Recollections Cloud Questions About Williamstown Interim Police Chief Search
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The fallout from a decision to appoint an interim police chief continued this week when that process was cited by members of the town's Diversity Inclusion and Racial Equity Committee in their decisions to step down from the body.
Without a factual basis for assessing the interim chief selection process, participants have offered conflicting accounts.
Aruna D'Souza, who had previously announced an intention not to re-up on the DIRE Committee, resigned in protest from an ad hoc Interim Police Chief Search Committee after she said the interim town manager chose to offer the job to a finalist who was not the committee's top choice.
D'Souza announced her resignation on social media the day Charlie Blanchard made the appointment and reiterated her reasons from the floor of a Select Board meeting later that evening.
She since has been supported by two other members of the search committee and several members of DIRE, including two who have announced their intention to leave the diversity panel this summer when their first one-year term expires. At least one other member of the search committee has come forward to say he thinks the selection process was in line with the committee's expectations.
In response to a request for comment, Blanchard this week initially said he received from the committee a verbal recommendation of two finalists — including Lt. Mike Ziemba, who ultimately was named — without an indication of preference.
"No preference was indicated when the names were given to me," Blanchard wrote in reply to an email inquiry.
D'Souza said Blanchard was not being truthful in that assertion.
"That was a lie," D'Souza said. "The committee gave him our clear first choice, which was the candidate who he refused to hire. We also gave him a second name, our number two choice. The ranking was based on our ranked voting of the committee. All but two people voted for candidate 1 as their first choice, one person voted for candidate 2 as their first choice, and one person co-ranked the two candidates. For many, candidate 2 was a close second."
In a subsequent email, Blanchard said he became aware of the committee's preference after he received the names of the two finalists.
"[W]hile the Advisory Search Committee did not rank the candidates when the names were given to me, it became apparent almost as soon as I began to discuss the attributes of each candidate that the candidate I did not appoint was the first choice of the majority of the Committee," Blanchard wrote.
Anne O'Connor, a member of the Select Board that appointed the search committee, served as a liaison from the board to the committee and facilitated the committee's process but was not a voting member. She described a process in which the committee passed along two candidates but did not express a preference until after Blanchard indicated his choice.
"As the committee deliberated about the candidates on Friday, May 7, two candidates rose to the top and received the unanimous approval of the committee," wrote O'Connor, whose term on the Select Board ended this month. "Charlie [Blanchard] was not present. At that time, most committee members gave an informal ranking to the candidates, with a majority giving one of the candidates an edge over the other.
"On Monday [May 10], when the committee met with Charlie, they spoke about their favorable impression of the top two candidates, as well as their majority preference for one of them, although there was no official statement regarding the tally. As soon as it became evident that Charlie's preference landed with the other candidate, Aruna quit and left the meeting. The committee continued to meet with Charlie for another 30 to 40 minutes. Charlie listened to the committee, discussed his perception of the candidates, and made his own intentions clear."
No one, including D'Souza, is disputing that the town manager is the hiring authority for the police chief position. And the search committee's charter, codified by Blanchard's predecessor, Jason Hoch, specifies the group was charged with recommending "1-2 finalist candidates."
But Hoch signaled this winter that the committee's preference would be given weight in the process.
"I put this together in a way to recognize that the appointment of a police chief is the technical responsibility of the town manager," Hoch said at a Feb. 22 Select Board meeting. "The desire here is to have an advisory committee that would provide a significant level of input and review of potential candidates. Really, the end goal of that is that the appointment of the interim chief is not really a selection of the town manager but really ratifying the selection of the advisory committee."
Three days before he made that statement, Hoch had announced that he would be leaving the town's service at the end of April. When he spoke on Feb. 22, the hope of the Select Board was that the interim chief search could be completed on Hoch's watch.
The Select Board appointed Blanchard on April 5 to take over when Hoch departed, and Blanchard was in the corner office when the search committee reported its finalists on May 7.
At no point during its public interview of Blanchard or another finalist for the interim town manager post did the Select Board ask specifically if either candidate would commit to "ratifying" the top choice of the interim police chief search committee.
One of the people appointed to the search committee, Jay Merselis, told the Select Board on May 10 he was satisfied with how the process played out.
"At the end of the meeting today, it was clear [Blanchard] was going in a slightly different direction than we were," Merselis said. "He clearly watched the recordings of our process. I think he gave the committee due voice.
"Speaking for myself, I'm not at all disappointed in the way things unfolded. For my part, I was clear who the ultimate hiring authority was."
Two other members of the search committee told the DIRE Committee on Monday that they shared D'Souza's concerns about the process.
"Her report on May 10 is exactly as it happened," Hugh Guilderson said. "Make no mistake of that."
Erin Keyser-Clark said she was upset and angry about how things worked out.
"I think it is important to remember this key point that Aruna was the first one to bring up: This is not about the candidate who was chosen," Keyser-Clark said. "Aruna laid out a gift to our community to understand what changes we need to make to work toward healing and professionalism and accountability.
"We need to stop with these stories and red herrings and gas-lighting moments and instead look at the points Aruna brought to the table as a gift to our community. Let us not continue to disrespect her but thank her."
One thing is certain: Residents of the town have to choose who to believe about the process that led to the interim chief appointment because the town chose to keep the search committee's entire proceedings behind closed doors as it was allowed — though not compelled — to do under the commonwealth's Open Meeting Law.
This week, Town Clerk Nicole Pedercini, the town's public information officer, reported that there are no minutes of the search committee's proceedings available for view by the public.
Blanchard, in an email exchange, said, "Given that this committee was appointed under the exception to the Open Meeting Law that you cited in your [May 10] story on the Interim Chief's appointment, I am reluctant to provide more details on the record."
O'Connor, before offering her account of the search committee's final two meetings, said, "Ultimately, I think recollections might differ in some details."
Tags: police chief, search committee,
