Good evening. I'd like to call the special meeting of the Hamlin Select Board of October 2nd, 2025 to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We are conducting this meeting in the townhouse auditorium. The meeting is also being broadcast over Zoom. We are recording the meeting. Is there anyone else recording the meeting?
>> No. >> Seeing none. Uh the sole order of business for this meeting is to conduct interviews for the new police chief. We have three candidates and they will be coming up in a random order. We have
scheduled 30 minutes for each candidate. The board will take turns asking the same questions to all three candidates. We have a scoring sheet provided to us from the town administrator. Our thought before was that we would
take a couple days to think over the answers that we were given and we have it on our agenda for Monday night to make our decision hopefully. So, is there any change to that that you all think? >> No. The only thing that I was noting is
that I thought there was four candidates and somebody >> one dropped out. One dropped out. >> We got an email. Yes. I didn't >> Okay. >> All right. So, um >> there there may be follow-up questions, >> right? And I think we have enough time
for that. Yeah. Uh the candidates are being sequestered downstairs. uh even though the meeting is broadcast over Zoom, we will ask them obviously not to watch the meeting so as not to hear what the other candidates uh answers are.
And we don't have anybody down there with them. We are trusting in the honor system. There'll be two down there. We figured they would snitch on the other one if it happened, I think. Right. Okay. Yeah. Just like school.
All right. So, we have The members have submitted questions to the town administrator to list up. He has accumulated them, put down his suggestions for what we should ask. We're trying to keep it to 10 questions to keep it inside the half hour. Uh the
board is going to look over them and see how they feel about the questions. We are referring to them only by number so that anybody watching right now would not get a sense of the question. So, looking over the first page, uh, Don, thank you for your list and Eric as
well. Pretty comprehensive and Brian did a nice job, I think, like assimilating them into a pretty pretty good form. I think obviously one and two are pretty wrote, you know.
Let's see. I don't know. Would 12 and three have a bit of an overlap? >> Yeah. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. Again, the 10 limit is just something we
think is reasonable for a half hour period, >> but uh I mean, we could go over, but I think if we get it 15, we we'd be well past the half hour. >> Agreed. >> This isn't like uh the debate. >> Mr. Kennedy, you have two minutes to
respond, then you're you know, right? >> We're certainly hoping answer to number five is a good one. >> Yes. I think we probably should also just say these are must haves, right? Like four and five I think are must haves. >> I think so too. Yeah. >> Yeah. So that's
>> six. I mean what we see with the challenges we've had lately is has to be there. I think seven based on what's been going on as well. >> Eight. That was kind of what uh I had thrown in there. And
again, that was just based on I think experience we had seen recently that >> maybe maybe 10 and go with three. >> Okay. Mhm. >> Yeah, we could make it one >> kind of lump it together. Yeah. Put
together 10. >> So baba, what is a bum such as? >> Yeah. Okay. >> That's Yeah, they kind of >> Yeah. >> And we're going to do I guess 12 can go in there, too, right?
I mean, that's kind of the >> That's what I'm saying. 12 and three seem seem kind of like together. >> Yeah. 12, 10, and 3. >> Yeah, of course, we're going to take the three minutes just reading the question at this point. >> Four and 15. I don't know. Kind of four
and 15. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We could almost like add that into the same thing. Yeah. So 15 it was at the end. So it's kind of gives them their closing statement. >> Well, when I move forward I'll move forward to the end then. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It was something that Russ Stevens
had recommended that they kind of be given an opportunity. >> That's fine. >> Either what are your >> obviously there's what what's your questions for us if any but then you know closing statement as to why we should be good at the end. 450 450 at
the end. That's a good closer. We could take we could take 13 out and uh that could be a followup if something comes up. >> Throw it in. >> Mhm. >> Y [Music]
they may bring it up in the thing and you can say what's right. So, what do we got now? >> 11 and 14 are kind of a question unless um nine might be a little >> 11 11 probably got kind of addressed in
the assessment center. No, >> like there's probably like more of a hype, >> I would think. You know, >> like, you know what I mean? That's more of a >> Mhm. >> But also, it shows a little about character too. You know, depends on how far we want to go with it.
You could almost combine nine and 14, I guess. You know, how do you boom and how would you Okay. >> And support, >> right? Right. Mhm. >> All right. So, let's get So, we're
combining those. Uh, Don, would you take care of asking 9114? >> Okay. >> Okay. Eric seven. Absolutely. All right. I really like eight. It's only cuz I
wrote it. >> Okay. Mhm. Um, you know, the combined three and 10, Eric, and then, um, that's 3, 10, and 12. >> Yeah. 3, 10, and 12. Eric, and then
Don, will you take three turn? You take five. >> Five. Yeah. Okay. >> So, basically, you're making some statement that combines the best of three, 10, and 12. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You got 18 minutes to come up with it.
