This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
03/22/2022 02:26 PMThe Old Saybrook Police Commission is working toward a formalized procedure that will allow for annual reviews of the police chief by the end of the fiscal year.
Chief of Police Michael Spera has led the Old Saybrook Police Department since 2009 and despite there being language in his contract that requires an annual evaluation, none has ever been conducted as far as members of the Police Commission can remember. Five years ago, a subcommittee was formed with the idea of creating a formula for an annual review, but the subcommittee failed to develop one. Instead, the committee eventually ruled that the monthly reports Spera gives at the regular commission hearings counts as an evaluation. The current Police Commission has decided to once again look at the annual review process.
Police Commission Chair Alfred “Chub” Wilcox explained to the Harbor News that though the contract requires a review, it also says one must be done in a in “a mutually agreed upon fashion with the chief.”
Since the review has never been done before, Wilcox said that he’s currently working on a proposal for how the evaluations would work and presenting it to the commission.
“Rather than just sitting down with the chief and saying, ‘So how do you think you did?’ we’ll have specific parameters that we can score against stated goals,” said Wilcox.
“Right now, I would say the ball is in my court. I’m hoping we could get something instituted by June 30 that would allow us to set goals for the next budget year,” said Wilcox.
The commission has been discussing the review process since January. During a review of the proposed police budget, Spera was granted a two-percent raise ($3,297), which is in line with what town employees were proposed to receive. However, the fact that Spera could get a raise without a performance review irked some of the commission members.
A vote on an unsuccessful motion to not include Spera’s raise in the proposed budget due to the lack of an annual review split the commission with Democratic commissioners Wilcox, Jessica Calle, and Renée Root Shipee voting for the motion while Republicans Joseph Maselli and Carl Von Dassel were joined by Democrats Jill Notar-Francesco and Carol Manning in voting against the motion. The commission members who voted against the motion felt it was unfair to hold back Spera’s compensation based on the failure of previous iterations of the commission to properly conduct a review.
What the commission did agree on, however, was the need to once again look at the review process. Calle reported at the Jan. 24 meeting that she had reached out to other towns in Connecticut and New England to inquire about review processes for police chiefs. The majority of respondents indicated there was an annual review process for the police chief every year while some chiefs had reviews only when asked for one by the town.
Wilcox said that he has been able to review some of the procedures that other towns use for their annual reviews and is using them to help come up with the right model for Old Saybrook. Wilcox said that the next step is for him to propose a model to the entire commission where the commission can vote on it.
After that Wilcox said Spera will be able to provide his input and then any tweaks that need to be made to the proposal will be made.
Spera did not respond to requests for comment for this story.