In preparation for today’s well-attended Finance Control Board meeting at Springfield City Hall, Executive Director Stephen Lisauskas (pictured, far right) had circulated a memorandum (PDF) dated November 28 titled, “Police Commissioner Hiring Process Recommendations.”

In it, Lisauskas outlined an expedited best practices approach to finding a new police commissioner for the city, based on a national search planned to be completed by February 28, 2008. Today, the approach was approved by the control board in a split vote, three to two.

The memorandum was well-received by control board members James Morton and Robert Nunes, as well as chairman Christopher Gabrieli (all pictured, left to right), who each voted in favor to implement a search. “We have to have a mechanism we use for selection,” Morton said during discussion before the vote.

“We need to make sure the best possible person is placed in a leadership position,” he continued. “A process helps the citizens know that [an individual] was selected because he was the best possible candidate.” Morton added that he believes the process will be brief and inexpensive, and that his vote in favor of a search is not a vote against Deputy Chief William Fitchet, or Mayor Charles Ryan—who supports Fitchet in a permanent position as commissioner—but rather in favor of a process.

“I don’t want to vote on faith,” he explained, elaborating that he is not familiar with Deputy Chief Fitchet’s goals or vision for the police department, and a search process will help elucidate those important details.

Throughout the meeting, mayor-elect Domenic Sarno (pictured) followed up on his words during an earlier public comment session by lobbying among some in the audience an erroneous notion that an ordinance (2.58) passed by the control board in 2005 should now be in effect, superseding the 2004 state legislation establishing the control board itself, including its authority to hire and fire city personnel. The ordinance gives the mayor authority to appoint (or relieve from duty) a police commissioner, that position having been removed from civil service.

As the meeting wore on, Sarno appeared to grow increasingly agitated over his understanding of the law, showing a highlighted ordinance photocopy to City Councilor Bud Williams and later to reporter Peter Goonan of the Republican, among others, while the board’s critical discussion was still in progress. After the meeting, as well, members of the press surrounded Sarno while he repeated his concern, insisting that the mayor has the sole authority to appoint a police commissioner based on a law that the control board itself approved—failing to understand that the law is designed for a post-control-board era, yet to come.

During discussion before the board’s vote, Mayor Ryan clarified the point Sarno brought up about the ordinance, saying that the matter to which Sarno referred “would be law if not for the Finance Control Board.”

Ryan spoke strongly in favor of appointing Fitchet immediately, and several of the six speakers during the public comment portion echoed the sentiment as well. “Fitchet is a known commodity,” Ryan said, “and I’m Exhibit A of how you get burned when you don’t know the commodity,” referring to the selection of outgoing Commissioner Edward Flynn in early 2005, after an extensive national search.

“It’s time now for commitment,” Ryan said. “Integrity is fundamental.” His opinion is that another national search yields no guarantee that a selected candidate will be any better a pick than Flynn, whose commitment seemed certain at the time, but a year and a half later, proved not to be. “We’re lucky that Chief Fitchet is here,” he added. “It’s time to move on and finally say we’ve accomplished one thing. We can move forward and get the fruits of our collective labor over these long years. If I have any chits to call in, if I have any credit in your bank, make Deputy Fitchet the permanent commissioner of Springfield.”

If a national search is undertaken, Ryan cautioned, “Don’t make it so remote. The control board members should be the interviewers.” He said that in the last national search, interviewees were narrowed down to five (from 36 candidates) for a three-person committee consisting of Ryan, City Council President Jose Tosado, and former control board executive director Philip Puccia. They only had to invest about five hours of interview time in all, which was “not back-breaking,” Ryan said, adding that the job should not be merely delegated to a committee.

The issues to consider for a candidate, as he sees it, are integrity, leadership skills, vision and goals for the department as well as how to achieve them, knowledge of the situation “on the ground” in Springfield, and whether the candidate will live up to commitments. Ryan underlined that Fitchet meets all of these standards.

City Council President Kateri Walsh, who has an ex-oficio position on the control board, concurred, explaining her view that not appointing Deputy Chief Fitchet would “destroy the dream” of police officers climbing the ranks to become commissioner.