>> Yeah, right. >> We do have a little >> Not verbally though, please. Not verbally. >> Only three questions. >> All right. So, three and four. All right. Uh 15 is going to be the last one. I'll end with that.
12 is out. 13 is out. You know what? I'm going to make one and two one question. >> Okay, that'll be the opening. You can do that. >> All right, >> that's a good idea. >> So,
so Eric is doing 10, 12, and three. >> Yep. >> Together, right? >> Right. >> Four. See, I'm still I'm still I'm still on like the taking those words and putting them into the 15 one. >> Yeah. So, we're going in order. It
should be probably John. >> So, boom, boom, boom. So, it's >> so >> Well, I mean, I'm going to do the opening one and two. Eric, you got three. Don's got five, >> six. Six is I don't care. Brian Brian could have six
because it's really going to come back to him. >> Are you comfortable with that or not? I'm comfortable with whatever. >> All right. Go ahead, Brian. >> So, who's got four then? >> His first four being combined. What's What's about four? >> Four is going to be slid into 15.
>> Slid into 15. All right. So, we got >> one, two, me, Eric. Three, Don. Five, Brian. Six, Eric. Seven, me. Eight, Don. Nine. >> Right >> with a SL sliding 14 into it. >> Right. >> And 10 was slid into Eric's one as well.
>> 9 10 12. Uh I'm on the fence about 11. I go back to you said was that something covering the assessment? Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Take it out. >> Take it out. >> Yep. >> Take it out. >> And then and then we're pretty much done ending with 15. >> Yeah.
>> All right. >> So we got down to two questions. >> All right. >> So >> what's your name and thanks for coming. >> Yeah. Right. >> Where'd you park? We'll validate. Did you back in or pulling forward? That's what we got. >> Eight.
>> We got nine questions. No, 10. 14. >> 14. 14 going in with nine. >> One 14 nine. >> Three, four, five, six, seven, eight. I think we got nine. >> Yeah, we got nine. That'll give us a
little time that look for half an hour. I think that's plenty. >> We got We got a followup or something. We are you okay working off the your current sheets with notes? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Because we could try to you could really mess this up. >> Well, it's going to mess up the scoring sheet. But yeah.
>> Yeah. >> Why is it going to mess up this point? >> Yeah. So, we're rewriting. Let's see if we're using the scoring sheet. This is question one. The three is now question two.
The five is now question three. Six is now question four. Question seven is now five. Eight is now six. The combined 94 is seven. 10 was moved
up. Okay. Boom. Are we actually down to eight questions? >> 11 is out. >> Yep. >> 12 is >> added into the uh >> Right. >> the three part. >> We're down to eight questions. >> Okay, that's fine.
But a lot a lot covered in the eight questions. All right. >> 15 is eight, right? >> Yep. Well, we'll take a look at any suggestions that were possibly dropped out. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Um, have to say Eric's question number eight was a good question, but I'm not if I'm not sure it'd be relevant to everybody. That's the problem. It looks targeted. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I have that as a followup for that
person >> if it happens. >> Yeah. >> You didn't like my number two question, Brian? >> No, I like it a lot actually. >> Did you? >> Well, I I I like I think >> I don't know if we have to go down.
>> I don't know if we want to open that door in this in this venue, though. Yeah. But Problem is timing is usually bad because it usually means loss of employment. All right.
So coming up schedule uh everyone's Lauren you did publish the agenda >> for Monday. Yeah. >> Okay. Take a look at that. In the 9th we're meeting with the school. >> Yep. 6:30.
It's supposed to. >> How about Eric's number nine? Nice question. >> I like your 11. >> Yeah. You know, I mean, I tweaked it a little bit. It It shows up in seven. >> Yeah. To the point. Show up in seven. If
>> it shows up in seven. Yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. Good. Okay. So, >> yeah. I thought that was that that was a relevant question. >> That's a good question. >> I mean, I hope it won't be, but >> All right. So, we're happy with the
question. >> We are. >> All right. So, looking ahead to Monday. So, Finn is coming in and he's bringing what's the lady's name? >> Lily. >> Lily. Okay. And as far as you know, Lynn
Simmons has taken care of the hiring for Finn's replacement. >> Yes. >> Has it been advertised yet? >> Yes. Okay. >> Deep and then the standard town meeting town
hall and hire a chief. All right. We're hoping for an agenda for the 9th, which I haven't seen yet. Um, when I spoke to Nick Bro, the town minister in Wolverham this morning, he had only seen the one that was prior to the cancelled meeting and hadn't seen
anything updated yet. Um, I did also ask had there been any change about their thought for a special town meeting and he said no, but again, they did leave the door open. It wasn't a hard no, but they at this point saw no reason to have
one. Well, they're running out running. >> They are running out of time. Yep. Exactly. They don't have the They keep their free cash differently than we do. >> Yeah, they do. >> Um and then of course we have
Monday number the following pretty much top unless you have some. Oh, the following Monday. What is it? We have a is that the uh transfer of license the following Monday, Lauren? Monday is the >> um Yeah, the public hearing for transfer of a liquor license.
