NEW MIAMI — Village Council debated Thursday whether Police Chief Duane Pelfrey should keep his job.

        The chief debated it, too.

        “Resigning has crossed my mind, but I've never run away from anything in my life,” the chief said Thursday night after learning of a spirited debate about his future at council's standing-room-only meeting.

        “I hope they know that if I did leave, that wouldn't solve the problems.”

        The chief, who completed a six-month probationary period in the village of about 2,500 on June 4, said complaints about him are “revenge,” over his allegation that five teens had plotted to kill him. Although some of the teens gave statements admitting they planned to ambush the chief, charges in the case were dropped last month after investigators were unable to show when any alleged attacks might occur.

        Parents of some of those teens have alleged that Chief Pelfrey intimidated the youths into making the statements, and that he behaved unprofessionally. The chief denied those allegations.

        Several current and former New Miami police officers addressed council Thursday, airing their concerns about the chief. After they spoke, some of the officers acknowledged they had come to the meeting at the invitation of some council members.

        Officer Jason Webb, who was recently laid off because of budget concerns, said the chief had threatened to fire officers who took complaints about him to council or the mayor.

        “If our complaint is with the chief, who do we go to?” Officer Webb asked. “I don't have any personal grudges toward the chief, but it's his administrative abilities I question,” he said. He said the chief has sometimes treated officers with disrespect.

        A former village officer, Steve Dunaway, told council that cruisers and radios are unreliable and that Chief Pelfrey has refused to have them fixed. He also said paperwork is missing in some cases, and that the chief has failed to follow proper procedures.

        Mary “Ralph'' Smith, a village resident, who is related to Chief Pelfrey's wife and to one of the formerly accused teens, said the chief gave a confiscated gun to her husband. Her statements led the Butler County Sheriff's Office to begin an investigation of the New Miami police property room.

        Chief Pelfrey said he gave the weapon to Ms. Smith, not her husband. He said that was an error in judgment, but he gave it to her for protection after he found it in the back of a department vehicle.

        “I have nothing to hide about that property room,” he said, and indicated there were previous problems with the property room inventory when he became acting chief in May, 2001. He was appointed chief last December.

        Council asked Mayor Ronald Williams to make a recommendation on whether Chief Pelfrey should be passed off probation.

        Vice Mayor Katherine Rumph-Butler said council then would vote on the mayor's recommendation at a later date.

        Mr. Williams was not at Thursday's meeting.

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