TURNERS FALLS — After months-long discussion following former Police Chief Charles Dodge’s resignation, Montague has decided to keep the town’s top law enforcement officer within the state Civil Service system.
Selectboard members voted unanimously to authorize the town administrator to begin the hiring process for a new police chief with Civil Service still in place. Civil Service, a unit of the state’s Human Resources Division, conducts the testing of applicants for the job to ensure candidates meet certain standards and provides a measure of job security to isolate chiefs from undue political influence.
“Now may not be the time to have this discussion around whether we should do Civil Service,” said Selectman Rich Kuklewicz before voting. “Although I think it’s a worthwhile discussion, I’m not sure it’s the moment in time we should do that.”
At the same time, he suggested that the town begin looking at qualified internal candidates.
“I’m still not convinced that we don’t already have the best person in our department already,” said Selectman Mike Nelson, adding that he feels there are many senior officers in the department who would be deserving of the position.
Each member of the board agreed that there still could be discussions about the town leaving Civil Service, but dragging out the decision whether to remain in the system or abandon it would take too long.
The decision about Civil Service will eventually be discussed with the new police chief who is hired.
“(Right now) we should try to get some stability and try to find the right person,” said Kuklewicz.
Montague officials engaged in the same type of discussion about the merits of using Civil Service in 2012, before hiring Dodge.
Dodge, who has been in treatment for opioid addiction while chief, resigned in February after an internal investigation stemming from handling of a prescription drug dropbox in the police station found fault with his management.
Reach Christie
Wisniewski at:
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