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| NEWS > 18 July 2007 |
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 Article sourced from
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Nashua Telegraph - Nashua,NH,
18 July 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Board strips chief of discipli
LITCHFIELD – A labor battle is brewing between the town and the police patrolmen’s union over the board of selectmen’s decision to strip the department’s embattled chief of his power to discipline officers.
The board of selectmen unanimously voted last week to amend its police policy to give the board the power to dole out punishment against police officers that break administrative rules or regulations, reducing Police Chief Joseph O’Brion to an advisory role on disciplinary matters.
“It really seems to take my input out of it,” said O’Brion, who has been criticized by board members over his department’s handling of the probe into two of his officers’ involvement in an after-hours prank at the fire station earlier this year.
Litchfield police Cpl. David A. Donnelly, the patrolmen’s union representative, said the new policy violates the union’s current collective bargaining deal with the town.
Donnelly said Tuesday his union is prepared to file a complaint against the town with the state’s labor board, if selectmen do not rescind the policy by next week.
“If they do keep the policy as it is, there’s no doubt that the union will file an unfair labor practice complaint against the town,” Donnelly said.
Under the new policy, any complaints of police misconduct are reported immediately and directly to the board of selectmen, which is then responsible for deciding whether to discipline the officer and the severity of the punishment.
The new policy says the board of selectmen has the option of asking the chief of police to investigate the infractions or make a recommendation of potential penalties, but the ultimate decision on discipline lies with the board.
But O’Brion said the new policy “sends a mixed message to the officers” by inserting the board of selectmen into the department’s “chain of command.”
“If the police chief tells them to do something but a selectman tells them to do something different, who should they listen to?” O’Brion asked. “Who really is the boss? Is it the sergeant on duty? Is if the chief of police? Or is it selectman ‘A’?”
Under the previous policy, O’Brion would investigate allegations of officer misconduct and determine the proper punishment.
If the officer was not satisfied with the punishment, he or she had the right to appeal that ruling to the board of selectmen under the grievance policy outlined in the current union contract.
O’Brion’s three-year stint as chief of police has been a rocky one.
In 2005, selectmen demoted O’Brion to master patrolman. But O’Brion successfully sued to get his job back and won, returning to office later that year.
The board earlier this year slapped O’Brion with a vote of no confidence after he suspended two patrolmen involved in an after-hours fire station prank.
The state attorney general’s office investigated the incident and determined the officers’ actions, while “entirely inappropriate,” weren’t criminal.
Patrolmen Russell Hartley and Gary Gott told the attorney general’s office they pulled a prank on the fire department around 4 a.m. Feb. 18, after discovering the door was unlocked during a routine check of the building.
They staged a “party” by moving opened bags of chips to the table, putting cups on the table, turning pictures upside down, turning the television to the Oxygen channel and leaving “uncomplimentary comments” on a note and a message board, according to the AG’s office.
Selectmen Al Raccio and George Lambert, two of the three board members who approved the policy change, denied Tuesday the move was a sign of the board’s dissatisfaction with O’Brion’s handling of the prank.
“This was not driven by any dissatisfaction or performance issue,” said Raccio. “It was driven by the best intentions of the town.”
Raccio said the board has been updating policies of town departments for the past year, and began the process well before the fire station prank occurred.
“I don’t think that the chief’s power has been diminished at all,” Raccio said. “By state law, the selectmen are the appointing authority of the town. All this does is reaffirm what is already provided for under state law.”
Lambert said the board of selectmen will only use its discipline authority “under exceptional situations, when necessary.”
“This is not a vote of no confidence in the police chief in the slightest,” Lambert said.
An attempt to reach board of selectmen Chairman Ray Peeples, who also approved the new policy, was not successful.
Selectman Patricia Jewett said she abstained from the vote because the board did not include O’Brion in its deliberations, nor did the board consult the chief before approving its new policy.
Union leadership believes the new policy violates the terms of its current collective bargaining agreement with the town, which expires March 31, 2008.
In a letter to board members dated July 11, Cpl. Donnelly says the revised police officer discipline policy represents “an unfair labor practice,” because it “does not conform to the grievance procedure outlined in the contract.”
In the letter, Donnelly says if the board of selectmen does not reply by July 25, his union “will pursue all remedies available to it under applicable rules, regulations, and state and federal laws.”
Town counsel David E. LeFevre acknowledged Tuesday there is a “potential” conflict between the board’s new policy and the current union contract. But, the town’s attorney said, the conflict would only arise if an officer undergoes the disciplinary process with the board of selectmen.
“There certainly is the potential for a conflict between the new (policy) and the current collective bargaining agreement,” LeFevre said. “Hopefully, there will be no events of employee misconduct to resolve.”
LeFevre said the board of selectmen always had the authority to discipline officers, but the old policy “delegated” that power to the police chief.
“This (new policy) re-vests that authority back to the board of selectmen,” LeFevre said, adding that selectmen have always had the authority to fire and hire town personnel.
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