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Date: 12/19/2023
SOUTHWICK — Police Chief Robert Landis recently told the Southwick Select Board he plans to retire next summer.
“We accept this with great regret,” Select Board Chair Doug Moglin said after announcing Landis’s retirement at the Dec. 11 meeting. “We want to thank you for your service, [but] we still got a ways to go,” he also said.
Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart also thanked Landis for “his years of service.”
“He did very well in every assignment he worked on and every position he held,” Stinehart said.
Landis was given the floor and said he had a “great team” at the department, and explained why he made the decision so early — it does not take effect until June 2024.
“With everything you’ve got on your plate, I thought it would be best to get ahead of it so you can plan accordingly,” Landis said.
Select Board member Jason Perron, a Westfield Police officer, also thanked Landis and added, “I’m not far behind you.”
Later in the meeting, the board discussed the process of replacing Landis. Moglin said he wanted to establish a time frame, post the position within the department, and begin interviewing the members of the department who want to move up in their careers.
Perron had a different opinion.
“I have my own opinion on this with my personal career,” he said.
He suggested having prospective candidates for the position come from outside the department.
“To do the town the best possible service, we should allow other candidates [outside of the department] to apply,” he said.
Despite that opinion, Perron made it “perfectly clear” that the department has plenty of “terrific candidates.”
He added that he was taking the position because it “harkens back to something I’m dealing with … the transparency issue.”
Moglin, who said he was “editorializing,” said other than developing a town budget, he considered appointing new police officer as his most important duty as a Select Board member.
The officers being hired now, he said, serve as the “bench” of talent for the department.
“Those officers have an opportunity to better themselves and grow in the department,” Moglin said. “We have loads of talent that have been in the ranks for a few years and those who have been in a position for many years,” he said, adding later that hiring within the department would be a “very open process” with “interviews [and] vigorous debate [between board members] and select a candidate.”
He also said that recruiting outside the department becomes “a bigger deal.”
“It’s directly to us or a bigger deal,” board member Diane Gale said.
Stinehart then reminded the board that if the town goes outside for a potential candidate, the process would look much like the process underway now to replace him, which costs money.
When Town Meeting approved the current fiscal year’s budget, it allocated $30,000 to pay for the services of a professional recruiting firm to identify a potential candidate who will step in when Stinehart retires in March.
Moglin also brought up the possibility that recruiting for Landis’ replacement from outside the department “sends a message to the Police Department.”
He then suggested that the board begin the recruiting process from within the department and if a suitable candidate wasn’t identified, they could always go looking outside.
Moglin suggested in the motion, which Gale provided, and Perron seconded. Finding Landis’ replacement will be carried in old business on the board’s future agendas.