>> Mhm. >> Then we'll probably talk about the town meeting again. >> Did they Did they sell it? Is that it? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Discuss. >> That's the date. The 13th is the day we'll need to sign the sign the warrant.
14th. Sorry. 14th will be the >> because we'll have the school then we'll know. You have three and right which is now >> three which is three and >> well which yeah which is numbering sheet
>> gentleman up here and send them back down. >> Oh that's scoring because a combination >> however you want to do it. >> Should we should we have the gentleman come up all three of them come up now tell them what the prestige is going to be and send them back have draw their thing out of the bucket and send them back.
>> Sure. >> Yes. Yeah. Leave the bucket here. I don't want anybody. >> No candy in. Sorry. >> She got it. One, two, three. The names. >> Any questions? >> And then eight is back up, right?
>> The last we can you can you can pick the names for us. >> Are you coming back? >> What? >> Are you coming back? >> Lucky she gets a choice. Okay.
>> Well, if it has their names on it. >> Yeah. They can't pick it. Well, one of I'll pick it if one doesn't want to pick. >> Yeah. Yeah. They can't pick it cuz they pick the other guy's name when they say, "Oh, it's me." >> Yeah, I'm sure. >> I won. >> Hopefully, she's got three, right? >> Go figure out. I got flying home from work, you know,
getting everything done. I look I see the email. The other guy dropped out. That >> just happened. Huh? >> Introduction. [Music] >> Gentlemen, go ahead. >> Just we're going to have a quick little
introduction. Okay. >> Set the ground rules and then uh >> go to the can for numbers at that point. >> Okay. >> Okay. So, welcome. We're the Hamlin Select Board. You may recognize us. We formerly were the Hammond Bor Sleman,
but we got promoted. Um, so thank you for going through the process. Thank you for putting your names in. Good job meeting with the assessment uh group and I think uh what we saw in the scores reflected the talents that we
have in front of us. Uh you may be aware that the fourth person who was going to be here has withdrawn. Uh sent an email this afternoon. So, it's just the three of you. >> Okay. >> And I'm not saying that one of you guys put pressure on them. Nobody's saying that. No. >> Actually, we're just talking about that
ago. >> I'm changing a little bit, >> right? Yeah. Yeah. So, we'll see what Vegas has to say about that. Um, so what we're going to do is we have the same questions that the board has submitted us sub submitted them to Brian, the town
administrator. He assembled them. We went over them a little while ago, weeded them down to eight questions. You all get the same eight questions. We have a scoring sheet. The goal is that we're going to wrap up. Everyone will get roughly half an hour.
It'll take turns coming up based on your number. The other two will go downstairs to the Melville room. We would ask that again you please stay off social media, i.e. you're not watching our Zoom session and you're not texting with somebody at home that's telling you,
hey, so and so answered the question this way and you're going to get that question. Uh there's a level of trust there and we would have that with our chief anyhow. You all are current law enforcement officers. You understand how that is and we appreciate that. So
this is a pretty important position that I'm going to say gosh, help me out here, dime. One, two, three, four. This will be our seventh chief probably joyfully and Farnsworth. So we're looking to fill
the seventh chief in our 150 year history and we want to get the right person for our community and we appreciate again all of you stepping up and asking to fill that role. Anything else anyone wants to say? We'll we'll be
asking each each of you these same eight questions but there might be a followup in in that question depending on your answer. So >> so >> all right >> I didn't introduce by the way I'm John Flynn. >> Oh Don >> Den right >> and brains of the brains of the alpha
Lauren >> you need anything >> if she doesn't like you forget it. >> You're done right this afternoon. >> Did you really? >> You all look wonderful by the way. Under 50 bucks, right? Under 50. >> All right. So, let's do the uh drawing here. >> Born, put the three names in here,
right? >> I'll just draw them randomly. The first one I pull will be the first or the last. >> First. >> Okay. >> Thomas Ivon. >> Thomas. No, I'm just kidding. >> Carl Mazafiro. >> All right. It's like pulling for names
at Christmas when uh >> I like your chances for number three. >> Secret Santa. >> I think it'll be number >> putting money on myself for number three. >> And uh >> Daniel Bruno. >> Okay. >> All right. So, do we need anything else to discuss or just ask them a step? And
we're ready for Tom. >> Great. Good. >> Okay. So, Carl and Dan, if you want to go downstairs, we're ready to go. You want your Let's come up here. >> Yeah, you can. If you need to grab something, go ahead. Yeah, go have yours. Who did the secrets? Huh? Brian. Brian.
