Date: Fri 02-Apr-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

police-commission-lysaght

Full Text:

Commission Again Evaluates Police Chief's Performance

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Police Commission members met Wednesday night in closed session to formulate a

job performance evaluation of Police Chief James E. Lysaght, Jr.

In the chief's last job evaluation last September, commission members wrote

that unless the chief's job performance improves to a satisfactory level and

unless he meets the goals he has agreed to with the Police Commission, the

commission believes it will have just cause to fire him. Last fall, commission

members said they would again evaluate the chief this spring to gauge how well

he has met job performance goals.

Police Commission Chairman James Reilly said the commission plans to act on

the evaluation at its April 6 meeting and present the document to the chief.

"It's public knowledge that we're very concerned with the way the (police)

department's being operated," Mr Reilly said Tuesday. The chief has been given

an opportunity to make changes, Mr Reilly added.

"The commission still has further concerns about the department's operation,"

Mr Reilly said.

Mr Reilly Thursday declined to characterize the job evaluation of the chief

composed by commission members Wednesday night. "I don't want to characterize

it because we haven't presented it to the chief," Mr Reilly said.

Chief Lysaght said Tuesday he will learn the contents of the commission's

evaluation when he reads it April 6.

Mr Reilly said he expects the evaluation to be discussed in closed session

April 6 unless the chief wants it discussed in open session.

In its job evaluation of the chief dated last September 1, Police Commission

members wrote "Chief Lysaght has failed to carry out the directives of the

Board of Police Commissioners on several occasions. The chief has failed to

provide the planning and leadership necessary to implement the board's

directives and department policy."

In response to that evaluation, Chief Lysaght said last fall "I was

disappointed in the job evaluation, but the commission has given me goals for

the next year, and I'll do the utmost to achieve those goals." He had no

response to various specific claims made by the commission in that evaluation.

Chief Lysaght, the former second-in-command at the Bristol Police Department,

started work in Newtown in July 1996.