EAST ST. LOUIS, IL &#8211 Ranodore Foggs remains the leader of the East St. Louis Police Department.

At a special City Council meeting Thursday night, after a lengthy discussion about the police chief’s status, Foggs said he has changed his mind about resigning.

“I am still here. I am still the chief. I don’t plan to go anywhere,” he said.

Foggs, when asked by a reporter whether he submitted a letter of resignation, said he did not. But he did say that he had verbally resigned due to philosophical differences between Mayor Alvin Parks and him.

Foggs on Saturday said he planned to resign, due to differences with Parks over how to run the police department. City Councilman Delbert Marion said Parks gave Foggs a schedule of who should be assigned where, some of which was a violation of the Fraternal Order of Police contract.

“He answers every police call. He is not a policeman. He should just let the police do their jobs,” Marion said, drawing applause from an overflow crowd.

Parks, who was present at the meeting, did not respond.

Foggs in May inherited a department that had seen its budget slashed and its staff pared by more than one-third in recent years.

Foggs said the department is already in violation of the FOP contract because it is not meeting the minimum number of officers that is required for each shift.

Marion, after council members brought up the fact that the city was looking to hire more police officers through a federal grant with the school district and the housing authority, asked Foggs whether these hires would mean more manpower for the department. Foggs said ‘no’ because essentially the officers would have to be available to the agencies that were paying them, essentially School District 189 and the city Housing Department. Five new officers are already working as school resource officers. An additional three officers are to be hired to work on and around the housing authority property.

Marion said other officers who have been laid off have been removed from the manning table. He was also critical of the city not hiring replacements for the officers lost through attrition, retirement and firings.

“We don’t have the staff to supply enough manpower to maintain our regular shifts,” Marion said.

Foggs said he was happy to see that he had so much support at the city council meeting from residents and community leaders.

“It’s nice to know you are cared about and that people believe in you,” Foggs said.

From BND.com.