Case in Point - Joe Biden

Ballard started out well by trying to clean up the bad cops, like Cachola, in the department and making a stand against SHOPO.  She seemed to have earned some respect from the beat cops and had potential.  But then again Kealoha showed promise at the beginning too.

I think the power got to her head and she forgot that she serves the people.  Being arrogant towards accountability and transparency, the surveillance on the medical examiner, and crackdown on COVID.  It was time for her to get out before she did something that would result in a FBI investigation.

Hawaii Free Press seems to share my view that it was SHOPO pushing her out.

http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/Articles-Main/ID/28568/Forced-out-by-SHOPO-Blangiardi-and-Police-Commission-HPD-Chief-Ballard-Resigns

I dunno.  The more I think about it, it seems like a huge case of "hurt feelings."

Poor susan is hurt because the commission and allegedly, the mayors office don't think she is doing a good job.  And the rampant rumors.....boo hoo, lol!

The job of police chief is hard.  Very hard.  You're gonna get criticized, labeled, and evaluated all the time.  Many times unjustifiably so.  Hard to believe she didn't know this when accepting the position.

But you stay the course and embrace the negatives while striving for the positives.  And at the end if you are dismissed you hold your head up high knowing you did the best you could.  Unless you know deep inside you didn't do the best you could.

In this case it looks like she is a crybaby or maybe she knows something and feels it's time to get the fuck out of there before the shit hits the fan.

Either way I'm not exuberant or excited knowing the commission will be looking just for another puppet.

I dunno.  The more I think about it, it seems like a huge case of "hurt feelings."

Poor susan is hurt because the commission and allegedly, the mayors office don't think she is doing a good job.  And the rampant rumors.....boo hoo, lol!

The job of police chief is hard.  Very hard.  You're gonna get criticized, labeled, and evaluated all the time.  Many times unjustifiably so.  Hard to believe she didn't know this when accepting the position.

But you stay the course and embrace the negatives while striving for the positives.  And at the end if you are dismissed you hold your head up high knowing you did the best you could.  Unless you know deep inside you didn't do the best you could.

In this case it looks like she is a crybaby or maybe she knows something and feels it's time to get the fuck out of there before the shit hits the fan.

Either way I'm not exuberant or excited knowing the commission will be looking just for another puppet.

I think she was always put in that position to be a scapegoat for the failures of the department even before she was appointed.  Who, in the wake of the Kealoha scandal, wants to be the next chief -- knowing full well the commission is going to keep the chief under a microscope the whole time?

The commission not only allowed the previous chief to do what he did, but they enabled him.  Lack of oversight, failure to recognize the evidence, and then agreeing to  massive payouts to him when he left?  Now they want to appear to have cleaned up their own act by micro-managing the new chief.  If Ballard understood this when she went in, it must be worse now than she expected.

If the department as a whole was underperforming, she would have been happy to step into the job knowing she had plenty of room for improvement.  But, since it was the top position that caused the problems before her, she had to work to make HER POSITION better.  Tough to do while also doing her day-to-day job.

Her resignation may have been preordained by the commission from the start.  The surprise announcement in the wake of her poor review smacks of a diversion.  She was leaving this year no matter what.  She was a "buffer" between Kealoha and the next chief they really wanted to appoint -- separation to protect their star appointee.

I could be wrong, but I can't really believe they would select a replacement for Kealoha without knowing the candidate could do he job perfectly.

By the quarter million dollar severance that Kealoha got it is plain to see that there are plenty of parasites in our state government who were sad to see him go and bribed him to not spill the beans. In order for the chief and prosecutor to run a crime syndicate, it must have taken substantial amount of cover from other officials who still have yet to be held accountable. The FBI will only take their prosecution so far because if they cast too wide a net it puts their cases in jeopardy, so there are officials who would have gone down for aiding and abetting but were spared by the sprawling nature of city wide corruption.

Chief Ballard was given the impossible task of virtue signaling a new era of accountability while maintaining the corrupt status quo. She had pressure from her union, multiple committees, elected officials, and when the feds jumped on that pile over her misappropriation it was too much. I do not envy the next prisoner to take over that office because they will have the same mandate. We really need to replace our entire political class or at least enough of them that the rest will be intimidated into doing their jobs and representing the voters.

By the quarter million dollar severance that Kealoha got it is plain to see that there are plenty of parasites in our state government who were sad to see him go and bribed him to not spill the beans. In order for the chief and prosecutor to run a crime syndicate, it must have taken substantial amount of cover from other officials who still have yet to be held accountable. The FBI will only take their prosecution so far because if they cast too wide a net it puts their cases in jeopardy, so there are officials who would have gone down for aiding and abetting but were spared by the sprawling nature of city wide corruption.

Chief Ballard was given the impossible task of virtue signaling a new era of accountability while maintaining the corrupt status quo. She had pressure from her union, multiple committees, elected officials, and when the feds jumped on that pile over her misappropriation it was too much. I do not envy the next prisoner to take over that office because they will have the same mandate. We really need to replace our entire political class or at least enough of them that the rest will be intimidated into doing their jobs and representing the voters.

... or quitting so they can run for federal office.

Don't forget.... Lazy Mazie, possibly the dumbest member of the Senate, was Lt Governor.

By the quarter million dollar severance that Kealoha got it is plain to see that there are plenty of parasites in our state government who were sad to see him go and bribed him to not spill the beans. In order for the chief and prosecutor to run a crime syndicate, it must have taken substantial amount of cover from other officials who still have yet to be held accountable. The FBI will only take their prosecution so far because if they cast too wide a net it puts their cases in jeopardy, so there are officials who would have gone down for aiding and abetting but were spared by the sprawling nature of city wide corruption.

Chief Ballard was given the impossible task of virtue signaling a new era of accountability while maintaining the corrupt status quo. She had pressure from her union, multiple committees, elected officials, and when the feds jumped on that pile over her misappropriation it was too much. I do not envy the next prisoner to take over that office because they will have the same mandate. We really need to replace our entire political class or at least enough of them that the rest will be intimidated into doing their jobs and representing the voters.

Fire everyone above a certain rank to clean house.  Collateral firing damage will occur, but we need to start somewhere for the future of our island.

Hurt feelings or not, she greatly increased her pension by taking the Chief position. What's hurt feelings compared to tens of thousands more in pension.

Yup. Just long enough to hit her “High Three”.
Cha-Ching !

Hurt feelings or not, she greatly increased her pension by taking the Chief position. What's hurt feelings compared to tens of thousands more in pension.

Yup. Just long enough to hit her “High Three”.
Cha-Ching !

Maybe that was the plan all along.  Go through the motions then get the hell out of Dodge.