Date: Fri 28-May-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

police-commission-rebuttal

Full Text:

Police Commission Continues Its Review Of Lysaght Rebuttal

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Police Commission members this week continued their review of the massive

amount of reference material presented to them by Police Chief James E.

Lysaght in support of his rebuttal to his recent highly negative job

performance evaluation by the commission.

Commission members have enlisted the town's attorneys to aid them in their

review.

"You should realize that these things take some time to do. The town attorneys

are reviewing this material. We can't rush it," Police Commission Chairman

James Reilly said this week. "There should be some action shortly. The

attorneys are reviewing the material," he said.

"We want to push this ahead as quickly as we can. Right now, we're awaiting

the legal advice of the attorneys," he said.

Commission members have termed the chief's job performance "unsatisfactory,"

saying it could lead to a job termination hearing.

The 164 documents presented by the chief to the commission in April include

the commission's meeting minutes dating back to January 1996, letters,

memoranda, contracts, diagrams, and documents concerning police training,

radio communications, computers, job performance evaluations, citizen

complaints and internal investigations within the police department, among

other items.

In its April job evaluation, the commission found the chief has not corrected

deficiencies in his performance which were listed in his preceding job

evaluation last September, and has not displayed the skills needed to

effectively lead and manage the police department.

In the chief's evaluation last September, Police Commission members stated

that unless his performance improves to a "satisfactory" level, and unless he

meets the goals he agreed to with the Police Commission, the commission

believes it will have "just cause" to fire him.

Another Month

Town Attorney David Grogins said Monday that he and two other lawyers have

been reviewing Chief Lysaght's detailed response to the Police Commission's

evaluation.

"There's about three volumes there of things to go through. It's a fair amount

of material there. I think it's going to be a little while. I think it's going

to be another month. I think everybody wants to be real careful about this,"

Mr Grogins said.

From reviewing the material the chief presented to the commission, it is clear

the chief and the commission don't see the situation the same way, Mr Grogins

indicated.

The job security of chiefs of police in Connecticut is well protected under

state law and any dismissal of a police chief must be supportable with "just

cause," Mr Grogins said.

"It's not like (it's) a single issue, he added. There is no malfeasance

alleged on the part of the police chief, Mr Grogins said.

"There are issues. There's a lot of material. There's a lot of stuff here," he

said.

"The statute puts a great burden on both parties," Mr Grogins said. "Whatever

the town does, it ought to be supportable," he said. The town should be very

careful in how it proceeds in the matter, he said.

Attorney John Kelly, who represents Chief Lysaght, said "I presume the Police

Commission is reviewing my client's response."

Through the response, the chief seeks to show that the commission's position

is unfounded, Mr Kelly said.

Based on the length of the chief's response, it's understandable why it's

taking the town so long to review the matter, Mr Kelly said.

State law describes procedures a police commission must follow when it seeks

to fire a police chief. No police chief can be fired unless there is a showing

of "just cause" by the police commission and the chief has been given notice

in writing of the specific grounds for such a firing and an opportunity to be

heard in his own defense, personally or by his lawyer, at a public hearing

before the commission.