Brian. All kids get piss. Oh, kids get pissed off. Shouldn't said that on the recorded, but one kid keeps getting their name. What do you think about this first two lines? Just to sum up the last one here.
>> You've had this many >> ton of people on Zoom. I thought >> it would take me 3 days to find that out. >> Good. >> It is the most lines. >> I'm looking out the rest of it. >> Oh, yeah.
>> There's a mic over there. >> Over there. updated in my head. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> When we're done, do you want us to go back downstairs or >> No. Okay. >> Oh, when you're all three done. >> No, when he's done. >> When you're done, you'll go and ask the
next guy to come up >> and then you can go >> and then I can leave. Right. >> Cuz we're not going to decide till Monday, right? They're planned. We want them to stay until the last one's done. So, >> we can actually watch it on Zoom when I
get it posted later. That's true. >> We're not We're probably not going to make that decision or even talk about it. So, >> fair point. Yeah, you're right. >> There's really no reason. >> Okay, hang around. >> Yeah, torture want to stand stand out there and laugh if the other guy answers or something, right? How's that going to
work? All right. So again, um, thank you for coming. Thank you for stepping up and, uh, volunteering, if you will. >> Yes. Thank you for having me. >> Ryan, do you have the clock? Is it that
big, uh, did you borrow the hourglass from Connie Whit? >> No, I forgot it. >> Oh my gosh. All right, give it a couple minutes so we have the same 30 minutes for everybody. Sure. Take a breath
>> all day long. Just the anticipation's worst. >> I know. >> Mhm. It's like >> your neighbor's doing good, huh? >> Is it? >> Your neighbor. Yeah. That he's doing recovered quick. >> Very well. >> Yeah. Very good.
>> Oh, very good. Yeah. It's good to see. >> Yeah. I was surprised to see him out there like a week later. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. We were kind of wondering what was going on up the street and then all a sudden I saw the the correspondence later. So, oh jeez, it's quite the incident and it's good.
Good to see >> I've been doing this for 30 years and it's the first time I've had the ad actually work on somebody. >> Yeah, it was good to see good. It's good. It's very good like that. You're counting down seconds here too.
>> The countdown. Final countdown. >> Great movie. >> Yeah. >> That was the one where the battleship went back in time. A carrier or a carrier. >> Carrier. Yes. >> Yep. >> All right. It's 5:30. >> Great.
>> All right. Well, we're going to start our interview process and our first interviewee is uh Sergeant Yvon of the Hamlin Police Department. And welcome, Tom. Thank you, sir. All right, so we're going to rotate the questions and uh
we've assigned an order, not drawing straws, but I get the softball one to start. So, Tom, could you tell us something about yourself that it's not in your resume? I mean, why did you choose law enforcement as a career? Um I
think it was a passion of mine. Uh from a young age I I I was really drawn to it. Um when I joined the military I uh joined as a combat medic and then transferred into military police. I really enjoyed it. Um as I started my
professional career, my businesses um a lot of the officers would come in and I just I just had a drawing to it and I I really had a passion. Put myself through the reserve academy. worked in Graanby as a reserve for uh probably four years and then worked there part-time. Really really fell in
love with it. Decided to put myself through the full-time academy and seek out a full-time position which I was lucky enough to get from Hampton in 2011 and and I just worked my way up from there. And I I just really love the work. I like being, you know, having
whether it's a medical save or or being able to help somebody in a time of need is just um I it fulfills me, I guess, is the best way to say it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. Have a question here. Sorry. Type that out. What does protect and serve
mean to you and how does community policing support that mission? >> Protect and serve means uh just that. uh protect the community, serve the community in any capacity we we can. A lot of the things we do, especially in Hampton, are are community related. Um
at the end of the day, you guys are leader of the community and the community, you hire us to help the citizens and anything that they need. I think especially in our community, we need to go above and beyond and do whatever we can for for the citizens that employ us and and represent the
town. Well, um, a lot of the community, uh, events like the night out are huge hits and and I think it it bodess well for the community to have that and and um, [Music] represents the community well and so I
think it all ties together. Okay. Hi, Tom. Describe what your understanding is or would be of the relationship between the police chief and the town administrator and the select board in terms of communication
and responsibility. >> At the end of the day, you guys are the elected members of the town. Brian represents you. I'm here to serve and follow direction the board wants to go. You guys dictate where we want to go. I just hope to be the the rudder that
steers us and gets us there. My direction is going to be whatever you want is if you know if you want to stay a small town community police like we have now where we go above and beyond for the residents or we want to go you know expand and do other different things to try and improve the operation
of the department. What whatever the town wants is going to be my drive and what I do. So, the direction comes from you and I'll give my suggestions as as the board wishes and I'm gonna steer the
ship the way you guys want it steered. >> I'll ask a followup there if I can. This kind of delves into my other thing. When you talk about the steering the ship as we've seen the change in dispatch around the Commonwealth,
do you think there's going to be that type of action taken with different police departments in the future? >> I think the smaller departments are going to try to join together and have regional dispatch. Um, I think it was a home run going with Wilberham. Uh, sometimes they're a little over the top,
but they're they're hands down very professional. They do a great job for us. Um, sometimes it's the information's too much, but I'd rather have I'd rather have too much information than than not enough. >> Um, so I think they've done a pretty
good job. I I do taking on too much. >> Um, and that was one of my big concerns when when we were initially talking about going with Westcom is we would fall in the wayside because the call volume's not there. And uh, as so far
it's been really good. We have not had any major issues. There's there's a there's a few things I'd like to address with with Tony um that are a little bit of safety concerns, but nothing nothing, you know, nothing that's detrimental. Um
I think I think they provide a great service to the town so far. Um don't really have any major complaints. I think it's better service than we had. They're much more professional. >> It is. I mean another followup is that
one of the reasons I think the board did not go with Westcom is that we would have been the very small fish in that pond. >> Agreed. Absolutely agreed. >> Now with the plan for the regional to add on Palmer. >> Yeah. >> We run into danger of a four group that we are going to be the small fish again.
