Police

Another total mess, but also an opportunity.

My conversations with many Egremonters lead inexorably to the same conclusion:  Reena isn't going to come back and the new guys aren't going to work out. 

This mess was totally brought to you by our selectmen.  They screwed it up about as completely as was possible.  They brought in the new guys without thinking through the costs or the morale problems, and then seized the opportunity to summarily "suspend" Reena without giving her any chance to be heard, in violation of about a dozen laws and rules and policies.  The claims against the town are potentially very costly.

I got the tape of the meeting at which the selectboard suspended Reena.  You should all read it, and I'll try to have copies available at the One Egremont meeting on May 4.  It just sort of gives you the feeling that this thing wasn't spontaneous, but rather was orchestrated. 

So what does the selectboard propose now that they've created this mess?  Well they did resist the new guys' request for an extra $50,000 for the police department (see Kevin Zurrin's blog for more on this), putting "only" $302,000 on the warrant, but they have no solution - and admitted it at a selectmen's meeting -  for how they're going to pay for the additional full time officer they decided we needed, except maybe to get rid of most or all of the part timers.  What a great idea!  Get rid of the officers we all know in favor of two new guys that we don't!  The ones who want tasers and lots of guns!  Brilliant! 

But, supposedly on the recommendation of our town counsel (he's such a convenient excuse for the selectboard), they put an item on the agenda for the special town meeting (the one that precedes the annual town meeting, and at which most people are coveniently asleep) asking for $15,000 for an interim acting police chief because they suspended our existing chief and it just isn't right to have the new guy acting as chief until the Reena thing is resolved.   If you think $15,000 is going to be enough for that little diversion, think again.

So let's summarize:  Our selectboard hires police officers without considering that we can't pay for them, either orchestrates or seizes the opportunity to suspend the existing chief without the slightest due process and without considering the costly lawsuits that will result, turns down the police budget when they wake up to the fact that we can't afford it without any realistic plan for how to pay for the police department they've created, and then asks us taxpayers to bail them out by paying for an interim police chief needed because the selectboard screwed up so badly.  I think I'll vote no. 

The opportunity, now that we're going to have to start from scratch: Let's seriously think about what we need for policing in Egremont.   How about one full timer and a few part timers?   Or why not do what Alford and Mt. Washington and Hillsdale do:  Rely on the state police (county police in Hillsdale) for a fraction of the cost that we pay.   We could probably get the state police to do a good job by paying them nothing in cash, but rather letting them use our wonderful new police station as a substation rent free.