SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The union representing Swampscott police officers is once again calling on the Select Board and town administration for action in response to what Union Local 417 President Kevin Reen called “a critical matter affecting public safety” involving department staffing.
Reen last week sent a letter to the Select Board requesting an “emergency summit with the Swampscott Police Union to discuss, pursue and arrive at a comprehensive solution to the grave public safety threat posed by understaffing.”
Reen posted the letter on the union’s Facebook page after he said he received one response from his request to discuss what he cited as eight positions in the 32-person department that were unfilled as of Aug. 23.
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“When Swampscott exited the civil service hiring process (in 2020), the promise to the community from (Town Administrator Sean) Fitzgerald and this very body — the Select
Board — was an improved hiring process that would create a more level playing field, enhance equity and inclusion, and help address the SPD staffing challenges,” Reen wrote in his most recent letter. “Instead, our biggest fears of leaving civil service have come true: the manipulation of our hiring process by the town administrator and a lack of transparency regarding our staffing crisis.”
Reen addressed the Select Board with similar concerns during the public comment section of an open meeting last summer. Fitzgerald told Patch in response to those comments that the town was committed to filling the positions as quickly as possible, but the move out of civil service had not necessarily produced the type of diverse candidates that was one of the stated objectives of the switch.
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Fitzgerald said that while the department is considered fully staffed at 32, some periods of staffing at less than 32 are inevitable since the town cannot hire an officer based on the possibility that another officer might retire the next year.
“This is a really important time,” Fitzgerald, who engaged in a lengthy back-and-forth with Reen during the previous Select Board meeting, told Patch at the time. “We have a number of vacancies and we are not looking to fill them just to fill them. We are going to fill them because we have an opportunity to fulfill some broader priorities.”
“We are looking for the most diverse and most extraordinary men and women to join these departments and help us meet the broader demands of public safety,” Fitzgerald added at the time.
Select Board member MaryEllen Fletcher has repeatedly pressed the issue at periodic Select Board meetings over the past year.
“We’ve got a serious problem and it’s my opinion that the town administrator and the police chief have got to get this figured out,” Fletcher told Patch Tuesday night. “It is our responsibility to find out what is happening here and find out why there is a problem. I don’t feel the Select Board can sit idly by.”
She said that while she is not necessarily in favor of a “public summit” that could include discussions on personnel and contracts, that groups need to come together in short order to make progress on the staffing issues.
“I think there is another way to get to a resolution,” she said. “The Select Board needs to hold the town administrator and the police chief accountable for what’s happening. But I think we need to spend our focus on how to improve this situation.
“I want the conversation to be about how we are fixing right now.”
She asked about the openings at the last Select Board meeting on Aug. 16.
“I received the completed background for all our applicants that were in the queue for the second round of testing and then I will be forwarding two recommendations to the town administrator (on Aug. 17),” Police Chief Ruben Quesada told the Select Board.
“Typically, I will meet with the candidates with the chief,” Fitzgerald then responded. “Typically, it’s an hourlong meeting. And I will ask them a series of questions and then the chief and I will have a conversation about what’s next.”
Fletcher then pressed Fitzgerald and Quesada on a timeline for an actual hire to begin the academy process, which can then take months.
“I can do this in as soon as a day,” Fitzgerald responded. “It doesn’t take that long. It just is a question of scheduling individuals — making sure that they are available and the chief is available. It doesn’t take a long time after I get these recommendations.”
Quesada said that September would be the physical testing to get into the next police academy and that once all the candidates attend that mandatory physical test they can then be slated for the academy that begins on or around Oct. 6.
He said he had personally spoken with the academy director in Haverhill and that there were slots available for that session.
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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