>> We do. We do. And I think I think they need to be concerned about the size and if they have the staffing. I know they set our set our old dispatch center up to be able to receive calls. So maybe one of the things if they're
having a single dispatcher per department, maybe they staff ours and we have a they're utilizing our facility which would negate having to have a clerk. And so there there's I think there's some opportunity there for sure.
Um, thank you, Brian. >> So, Tom, they let me ask a question thankfully. >> Outstanding. >> Yeah, I appreciate it. So, I don't just have to say it. >> Wait, wait, hear Lauren's question at the end, though. Oh, boy. >> Please tell us about your experiencing.
I already messed it up. Great. >> Start. >> Should restart the recording, please. Thank you. >> He can have his time back. Okay. Please tell us about your experience developing and administering budgets. As most of you know, I've been self-employed for a long time. I've I've
had to uh budget u manage people. I've had to, you know, I I don't have a um I don't have a a backup. So, I I had to, you know, so my experience with budgeting is I have to be very on top of
things, making sure I don't overspend, making sure I can produce what I need. in this position, it's g, in my opinion, it's going to be a little bit easier because I'm going to have a set budget that I need to stay within. I've never really had that before. It's always been
trying to pinch pennies and and do that. But, um, with that said, I think what one of the biggest things is in this job is to be judicious in how the money spent and do it as, uh, practical as possible and as efficient as possible. I think that's important to the town and
the board to not waste any funds and be very judicious with how we spend the funds. So, I'd be looking to uh not pinch pennies, but cut corners where need be needs be and and move things around to benefit the town and the
department. >> Thank you. >> I believe I have the next one. >> You do. uh please describe your leadership style and discuss how you would approach delivering difficult feedback or discipline while still maintaining trust and morale trust and
morale in a small town like Hampton. So you know when it when it comes to discipline and and things of that nature and if it if it's a difficult thing I I feel it's almost a autocratic uh style where it's okay this is you've done this
this is what needs to happen and and it's essentially a conversation of you can't do what you did and and and there needs to be a a discipline or a um a progressive discipline if you will uh
verbal warning, have a conversation. It would be, you know, a private conversation with the with the individual and probably the supervisor and it probably be a one-way conversation, especially if it's a egregious situation. Um, I think people can appreciate um honesty and
straightforward um actions. I think they know the group, at least that I've worked with in the years I've been here. I think they know that I'm pretty straight shooter and if there's an issue I I take it up with that person and and hopefully if they
correct the actions it's it's done and over with. >> If you follow up with that two things number one as president of the officers union. >> Yes. >> You were you're a strong advocate for them and rightly so as you should have been and you did a good job there for
them I have to say. >> Are you going to be able to separate that from your if you're appointed chief? >> I think so. Oh, I think I'm actually going to be able to do a great job and advocate for the town side. I I you know, I I do know the contract inside it out. We've obviously negotiated a couple
of very good contracts that uh have put us in a great spot for attracting, you know, veteran officers. So, I I think people are now actually looking at Hampton as a place to go instead of using them as a stepping stone and moving on to perceive bigger and better
things. So, I think um I think they know I know the contract. I think um you know, one of my biggest things um that I try to do is abide by the contract. If there's something that we have in the contract that doesn't work, I'd like to
uh make a note of it and try to correct it down the road. Um I know the intent behind most of the stuff we negotiated. Um I think I have a really good rapport with the other officers and they know I negotiated the contract, so they know I understand it. So I think they are um
willing to listen and inevitably there's going to be um something that comes up that was unforeseen and I think one of the biggest things with um the group now is I can talk to them. I can say okay well you know we as a town see it this
way you as the as the uh body see it this way. Let's find a middle ground and and fix the problem and come up with a solution. I think that will be fairly easy to do with with the group that we have. We have a we have a strong core right now and a lot of the guys are I
mean I think all the guys are are obviously behind me and and supportive of me which is which is huge. Um so I think um as long I think as long as we're reasonable and you know I can come up with a mutually agreed solution if
there is a if there is a problem I think it'll work itself out. How do you the post? How does that fit in all this? >> Post is pretty much um you know they dictate what how we have to respond. So
