Jeff Cannon
Text message exchange on January 7 between Mayor's former staffer Jeff Cannon and former Police Chief Bobby Dodd related to the city iPads.A Jan. 7 text on former Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd's phone from a top mayoral aide said the retiring chief and his top staff could keep $2,500 worth of city iPads.
"I'll take care of it," Jeff Cannon, then Mayor Andy Berke's chief operating officer, wrote. "I'll let [Chief Stan] Maffett know about the iPads."
The text message retained on Dodd's phone contradicts a statement from Berke's office Thursday that Cannon had not agreed to the request, and that there was no documentation to prove he had authorized Dodd and his three chiefs to keep the equipment.
"There is not a report as Jeff did not authorize it," Berke spokeswoman Lacie Stone said in an email Thursday.
Cannon, who resigned in July, didn't return calls seeking comment Friday.
A city audit released Thursday found that Dodd, Deputy Chief Tommy Kennedy and assistant chiefs Kirk Eidson and Randy Dunn had kept their iPads without city permission and that an April inventory report showed the iPads still in the police department's possession.
The audit, which was forwarded to the state comptroller's office for possible further investigation, concluded that someone at the police department could have falsified the inventory record.
City Auditor Stan Sewell also found that the police department didn't have the proper controls in place to monitor police equipment. Until officials can create a new system, the city said its IT department will oversee all technology inventory, purchases and replacements.
Dodd said this wasn't the first time the city had authorized officers to keep older city equipment. Last year, he said, the city authorized the police department to give about 200 old, unused cellphones to officers.
"If Jeff didn't have the authority, then all somebody had to say was 'Chief Dodd, do you have this iPad and why?'" Dodd said.
Sewell's audit doesn't indicate that Dodd was ever contacted about the missing equipment.
State law says no city employee or official can purchase surplus property except at public auction. It also states that employees are not allowed to receive any money or compensation in addition to their salaries without City Council approval.
The City Council was never asked to approve the transaction and the mayor's office didn't know anything about the text message Dodd received from Cannon in January, Stone said Friday.
"From our standpoint, it's just a bottom-line standard procedure and would have to be approved by the City Council," she said.
Letters have been sent to all four chiefs asking them to return the equipment.
Contact staff writer Joy Lukachick Smith at jsmith@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.
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