Peru police chief says nothing criminal about Family Fun Day

Peru Alderman Rodney Perez exercised poor judgment but committed no crime. That’s the opinion of Peru Police Chief Doug Bernabei.

Bernabei was asked to look into a “Family Fun Day Event” that Perez organized causing some on the Peru City Council to question if he used public funds in a public park to urge people to vote for him. Bernabei says Perez “walked a very slippery slope” by promoting the event on Facebook and email using his alderman title referring to the city of Peru. He also feels that having his and his wife’s car parked around the event with campaign signage made it feel like visitors were being told who to support.

Despite all that, Bernabei believes there’s insufficient evidence showing a crime took place. He called it an extremely worthwhile event but thinks all this could’ve been avoided if Perez had asked for the approval from the city council and Rec Board which is common for people to do when having events on city property.

Whether what happened brings changes to city protocol, what Perez wore at the fun day is leading to changes within the fire department. Along with being an alderman Perez is also a Peru firefighter and he wore $2,000 bunker gear at last Saturday’s event. Bernabei says the fire chief plans to not allow that to happen in the future.