She added that control board members may not recognize the significance of Rev. Talbert Swan (pictured, left), pastor of the Solid Rock Church of God in Christ, as well as Carlos Gonzalez (pictured, right), president and CEO of the Massachusetts Latino Chamber of Commerce, “representing” the city’s minority community and speaking in favor of Fitchet’s immediate appointment to a permanent position, as they did during the meeting’s public comment session (transcript forthcoming). Their voice “speaks volumes,” Walsh said, “and cannot be ignored.” Not appointing Fitchet, she said, would also be a “disservice that would tie the hands of mayor-elect Sarno, who will have to work with the commissioner.”

Nunes was the most laconic of all the board members, saying simply that Morton had captured the essence of what he would have said.

Gabrieli spoke last, which he later said he intended to do in order not to set any sort of agenda, adding that he deliberately allowed all members to speak as long as they wished on this topic, voting only “after a reasonable amount of time.” He advocated for the board members having the opportunity to know Deputy Chief Fitchet, especially being able to compare him to other potential candidates for the job of commissioner. Gabrieli added, in an aside to Mayor Ryan, that “with respect,” Fitchet was not voted for in the last search, meaning he should not necessarily be a presumed shoo-in now. “Continuity is a legitimate concern,” he concluded.

Speaking after the meeting, Gabrieli said he hopes to announce the five-member search committee within the next two weeks (see transcript of his comments below).

He also informed those present that he has asked the board’s executive director, Lisauskas, to draft a memorandum outlining the exact powers of the control board. Such a document can then be reviewed by all the board members as well as mayor-elect Sarno.

“We’re all relatively new at this,” Gabrieli said, pointing out that in the last year, representation on the control board has seen a great deal of change. A new governor was elected, who then reappointed the board in the spring. Shortly thereafter, the executive director resigned and was replaced in the summer. This fall, a new mayor has been elected. City Council President Walsh added that the board will also see her seat change, with incoming City Council President Williams, after the new year.

Comments by Mayor Charles Ryan after the meeting

Mayor Charles Ryan: …I’m not saying that they should do anything without meeting [Deputy Chief William Fitchet], but if they come away from a meeting feeling this is a very strong man, I mean I can’t remember anybody in the public life of our city being such an apparently overwhelming choice from so many different factions for an important position, as Deputy Fitchet is right now.

Lynn Barry of 22News: And your comments about Commissioner Flynn before, saying you were sort of burned by him? Saying that, you know…

Ryan: Well, there’s no question we were burned. Yeah.

Ray Hershel of ABC40: I’m a little unclear on this search. Is this going to be a national search, a regional search, state—

Ryan: Oh no, I think they’re talking a national search, yeah.

Lesley Tanner of CBS3: Mayor Ryan, you were afraid of this; you’ve made comments that you thought your colleagues might feel like this. Are you surprised by today’s vote?

Ryan: By their vote?

Tanner: Yes.

Ryan: No. Informally, certainly, we’ve been communicating with each other. I knew—that’s why I said as much as I did. I was hoping I could persuade one to come my way.

John Baibak of WHYN: Are you surprised that Morton didn’t vote your way?

Ryan: Who?

Baibak: Morton.

Ryan: Lookit, James Morton is an outstanding guy; he really is. I gave it my best shot, and said everything that I wanted to say, and everything that I felt could be persuasive. In the last analysis, he has to live with his conscience, and I respect him for what he did, just as I told the audience how much I respected Deputy Fitchet when he said, “I disagree with you.” And you know, we need more of that, not less of that.

Comments by board chairman Chris Gabrieli after the meeting

Baibak: …The words that were used were “public” and then the timetable. This can’t possibly be national, can it?

Chris Gabrieli: I think that it would be wise to be very quick about this, and there might be some candidates from far away who would rapidly emerge, but my expectation would be that chiefly, any other candidates would be regional. I’ve said that I personally feel a lot of weight should be put on the likelihood of continuity in a candidate. I think somebody who lives within driving distance of Springfield, but not currently a resident, that’s pretty credible that they would, somebody who lives in where it’s warm in the winter, it’s harder to convince oneself of that. So I think likely, the logical candidate—I don’t want to exclude any candidate. I think our job is to get the best person period. But we are trying to sculpt a search that recognizes that we have a strong local candidate. Let’s have some quick, strong alternatives, whether they’re local or regional, or even national, and let’s make the decision well.

Baibak: And then the other thing is that there’s a caveat in the Lisauskas memo that suggests that a former police chief be a part of this. You can’t possibly let Paula Meara sit on this committee, can you?

