The case for Chief Trask
There are some who insist the Mayor has circumvented the system in appointing Steven Trask from acting police chief to police chief. The unions are trying to run Trask out of town by way of a non confidence vote of the chief. Taxpayers should pay no attention to what the unions have to say about the Chief. They hold this town hostage every year in salary negotiations and are the reason why we are forced into arbitration at almost every contract. A few facts are in order. One is that the Mayor and Council could only extend the appointment until Oct 1, per the charter. The Mayor had, (since taking office) plenty of time to change leadership at FPD, but some how was convinced by COO Kezer to hire a PR firm to have an overall looksee at FPD. The PR firm was to give the Mayor a verbal report as of Oct 1. Since the Mayor took so much time deciding what to do at FPD, she forced herself into a corner and had to appoint Trask, since she never went outside to look for any other candidate when she said she would. For that I'm grateful. What our town does not need is another out of towner, male or female, black, brown, yellow, red or white to come in without the necessary knowledge and historical reference of Framingham, to run FPD. Now I'm absolutely sure, there's way more going on behind the scenes that no of us will ever know, but I am sure that Trask is the right guy to lead FPD. The unions are still trying to get even with the administration over a court ruling that sided with FPD, that they (FPD) could reassign someone to another duty.
Some may disagree with the process but that's not going to solve anything at this juncture. Time ran out for the Mayor and she had no choice but to appoint Trask IMO. It might be some what amusing to hear what the 20,000 dollar PR person JFlagg has to say late this month as she has asked for extension.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 7:43 PM
17 Comments
17 Comments:
Wasn't it the superior officers union which publicly came out in support of Stefannini?
I think the mayor had until later in October to appoint a Chief, but I do think promoting from within is the right choice. That being said, she still has to obey the rules and post the job, and I think the people calling her out for not doing that are right to do so
Who are the good guys at the PD? Or are there even any good guys? The all seem to be kids who are whining. And that Antwan guy posting on Facebook is some cop who is a scardy cat about posting under his own name. What a wimp! If you have a problem, then stand up and say so. Why the need to hide behind some fake identity. Lost any credibility he might have had doing that. What a wimp.
If Trask is doing a good job then he should get the promotion. The mayor needs to get her act together on this HR stuff. If the woman handling it is not up to the job, then fire her because right now she is making the mayor look bad
Seems like we have lots of unhappy cops. We also seem to have a few dishonest cops. Are they one and the same group?
If the rank and file are the problem with the force, and the rank and file don't want Trask as the Chief,then that gives me confidence that Trask is the right choice. Framingham PD has issues, and you really can not pretend they don't. You need someone who is going to clean up the mess. That someone is not going to be liked by the people who need to be cleaned up. I say stick with Trask for that reason alone.
What if Trask is the problem? What if that consultants report says he should go? What happens then? This is ass backwards. We should see the report before we appoint a new chief.
Fire them all and start from scratch. Sometime you do have to throw the baby out with the bathwater to really clean the tub
Today in the MWDN:
The state’s highest court will not take up the case of a Framingham detective who lost his post working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, ending a legal challenge filed on his behalf by the Framingham Police Officers Union.
The union sought to force the city into arbitration over decisions by acting Chief Steven Trask and former chief Kenneth Ferguson to rotate Officer Matthew Gutwill out of his position on a regional drug task force. The move cost Gutwill certain pay perks, including a $3,400 annual stipend.
A panel of Appeals Court judges backed the city in the case, finding on July 10 that the chief has sole authority to make assignments within the department. The union asked the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to hear the case, but the SJC declined, denying an application for further appellate review from the union on Sept. 13.
The above is what is the root cause of the union's no confidence vote of the Chief. That Tyron Scott on Facebook is a cop, most likely is Mat Gutwill, a bad apple from way back. By now I would think Internal Affairs has already contacted Facebook and found his IP address. I would think he has violated some of the ethics code that FPD lives by. It'll be interesting to see if he gets canned.
I don't disagree with the notion that the Mayor side stepped the hiring process, or perhaps HR did, we just don't know for sure. But it looks bad for the Mayor at this point. The poster who wrote "later in October may be correct. But I seem to remember, the temporary appointment of the chief was to end before the PR person was to give her verbal report to the Mayor and Council. Bottom line, if the Mayor wanted to change leadership at FPD, she should and could have initiated a broad based search to see who is out there. She did not as we know now.
Is that meeting tomorrow night going to talk about this appointment.
The agenda for tonight's meeting dosn't say anything about the consultant report or the Police Chief. They will be discussing if the Mayor should have sole responsibility over sewer rates. Now the Council has say over water rates.
Are you going to Trask's meeting tonight on the crime downtown? I think people are trying to claim we have far more issues than we do in order to make Trask look bad. The Mayor is going to be at the meeting also. Could be a pretty hot meeting.
I'll be there. The usual suspects (Rizoli, Bloomberg, Bowles etc) will be there claiming the city is a criminal hub of metro west. They won't have much bearing on anything FPD does in the future IMO.
Could be a very interesting meeting Glad you are going to be there.
Isn't tonights meeting about gangs in Framingham? Do we even really have gangs?
The gang issue is a scare tactic introduced by a few mis-informed residents, to get people to come to the library with ropes and torches. I've not heard or seen gang activity. A major bust took a few players out but I don't see it from here. A group of kids in a fist fight over a stolen phone, is not gang activity IMO. Maybe parents of high schoolers see it differently.
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