Date: 3/6/2019
Under the old Police Commission many of the problems in the Springfield Police Department would not have come to light. Barbieri seems to have faced some issues head-on rather than avoiding them. As the saying goes, “No good deed goes unpunished.” The City Council does a very poor job at root cause analysis, which is not surprising because they are some of the root cause.
All of the problem police were hired through Civil Service. Yet the City Council does not address this problem. Northampton had a large problem about 20 years ago and removed the police from Civil Service. In the past the Civil Service Commission reinstated what few police had been fired by the Springfield Police Commission. At one time many of the Civil Service Commissioners have been former police. The City Council is not even talking about this issue.
Now arbitrators under the collective bargaining agreement are reinstating police who have been fired by the Commissioner. The arbitration clause is part of a sweetheart contract between the City and the Police Union. Arbitration clauses are a product of collecting bargaining in industry. The employee builds widgets for his employer who decided the employee did something wrong. The employee then appeals to arbitration. The collective bargaining agreement makes no mention of a customer. But in police work a person who is not part of the collective bargaining agreement can be seriously hurt or killed. And the arbitrator can rule that the employee who did it or allowed it to happen should be reinstated. The City Council makes no mention of this issue. After the Council’s dog and pony show they will support that arbitration clause every time.
Under the changes proposed by the City Council the hiring mechanism will not change. The un-elected arbitrator will still decide to not fire people who should be fired. The only thing that will change will be whose friends are on the Police Commission.
Robert Joseph Underwood
Springfield