if there's a disciplinary action that we have to address. If it falls within their parameters, we have to report it. Um, as from what I've seen with the union and um, with other departments, they pretty much fall back on what the town decides to do as far as discipline
and support that action. Um, very rarely have I seen them come in and say, "No, that's not good enough. We need to do more." Um, so >> meaning post coming in, >> meaning post, correct? Once it's reported to post, I I've not seen them come back and say or question what has
been done. Um, so I think as long as we follow the parameters they have set forth with reporting, >> I don't think there'll be an issue. And and quite frankly, I don't think there'll be an issue anyway. I think I think everybody has seen in the past couple of years, unfortunately, that uh they're not messing around and the
town's not messing around. So, um, you know, I don't hopefully foresee any more problems. You know, it's it's been a bumpy road. So, hopefully I think it'll smooth out. I think everybody gets it. This might be a followup that unfortunately may not be relevant to the
other candidates, but you mentioned that you have the support of everybody behind you. This goes back to Eric's point before. Now, >> when you're in charge, that's going to change your dynamic with those people. Are you going to be able to >> maintain that? It's a tough thing being
the boss from being the coworker. >> Well, currently I am their boss. >> Um, relatively speaking, right? >> Um, I think there's a level of respect there. I think they know that I am, like I said, pretty straightforward. I think they know that as long as they tow the
line and do their job and do it well, go above and beyond, they're not we're not going to really have an issue. >> And it's been months that Scott's been kind of um part-time and there's been no issues. Um people have done their jobs. They've they've done what I've asked
them to do. And I think they all understand that it's a professional relationship. If it's, you know, we may be friends outside of work, but if we're in in work, it's it it is what it is. I I will do what I have to do to protect the town's interest and pro protect the department. >> If they do something that's going to
affect that, then they're going to feel the repercussions of it. >> Okay. >> So, but I again I think >> again that may not be relevant to everybody, but >> it may not. Yes, I understand. >> Um, so given the size of our police department, >> Yes, sir. >> Do you envision the chief
It could be yourself spending most of their time in the administrative side or the day-to-day side. >> I think it's going to be a mixture. Um, I think it's going to be a mixture for a while until we're back to full strength. There have been a lot of there has been
a lot of interest in of veteran officers coming over. Um, a lot of them are just waiting to see what happens with the chief's position. >> Um, so I think we will get back to full strength relatively quickly. Um, but I do think that, um, you know, there's
only two officers on, so if something happens, I need to be available and to respond. >> Um, but I also think I'll have plenty of time to do that along with keeping up with the administrative side of it. Um, I would like to streamline some of the stuff and and try to possibly create a
lieutenant's position um, probably three years down the road anyway because we all have new sergeants. But as of as of so far, um whenever there's a question, they call me, they ask me my opinion, uh and and they've done a great job
handling it. Um I've kind of I don't want to say step back, but I've let them kind of run their own shifts and if there's an issue, I pull them aside and we have a conversation about it and I let them correct it. And it's been working. It's been working really well.
>> Me? Yeah. Okay. Uh you know as you know a small police pleasing is a very stressful job even even in a small town things have changed. >> What strategies would you employ to um
attract and retain quality officers and also to support the current officers the mental and physical well-being uh you know under under your command. So, as I said earlier, um, with the board, I
think we've created a really good, uh, compensation, a fair contract, and I think that has attracted um, some veteran officers in that have had a lot of experience. They've come over, they've welded or melded well. Um,
they've everybody's right now very supportive. Uh, as far as like the stressful, I think, um, just not being overbearing and having conversations if there's an issue, addressing it quickly, quietly, and and handling it. Um, it's
very stressful. So, you know, if if there's a situation that pops up, thankfully, people have been coming me coming to me and telling me we have a officer that's possibly getting divorced and that's weighing heavily on him and it's affecting him and and you know, so
it's conversations we've had privately and and you know if you need something let me know. So supporting them but still with the concept of we got to get the job done. So it's it's been um I think the best thing
is maybe just being even keel with them handling it kind of like with a conversation. Um and it's so far it's been it's been really well. It's worked out really well. >> I'm not sure if that answered your question or not. kind of got off the >> where we are.
