APCO loses three in three months
Three executives for the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials-International have resigned from their positions within the past three months.
The most recent exit is that of Sandra Graziano, the APCO conference coordinator.
She resigns just two months before the APCO national conference is set to take place in Indianapolis.
The other two leaders who left the organization include John Ramsey, executive director, and Thera Bradshaw, president.
Ramsey tendered his resignation at the end of May, stating that he and his wife had decided to pursue other opportunities that would allow them to focus on a personal lifestyle change.
Bradshaw left in March, citing personal reasons.
APCO maintains that the resignations of these key people are not related and that the organization’s momentum continues to be strong.
“APCO is a vibrant professional association whose strength lies in its membership,” said Greg Ballentine, APCO’s president-elect. “Changes in APCO’s leadership over the past several months will change the pictures on the wall in our headquarters building but will not change the fact that APCO is the world’s oldest and largest professional association dedicated to the enhancement of public safety communications.”
The duties of Ramsey and Graziano have been absorbed by experienced managers and teams within the existing APCO staff with no negative effect on the ongoing APCO operations, said Jack Daniel, owner of the Jack Daniel Co.
“There are a lot of changes in the industry occurring lately that some are trying to make into some mysterious or hidden agenda,” Daniel said, “but I believe [the resignations] are not linked.”
Ramsey sent a letter to the APCO executive council and chapter officers May 20 announcing his resignation. He wrote that he was resigning with “much regret” because he wouldn’t be with the organization that he “grew up” in.
“However, I am excited about the new frontier of opportunity that awaits me as I journey into the next chapter of both my professional career as well as the new experiences that Kathleen and I will encounter,” he wrote.
Ramsey started with the organization as a staff frequency adviser and moved his way up through the ranks to become executive director.
APCO will be recruiting a new executive director, although the process and the timelines have yet to be determined.
Former president Bradshaw remains active in APCO and is still a leader in the public safety communications industry, Ballentine said. She resigned because of a personal problem and job responsibilities.
“The office is very demanding, and I applaud Thera for being up front with APCO and letting them know that she couldn’t fully perform her duties under unexpected circumstances,” Daniel said. “And nobody expected her to place organization over family.”
President-elect Vincent Stile of New York became the acting president upon Bradshaw’s resignation and will be sworn in as president during APCO’s annual conference in August.
“APCO has many difficult tasks ahead, but that will not cause us to cower or run from our duties,” Stile wrote in a message after Ramsey’s departure. “As changes occur and are sometimes difficult, APCO will not stop its stride forward. My incoming e-mails continue to focus on the issues that confront us.”
APCO’s stability has not shifted as a result of these changes or any other changes that have happened in the past, according to Daniel.
“The core of the organization is still stable and as sound as it always has been,” Daniel said.
He has been a member of APCO for more than 25 years.
Latest APCO ventures
The association’s newest ventures include:
- signing a lease on a new Washington DC office.
- selecting a communications affairs manager.
- initiating a process to change the way in which APCO receives legal services.
- launching a complete revision and modernization of the APCO Institute products and materials.
- purchasing a new association management system to better serve its members.
