Appointment of Special Police Officers Petitions Rejected in Pittsfield
 The City Council filed the petitions and is asking the mayor, police chief, and the union to work together to craft new ones. |
Police Chief Michael Wynn said the three petitions are intended to protect civilians and retirees who serve the department in some capacity.
One change calls the animal control officers to be appointed a special officer so he or she is authorized to perform other duties. Another called for the appointment of retirees for traffic details. And the last would be for civilians — such as doctors or information technology experts — to be appointed special officers to gain legal access to crime scenes.
"These have no impact on our staffing abilities or our current operations," Wynn told the City Council.
Wynn said the request, which needs state approval as well, would cover a legal gray area when it comes to the use of the contracted workers. For example, retirees are no longer officers so the contracted worker for traffic detail doesn't have legal authority, Wynn said.
The unions, however, never had a chance to review the language. Officer Miles Barber addressed the council saying the little detail the staff received seemed as a way to work around the union and the Civil Service system.
"Our union filed a grievance with the chief and the department. It was never discussed by the current union president. We know nothing further about this," Barber told the council. "It looks like Civil Service and the union is being circumvented to put in whoever they want to ... We feel like we are going to be blindsided by people who are not Civil Service, who are not union."
The timing of the petition to lobby state legislators to allow the special appointments comes on the heels of back-to-back lawsuits filed against the city. Sgt. Mark Lenihan and Officer Chris Kennedy have both filed separate lawsuits claiming to have been illegally bypassed for promotions. The department's hiring is through the Civil Service system; Mayor Daniel Bianchi has vocally opposed the use of the system, calling it inefficient.
Wynn, however, says the petitions have nothing to do with the union contracts and Civil Service.
"This doesn't affect the current collective bargaining agreement," he said.
The chief said those appointed as special officers "are not going to be filling shifts. They are not going to be doing police duties." He added that a number of other communities have adopted similar laws.
He added that the petition for the retirees working road duties is common, the similar language for animal control officers is in reaction to changes to the job, and the specialists were something the department noticed. The city will be protected from additional liability as well, he said.
In a 7-4 vote, the City Council filed the petitions, which sends the union and the Police Department back to the table to discuss and possibly re-write them.
"We didn't have enough information to have a vote on this up or down," said Councilor at Large Kathleen Amuso, who voted to file the petition.
Other councilors suggested to send it to subcommittee. The arguments against that, however, were that if language has to be changed the entire process would need to start over.
"I don't think this is going to get lost if it gets filed," said Councilor at Large Barry Clairmont.
Churchill Cotton, President Melissa Mazzeo, Vice President Christopher Connell, and Kevin Morandi all voted against filing the petition. Cotton changed his vote for the retirees and the specialists after being on the losing end of the first petition for animal control. He said he wanted to keep all of the petitions together so when the first one was filed, he voted to file the others as well.
Tags: home rule petition, Pittsfield Police,
