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Westbrook BOS Approves Palermo as Emergency Management Director

After the previous director resigned earlier this month, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) voted on March 24 to make John Palermo the town’s new emergency management director, with some contingencies.

After Carrie Campi informed the town she was resigning effective March 11, John Palermo began acting as interim emergency management director. Palermo had been the assistant emergency management director.

At the March 24 meeting, First Selectman John Hall said the board had two possible routes to take: It could remove the interim tag and make Palermo officially the director, or it could keep Palermo as the interim and look for another candidate.

The BOS unanimously voted to make Palermo the new director with pay retroactive to March 12 when he began acting as interim director. The BOS said the move was pending approval from the town’s attorney that the town wouldn’t violate any laws about properly advertising the role.

Palermo told the board he was ready for the role and that he had taken several relevant courses for the position.

“I feel very comfortable moving right into the director role,” said Palermo during the meeting.

Once Palermo’s promotion is approved by the attorney, the town will look to fill the assistant director position.

Four months ago, the town hired the previous director, Campi. However, she abruptly announced on Feb. 25 she would resign effective March 11 following a Board of Finance meeting where, according to her resignation letter, she felt like she was attacked and harassed by two members.

At a Feb. 23 board of finance meeting that supposed to cover proposed department budgets, board members Paul Winch and Chris Ehlert instead spent the time discussing criticism they had over what they felt was a lack of communication from the Emergency Management Office during major storms.

In particular, the men mentioned monitoring reports from other towns of storm warning to stay informed and the lack of a department-specific Facebook page or a stand-alone website for the department that people would hopefully know to check for updates as needed.

During the BOS meeting, Palermo said that he has been working on both those actions.

“I got the Facebook page up and running two weeks ago. I’m working with [IT Director] Ken [Butterworth] to get the website running, too. We hit some glitches, but it will be running,” said Palermo.