# Warrant Article To Remove Wareham Police Chief From Civil Service



## OfficerObie59 (Sep 14, 2007)

*Warrant article seeks to remove police chief from Civil Service*

*By Ruth Thompson*

*Thu Sep 24, 2009, 01:06 PM EDT *

*WAREHAM - *

Perhaps one of the more controversial articles on the Town Meeting warrant is Article 5, which seeks to remove the position of police chief from Civil Service.

The article, submitted by the Board of Selectmen through Acting Town Administrator John Sanguinet, has already generated heated opposition.

George Dionne, president of the Wareham Police Union, recently wrote a letter to the editor to the _Courier _and other media outlets imploring Town Meeting voters to keep the police chief position in Civil Service.

When asked by the _Courier_ why he felt so strongly about the issue, Dionne said there were a couple of reasons.

"The main reason is the chief's position under Civil Service is protected from political interference," he said. "The chief should be able to run the department without outside hands reaching in. The chief decides his budget, his policies and his procedures. If you have a non-Civil Service chief, the town decides how his budget is spent, the town has to approve his policies and procedures, and the town has to approve how his department is run."

"From a union standpoint, if we ask a non-Civil Service chief something, he'll have to run it by the town administrator. Where he's protected under Civil Service, we can work on it right away together," he added.

Full Story: Warrant article seeks to remove police chief from Civil Service - Wareham, MA - Wicked Local Wareham

Removing any chiefs position from CS is a dangerous downslope in my eyes; any non-civil service chief will have little patience running a department governed by protections from political influence he's not privy to--and good luck getting him to support anything at contract time. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Reading the article, the misinformation from Selectman Sauvageau borders on lying.


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## Trifecta (Mar 3, 2006)

Our town tried the same thing and thank god it did not go thru. You need a chief who will not be threaten with a non renewel of his/her contract.


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## 263FPD (Oct 29, 2004)

Trifecta said:


> Our town tried the same thing and thank god it did not go thru. You need a chief who will not be threaten with a non renewel of his/her contract.


There is a flip side to this. Sometimes the Chief does not know when it's time for him to go. If he is civil service,then you own him conceivably until he is 65.


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## Trifecta (Mar 3, 2006)

and that was our problem before


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## OfficerObie59 (Sep 14, 2007)

263FPD said:


> There is a flip side to this. Sometimes the Chief does not know when it's time for him to go. If he is civil service,then you own him conceivably until he is 65.


That may be the case, but I'd rather have a chief that overstays his welcome than a chief that is beholden to the lackeys at town hall.

Keep in mind, most times the objective of the town hall is remove the whole department--or becomes that way once the Board of Selectmen get their first taste of power with a puppet chief. Removing the chief is a slippery slope.

What better way to accomplish this goal of ridding CS for the entire dept. by chipping away at positions as you go down the ladder of rank? Because each time a position is taken out of civil service, those appointees have no choice but to support their subordinates' removal from CS or face the rath of the BoS when their three year contract comes up for renewal. Plus, what chief is going to want his guys to have more protections than he has when the BoS is shitting all over him because of what his guys--who he can't fire at will--are doing to make life difficult for him?

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. I'd much prefer a imperfect chief than one run by politics, period.


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## militia_man (Mar 27, 2005)

Let's not forget this is Wareham with the police hating selectmen.


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## Trifecta (Mar 3, 2006)

oh it is in most towns


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