Odit to Take Steps to Hire New Police Chief
After stalemate in discussions with Richmond, Selectboard authorizes Town Manager to begin process of hiring a new Hinesburg Police Chief
By The Record Staff
(Video from Media Factory; to skip to various parts of the meeting click the icon with three lines.)
Nine months after the turmoil that surrounded the departure of former police chief Anthony Cambridge and just five days before the formal end of the town’s shared police agreement with the town of Richmond, the Hinesburg Selectboard gave Town Manager Todd Odit the go-ahead to take steps to hire a new police chief.
The two-year agreement with Richmond formally ends Sept. 8. Odit said he will be seeking a proposal from JW Leadership Consulting of Arlington, VT, — a firm that has been working with Richmond and Hinesburg over the last nine months — to assist Hinesburg in recruiting and hiring a new chief. The board will consider JW’s proposal at its next meeting, Sept. 17. Odit hopes a new chief can be in place by January.
In setting up the board’s decision, Town Manager Todd Odit explained the situation: For much of this year, representatives of the two towns have been meeting to discuss what to do about the shared policing agreement and what to do about hiring a new, potentially shared, police chief.
Two issues, Odit said, seemed to stalemate the discussions. In the spring, it was learned that a rather hazy provision in Richmond’s police union contract includes a provision to pay Richmond officers time and a half when they patrol Hinesburg while Hinesburg’s contract with its officers has no such provision. The unfairness of this was unsettling to the Hinesburg officers.
Further, the town of Richmond is leaning to the establishment of a municipal police district — much like a regional school district — that would oversea a joint police department. Odit, while saying there might be some value in such an arrangement, said it would take a long time to develop, would take the control of police out of each town’s control and would make it much more complicated to address specific issues each town may want to resolve.
As an example, Odit said that the morning of the meeting he had met with Interim Chief Frank Bryan and the Hinesburg officers to straighten out some scheduling issues. A new schedule was worked out — apparently with some help from the State Police. Such a quick resolution, Odit said, would not be possible with a municipal police district.
Odit emphasized the need to think of the short-term in Hinesburg: the need for a cohesive department if, for no other reason, than to hang onto the current officers. With the issue of a police chief and shared or not-shared coverage undecided, he said, officers who “have plenty of opportunities elsewhere…but like working in Hinesburg” would be apt to leave. And, of course, the policing needs of the town need to be served.
With only a little discussion, the board authorized Odit to move forward with JW Consulting and to move towards hiring a new chief for Hinesburg.
The unravelling of the shared police agreement looks a long way from resolution and Odit added that by getting the town’s police department back in solid shape Hinesburg will have an advantage in future discussions of some sort of shared agreement.
In other actions:
A public hearing was held on the revisions to the RR1 zoning map and rules. In essence the zone’s boundaries would be expanded and lot size requirements for building would be increased to 10/12/15 acres as a way to preserve the rural nature of the town. A citizen in the zone raised objections that the rules will change for her property value and restrict what she could do on her land. Several representatives from the Planning Commission, Conservation Commission and Affordable Housing Committee spoke in favor. The Selecboard will discuss the proposed zoning change at its next meeting Sept. 17,
Selectboard member Maggie Gordon, also on the Town Common Committee, asked the board for a letter of support for a $50,000 grant the committee was applying for to cover the bulk of the cost of building a pavilion on the Common. The board expressed its support. The additional $25,000 cost of the pavilion will be covered by private donations, Gordon said.
Odit said that the issues with the town’s water “are trending in the right direction” after several large and one small leaks were discovered and repaired. The town’s daily output of water — usually around 150,000 gallons a day — reached peaks of 220,000 gallons a day in August before the leaks were found. The problem led the Selectboard in its last meeting to declare a moratorium of new connections for the next six months. The Town has hired two outside firms to a) find additional leaks and b) reconcile the meters in large users to ensure the usage figures are accurate.