>> Yes. >> Right. So, here's the hard question. >> Yes, sir. >> Why should we choose you as the chief? I mean, what >> what do I bring to the table? >> And what do you envision bringing to the table? I If you were a chief, what would be the things you would do in the first
100 days? first 100 days, I would uh work really diligently on bringing in probably two part-timers. Um trying to get back to full staff relatively quickly. Uh I think if we find one full-time officer um relatively quickly,
I think that will alleviate the stress of orderins and and the budget stresses. Um I'd like to put together a uh uh vehicle replacement plan. Um, there's been a lot of concerns of the higher mileage vehicles.
I do think we do need a vehicle, but I also think that we need to push these vehicles to limit to see how far we can get out of them, to see how far we can push them. Um, I think the um, one of the things is keeping the morale
up. People are obviously there is some self-interest but people are very supportive because they see promotional opportunities for themselves and movement to different shifts which um you know is they've worked a lot of nights on overnight so the morale of
being able to move around and and uh seek out new opportunities is enticing so there is that aspect um you know I'd like to streamline line um some of the shifts and some of the
different um positions. Um if if when we fill the DB spot, I like to maybe use that person as also the school resource officer so we don't have to pay overtime to when we when we want to officer in the school. We can kind of double dip with the school resource officer. I
think that saves a good amount of money. Um and then just, you know, have a good structure and right now things are running smoothly. So, I I don't want to come in and I don't want to come in and blow it up or or start making huge changes. I I want to kind of work my way
in subtle, see the, you know, see the things that need to be changed and kind of work towards it slowly. So, people don't like big changes right away. So, um it's about what I can think of at the moment.
>> What do you think about body cameras? >> I think we need to do them. I think there are some grants out there that we can apply for. There's been a lot of interest in going to grant writing school. So, there's probably two officers I would send to a grant writing school that write exceptionally well.
Um, and I think we need to search out grants to help offset the cost of the body cams. Um, I think everybody knows they're coming. I think they're a good thing. I think a lot of people think they're a good thing. um when you're on the street, if somebody makes a claim against you and it's on video, it's it's
very difficult to disprove the video. I don't think there's going to be any push back from the union side. Um so I I I definitely would like to see that happen in the next 3 to 5 years. We do have uh the IT situation to work out, which I
think will be again I think the union sees that there was unintended consequences with what we did. So I think they're going to be amicable in it. And >> then I go back to the original question about the budget, you know, etc. You know, the cost of the body cameras, you
know, the original capital cost pales. Yes. >> In comparison to the annual cost of cloud storage, etc. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So we have to figure out if we can store them. My understanding, and I'm I could be wrong on this, but my understanding is we do have the server space for it, but I don't think it's as
advantageous as it is storing it on the cloud. So we have to we have to figure out >> where the best avenue is, where the most cost effective avenue is, and we may have to start off small and and start with the in-house stuff and then maybe move it to a cloud storage, but it's
it's going to be pricey. And so hopefully they're going to come out with some more grants that we can get to offset that cost. That's going to be a priority to find the money rather than have the town foot the whole bill for it. Do do you think they'll the state
will or post will mandate it at some point? >> I think with post they were supposed to and I think I think they have since slowed down with some of the stuff they're doing because they're having a hard time even understanding what they're supposed to be doing. >> Um but eventually that's going to be
gotten figured out by them and it will eventually be mandated. >> But hopefully if they do come out and mandate it there's funds >> to pay for it. We just have to figure out and try to, you know, if if there's something that comes up, a grant that
comes up, we need to we need to go after it and try to try to get it to offset um some of the cost. One of the grants I can think of off the top of the head is the Burns grant that small communities get. You can use the money for a cruiser, you can use money for IT stuff.
So, you know, we just have to articulate it the right way and hopefully we can get the grants coming in >> to offset a lot of the costs of this stuff. But yes, I do think it's it's coming. So, and again, it's not it's not a bad thing, but it's we we do have to
figure it out. >> Okay. Um any other was a list of our questions that we had articulated and if we deviate from that, we have to make sure to write that down so the other two candidates have it. Uh we do have a few minutes left. Is there anything you'd like to say?
