PSC moves forward in its search for new police chief
Date: 6/13/2012
June 13, 2012By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.comWEST SPRINGFIELD — Mayor Gregory Neffinger said he had hoped to have a new Chief of Police in place by the end of June, but now a date toward the end of July seems more realistic.
Once that individual is selected, he hopes to have the recently-proposed position of Deputy Chief filled by August — providing, Neffinger added, the Town Council approves funding in the fiscal year 2013 budget.
Neffinger said he is also close to reaching an agreement with former Police Chief Thomas Burke, who retired at the end of March, regarding payment for a reported 11 weeks of unused vacation time.
"The former chief found some errors in the town's calculations of back pay," Neffinger said, adding that he and Burke were waiting for some "accurate numbers" from the town's accounting department before continuing negotiations.
"I think many of the issues will be agreed upon by the end of the week," Neffinger noted during a June 5 conversation with
Reminder Publications.
Human Resource Director Sandra MacFadyen said the Public Safety Commission (PSC) took a major step forward in the search for a new chief when it selected MMA Consulting Group of Brookline as the assessment center that will assist in evaluating applicants during its June 1 meeting.
MMA will evaluate the skills, abilities and qualities of the candidates and report its findings back to the PSC.
MacFadyen said the PSC issued a Request for Proposal for assessment centers to provide evaluations for the chief's job, and chose between MMA and another applicant, BadgeQuest. The commission has submitted its choice to the state's Department of Human Resources and is awaiting formal approval before beginning the assessment process.
"We have verbal approval [from the state], but nothing in writing," she said.
Once the town receives written approval of its assessment center choice, MacFadyen said the job description for police chief would be posted internally in the police department and on the job posting board outside Neffinger's office.
She said unlike Holyoke, which recently conducted a nationwide search to replace its police chief; West Springfield will keep its search internal, because the chief's job is "a civil service promotional opportunity" for the town's officers.
