OLD SAYBROOK — The Board of Police Commissioners has accepted a draft version of proposed correspondence policy, even as two members of the board are criticizing the handling of letters that complained about the conduct of a Police Department employee.
If ratified, the policy would dictate how mail is handled and also would bar police commissioners from investigating personnel matters on their own. The issue that’s drawn criticism from the two board members, involved letters sent in March.
The seven letters addressed to individual police commissioners were sent to Town Hall but ended up at the police station as of Sept. 29, according to board member Renee Shippee, who said her letter was postmarked March 2.
When she broached the issue at a recent meeting, Chairman Frank Keeney confirmed there were seven letters but said he was unsure of the date they were postmarked.
He also said the letters were copies of one another and were withheld because they pertained to a personnel matter, meaning Chief of Police Michael Spera would handle them.
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Carl Von Dassel, board chairman at the time the mail arrived, told fellow commissioners that he read his letter and told the chief to hold the correspondence because it concerned a personnel matter.
He expressed uncertainty as to whether additional letters existed.
Keeney, the current chairman, clarified what occurred.
“Seven letters came in. One was addressed to the chairman, six were addressed to the members of the commission. They were all identical,” he said, “So the chief opened up the one that was addressed to the chairman and read that letter to chairman at the time, Von Dassel, and they took the appropriate action and did not do anything with the additional letters that were carbon copies.”
However, a letter penned earlier this month by Commissioner Alfred “Chub” Wilcox, which constituted his response to a letter of reprimand he received from the board, criticized the practice.
“I think mail addressed to the commissioners should be delivered to the commissioners, and I think that’s true regardless of the contents,” Wilcox said when asked for comment.
Keeney issued a statement indicating the chief had done nothing wrong and instead had followed a longstanding practice regarding the correspondence. A department general order says complaints received by mail “shall be” forwarded to the chief.
Spera did not return requests for comment.
During the meeting on Oct. 26, Secretary Joseph Maselli asked town labor attorney Patrick McHale to “affirm publicly” that no member of the department had “committed any illegal act” in handling correspondence.
“I’m certainly not aware of any ... practice... that constitute violation of any law,” McHale said. “There had been no written policy, to my knowledge, regarding handling these communications.”
Amy Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the United States Postal Service, issued a general statement on agency regulations.
“Pursuant to postal regulations, mail that is addressed to a governmental organization or to an individual by name or title at the address of the organization is delivered to the organization,” she wrote. “Any further distribution of such delivered mail to specific individuals is conducted pursuant to that organization’s internal practices over which the Postal Service exerts no control.”
As commissioners discussed the issue Monday, Von Dassel and Vice Chairman Kenneth Reid expressed trust in the chief.
Shippee said she was frustrated with how the letters were handled.
“That is mail that is addressed to individuals. This is my concern, is that we knew nothing about this, and that’s not right,” she said.
Shippee told a reporter that the complainant dropped off additional copies of the letter at her house in July after learning she had never received it.
Policy debate
As board members discussed the letters, they also debated a new correspondence policy.
Shippee shared a copy of the policy, which outlines a process whereby commissioners would receive mail addressed individually to them, but personnel complaints ultimately would be forwarded to the chief.
Mail addressed to the entire board would first be shared with the chairman. If it pertained to a personnel matter, the chairman would tell commissioners about its contents in a “general manner.”
McHale went over the policy during the meeting.
Shippee said she did not think commission mail addressed to Town Hall should go to the police station.
In response, Keeney committed to implementing a procedure “whereby the individual members are notified that they have mail waiting for them at Town Hall.”
Spera told meeting attendees Town Hall has a centralized mailbox from which the commission clerk receives mail.
In addition to outlining a process for handling correspondence, the draft policy says commissioners “shall not conduct individual investigations into personnel-related complaints.”
“When concerns are brought to a Commissioner’s attention regarding Department employees, the Commissioner should direct such concerns to the Chief of Police,” it says.
McHale told Wilcox that if commissioners investigate matters on th own, they could be considered biased when it comes time for a personnel decision.
Wilcox said he think “it has a chilling effect, frankly” on communication for all complaints to go to one person.
The draft correspondence policy is consistent with the town’s General Order 4.6, according to McHale.
That policy, available online, gives the chief’s office “primary oversight and authority” of complaints but does not preclude the chief from assigning an outside agency to investigate them.
“If complaints are received by mail, all correspondence received containing allegations shall be forwarded to the Chief of Police or the Chief’s designee where they will be officially received,” the policy says.
While the order indicates Spera issued it McHale told Wilcox it was adopted by the board.
To change who handles complaints, McHale said, the board would have to change order 4.6.
As for the correspondence policy, the board Monday accepted a draft version by a 5-2 vote, with Shippee and Wilcox opposed.
At their next meeting, commissioners can decide whether to ratify it.
meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
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Old Saybrook police board debates policies amid commissioners' complaints - CT Insider
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