A Card Laid is a Card Played

As we are already aware of how the Forest View Deputy Chief of police, Salvador Rodriguez, advanced to his significant role, it is not practical to cover it. Referred to by his subordinates as “Lecture-me Sal” and certain other names that must not be repeated here to avoid a Facebook ban again, all thanks to Mr. Coke Glasses. It is best to demote him ourselves while sticking to his covert name, “Salvador,” after discovering what we know now.

The story begins amid a firing scandal, when Salvador and Gary Wiseman presented themselves in front of the accidental village president Larry Powell and trustees during a recent special village board meeting. This distinctive meeting was called upon to address when a recently fired cop dropped a dime tattling Salvador’s carefree employee write-ups and Gary Wiseman’s checkered employment past. During the meeting, both were questioned whether the pre-employment hiring process was equal for prospective applicants seeking employment in Forest View. Their answer was a resounding, “Yes.” A pre-employment process is undertaken, including an intensive background investigation. Ironically, Gary was appointed by the former village president Tom Heller without undergoing one of these pre-employment background inquiries himself. Does this sound familiar? 

Let us dive into what these pre-employment background investigations entail. They involve a drug test, medical exam, a criminal history check, and similarly to other jobs, employment history checks as well. During these stages, an investigator would contact your past employers seeking more detail regarding whether you showed up to work on weekends or gleefully celebrated snow days off. See but Salvador admittedly never had time to do reference checks. Not even on village license applicants.

When Salvador was appointed as deputy chief, he began clearing his own tracks. Once he succeeded in getting rid of the previous Deputy Chief, he pushed all the part-time cops who had been with Forest View for several years out of the department. Then he embarked on hiring unqualified cops, and this quickly backfired.  The FOIA request our sources sent to back that statement was completely ignored by the Village of Forest View. Someone tell the village administrator Mark Marcolara that ignoring FOIA requests is illegal.

Friends of Salvador

While running out of options, he called all his friends and generously offered them jobs. His rabbit-hole moment was when he skipped the most essential part of the pre-employment hiring process, which was the “thorough background investigation.” Another person with firsthand knowledge about this discrepancy took it upon themselves to expose what Salvador had engaged in.

Several friends hired by Salvador came from the village of Stickney, along with a few former cops from the village of Lyons. One of them also happens to be the current Fire Chief of Riverside, Illinois. It is merely a formality when a village seeking information regarding an applicant obtains a release form signed by the applicant. Those release forms are usually securely filed away, in case the applicant someday returns to accuse their current or previous employer of disclosing unauthorized information about them. The villages were unable to supply evidence of any communication about conducted background investigations or signed release forms sent from the village of Forest View, for any of those individuals. At least one of these cops may have not even had a job application on file when he was already working.

Stickney: 3 Cops

Riverside: 1 Cop

Lyons: 2 Cops

Geezzz! Looks like Mr. Sheahan's rectal area is still throbbing from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s recent visit to Lyons.  She-ahan, "Mystery Man" is sexist. Anonymous women can push your buttons too.

The new female cop:

One of the most recent additions to the Forest View cop department’s full-time personnel was a female cop, who was initially hired on a part-time basis around January 2019. This female cop completed 40 hours of field training in March 2019, as reported by the Field Training Boss (we will circle around to this point). Furthermore, in August 2019, Salvador rushed to place this female cop on a full-time roster after terminating another cop who was not part of his crew.

It was later uncovered that Salvador scurried to conduct a background check on the female cop after she was already seven months into her new employment. It became blatantly obvious that this female cop was hired without undergoing any official background investigations, that are required by village code:

6-2-2: HIRING STANDARDS:

• (A) Education And Experience: Any person appointed as a part-time police officer in the Village must possess a diploma from an accredited high school or a GED;
• (B) Minimum Age: Any person appointed as a part-time police officer in the Village must be twenty one (21) years of age or older at time of application; and
• (C) Other Requirements: Any person appointed as a part-time police officer in the Village must:Possess a valid Class D Illinois driver's license;
  be a United States citizen;Have no felony convictions or disqualifying criminal histories;Have 20/100 vision correctable to 20/20;Be able to pass a background investigation and any other examinations the Village may require;

Some people close to people over at Merrionette Park gave us an exclusive that back in August 2019, Salvador was looking for some information on the female cop who used to work there. Merrionette Park then requested that infamous release form everybody is looking for.

Quick (Insert female cop’s name here)! I know you are off but please take some time to sign a release form and send me a picture of it! We certainly hope she was compensated for that time cleaning up your dog-shit.

Salvador then sought help from another friend, who is a part-time Forest View cop also employed by the female cop’s former department in Willow Springs. That part-time cop was alleged to have conducted a background investigation with the Willow Springs cops on the female cop in the early days of August 2019. Then the part-time cop detective or investigator provided a report to the chiefs, resembling the kind that is provided when genuine background investigations are carried out. Are part-time Forest View cops taking on the additional responsibilities of detectives now?  Was he working as a Willow Springs investigator or Forest View detective when looking at those personnel files? The Village of Willow Springs had NO evidence of a background check nor could they provide evidence of a waiver on file for the female cop:

Since the female cop was hired back in January 2019, there was absolutely no valid reason for Salvador to conduct a background investigation in August. If Salvador would have conducted the background check as required back in January, there would have been record of her release form and communication requesting permission to review her file in Willow Springs.  If this is a new procedure, then it wasn't done for the new cop that transitioned from part-time to full-time just months before the female cop. Well that cop was cut from a different cloth so his background investigation was done before he was hired part-time.  Come on, who are we kidding here.

So Salvador hires a bunch of his friends and their friends and skips the backgrounds because he knows them or his friends know them. Why is Salvador conducting background checks on people he knows? Can we say conflict of interest? A practice that is detrimental to the integrity of the background investigation process.

Of course, Salvador lied to the board…… again.

Salvador’s privileged friends are held to a different standard than the other cops. The Forest View citizen harassment quotas don't apply to them.  We were also advised that all of Salvador’s friends only went through 40 hours of field training which is inline with the training policy of part-time cops.  Unfortunately, this shed light on a lot of unfairness since another cop who had been with Forest View for two years was forced to undergo four weeks of field training when he was transitioned from part-time to full-time. The new female cop? Apparently 40 hours of training in March was more than enough for a part-time certified cop. What was the primary difference between the two? The latter was not a lucky member of Sal’s unique pool of applicants.

And who is acting as a watchdog to monitor all these unfair practices? Believe it or not, that is what Gary is supposedly doing. Hide the garbage cans and the water cooler! Without a doubt, it is now critical for the board to launch an immediate investigation into this matter before these chiefs fraudulently manufacture more illegitimate documents to cover their behinds. They need to look at references on job applications, background investigation reports and training records to connect the dots.

It goes without saying that the cops hired are of good moral character. It is very unfortunate that Salvador Rodriguez put them in the position they are in.

See Salvador, our credible sources have friends everywhere. People you talk to talk to our people.  Those people talk when they see shady shit from a person who back-stabbed everyone in his path to that Deputy Chief throne. What a FOIA didn’t fetch our sources, casual conversations did. Conversations with people that didn't want to get dragged into your “Funny View” mess.  You may want to start getting that resignation letter ready.

You have betrayed the public trust and the residents of Forest View.