Gabrieli: Well, I’m not going to speak to any individual name, but the point was to say, we would like to get two members of the five-person search committee be people who have serious public safety experience, one, a current or former police chief—not of Springfield; in general—someone who’s run a police force, who can say to us, here are some of the things that I think you should be weighing when you consider both Deputy Chief Fitchet and any other candidate. I think bringing that expertise is what any person trying to do this well would do, since many of us have very limited experience in police chief hirings. And so we can look to general integrity, general character and vision; we can’t look to tactical police considerations in either judging past or future plans.

Barry: [Unintelligible] by the end of February?

Gabrieli: I’m absolutely committed to making this decision by the end of February. I do think those who say Springfield is well-served to have the decision made promptly are right, and I think we can do it; I think we’ve designed a process aimed at that, and I wouldn’t be as confident of that if we did not already have one strong local candidate.

Barry: So that is your target.

Gabrieli: That is our target; obviously, you know, you can’t control everything in the world, but we are very, very focused on making the target.

Hershel: Mr. Chairman, can you tell us again after the mayor’s passionate appeal to appoint Deputy Chief Fitchet, why you decided to vote for a search?

Gabrieli: You know, I respect the mayor a lot, and I think the fact that he and the mayor-elect agree so strongly, and so many local people do, certainly weighs heavily on all of our minds as a strong, strong endorsement of the deputy chief, and also, I think, let’s be honest, a kind of a clear disappointment that in doing a search before, somebody came who didn’t stay. And I think the right to say that ought to be added. But I do think that just because the last search [worked out] the way it did doesn’t mean searches [shouldn't be] part of the process. I think they’re pretty widely used for one fundamental reason: any candidate you pick should be the best candidate you could have picked. You’re not just judging whether Deputy Chief Fitchet’s a good man, or whether he’s been a good public servant, or whether it’s his turn. You’re judging whether he’s the best person to do the job, and how you can do that compared to nothing, I don’t know.

Tanner: As you mentioned, both the mayor and mayor-elect were strongly against this search. How do you move on from today’s vote, and continue to work with both of them, to make this a positive outcome?

Gabrieli: You know, I don’t know the full history of the control board. I would doubt this was the only time that it wasn’t unanimous, and I think there’s a set of relationships about integrity of how the process is done that have been shared. I certainly tried to make sure that everybody knew going into this meeting what was going to be put on the table. Nobody was surprised by the proposal. I left I think unlimited time, and I think some people used much of that unlimited time, to state their positions, so that people could hear them, and so that members could be influenced by them. I told my fellow members I would speak last, so that I wouldn’t be sort of pushing my agenda, but we would hear the honest voices of people. As you saw, it was sort of two to two without me, and, you know, I clearly do support the process.

Paul Tuthill of WAMC: Do you think, though, that by declaring Deputy Chief Fitchet to be a finalist [in the search] that people on the outside are going to look at this as a wink and a nod search, and that the fix is in, so to speak?

Gabrieli: I certainly hope not, because it isn’t. I think that picking an independent committee, including voices from people with expertise from outside, that committee may well recommend a different candidate. It may well recommend Deputy Chief Fitchet. And that’s why I did not really support the amendment that would have had more than one finalist recommended to us. I think we need to have one. We still have to do our job. If we think they got it wrong, we need to not—we can’t blame it on a committee, or pass the buck. But I think, in part, to depoliticize the process, and make it all about merit, we’re giving it to this committee, and I’m expecting them to come back with one finalist. Our instructions then will be clear, just exactly what we said publicly: Deputy Fitchet should be a finalist; you should pick the best person to do the job for the City of Springfield, regardless of who that is, and regardless of how popular it is.

Tuthill: Do you have people in mind that you’re going to appoint to the committee?

Gabrieli: I’ve had some conversations with the executive director about some people who would be candidates. I sought advice from highly respected state and national public safety officials on whether we should do a search. As I mentioned [during the meeting], none of them could imaginably believe that we were even thinking about not doing a search. I asked their advice about what sort of people to put on a search committee, and that formed some of my thinking. So we’ve done some thinking, but I thought it would be disrespectful of the process to approach anybody, so we’ve not.

Tuthill: When will you be announcing who’s on the search committee?

Gabrieli: I hope within two weeks. If we’re going to make this ambitious timetable, we cannot dally here.

Tuthill: Okay. So, you’ll make that information public, obviously.

Gabrieli: Absolutely.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Community building, Demographics, Events, Finance Control Board, Media, Photos, Public safety, Springfield, Urban Compass.