>> Um, you know, again, I I think, um, when I came here, I I worked my way up through the ranks. Um, I've tried to make things better with with the union contracts. I think we've done that. I think mutually
we can, you know, we've we're in a great position right now to bring in we're we're attracting veteran officers. We've never had that in Hampton. Um, you know, Wilberham's having issues with employees. You know, Long Meadows a revolving door. East Long Meadows having
problems. You know, we're not. I think we're in a great spot. People see what we have and they want to come to Hampton. We've never had that. And I think part of that's been the work we've done with the contract and and it's, you know, it's a pretty um
reasonable contract, I guess, is the best way to say it. And so, I think I think we've done real well with that. Um, when I came here, I I, you know, my goal was always to try to make things better. I haven't always done things the right way. I've certainly made mistakes and, you know, I've tried to learn from
those. Um, so I think I've, you know, I finished my education, um, with my bachelor's degree in the last three years, which was no easy task, working full-time and trying to get everything else done. Um, I've tried to put myself in the best position to be able to help
the town as the chief. Um, and the only other thing I can think of is where do you guys where do you people as the leaders of the town want to see the department in 3 to 5 years? Do you want to see it kind of as we are as a tight-knit community
police department or is there something a goal that you feel we should be targeting? >> Well, we didn't talk about the residency requirement in the chief's contract, did we? >> No. >> No. >> No. I live three minutes from the department, but I can certainly move
across the border. So, there actually are some really nice houses for sale right now. So, but the price tag is not cheap. >> No, it's not. Well, it goes back to what you said before about what a nice community we have. >> Exactly. >> It it really honestly um and I I know
you know this because you've been here your entire life, but it's a it's a great community. I love being here. Um I love working with the people. I get along great with other department heads. There's really, you know, it's it's been a pleasure working here. >> Great. >> All right. If there's nothing else,
we'll >> quick. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. You want uh Carl Carl to come up in five minutes, please? >> Five minutes. >> I am not. I work today, so I had to keep my mind off of this. >> Thank you.
I'm out of here. Carol's coming up. >> How many people we have on >> now? 27. Some just >> chief's phone. >> Got to change that. >> George
>> guest guest iPad phone. >> Really? >> I don't think that's really him. >> Magic Mike. [Music] All right.
back in the bucket. You >> don't get to keep them. I would think we should like we should keep them. Yeah. >> No. >> No parting gifts. >> Got the Don't you still have those chips downstairs? >> Downstairs.
I thought that went well. By the way, the uh the order of questions >> and the followups were good. you but you noted what you did so we can to follow up on >> well I won't ask the union question because >> right not
every two minutes we get another [Applause] They could get him. Told him to send him off. I mean, >> he said to send him off in 5 minutes. >> 5 minutes. >> 5:55 when [Music]
[Applause] I bet you thought I hear a footstep. >> There we go. Get lost. Maybe we got lost. >> Yep. I got Carl Mazenl to meet you. Nice to meet you again.
Nice to meet you again. >> You want to have a seat at the table there, Carl? >> Oh, yes. >> Thank you. [Music] >> What the mic is to all the people at home. >> I can see you too.
>> Like any YouTube thing, subscribe. They do, you know, they send Brian money as support the channel and stuff like that. Yeah. >> How's that going so far, Brian? >> Oh, we got 25 tonight. So, 25 times 100. Yeah, >> it's pretty good. >> Big big night. >> But before we begin, I do have my resume
if you guys need copies. >> Right. Yeah. >> So, we have our second three Carl Mazifer. >> Yes. >> Who is currently a pardon me sergeant? >> Uh, captain. >> Captain Long Meadow.
>> Yes. So, so we're going to go through the same questions we asked the previous candidate in the same order. There might be a couple of follow-ups and we'll make sure to the best of our ability that we repeat the same thing. Okay. >> We scheduled half an hour. Shouldn't
take even take that long. >> Okay. All right. So, I'll start off. Um, so tell us something about yourself that's not in the resume. I mean, why did you choose law enforcement as a career? Well, for me, uh, law enforcement was
more of a calling. You know, I, uh, started my, as a, uh, teen, I was an Eagle Scout. >> So, I always wanted to find a job that could help people. And, um, policing just seemed a natural fit for me.
>> So, that's that's my reason for getting into law enforcement. Just uh, you know, I took some colleges uh, courses in college and I found a knack. I found something I enjoyed learning the law and and it intertwined both learning the law
and helping helping the public out. >> Okay. Okay. I'm going to take this one. >> The one you had on your phone? >> He asked too something that's not in my resume. Mr. Flynn, >> the one on your phone. >> Mr. Flynn, did you also ask something
that was not in my resume you wanted to know besides the law enforcement? Is that a two-part question or just uh >> basically uh you know something not on your resume? I mean boy scout when you were young I mean that was good. >> What else you got?
>> Oh just like to know like um I live in the song metal with my wife Jill. Been married for uh 21 years. I have um three children. Victoria who is 19. She's a student at Western New England uh university. I still want to call college. Um, my son Zachary is a junior
at East Long Meadow High School and my son Anderson is a eighth grader at Berlin Middle. So, I my family and I in our leisure time, we're a big Disney family. So, we part of the Disney Vacation Club. So, we go down there. That's usually how we um enjoy our
family time and stuff. So, that's something unique with my family and I. So, >> good. Okay. What does protect and serve mean to you and how does community policing support that mission?
>> Well, you know, protect and serve is um we have a responsibility as a police department to provide our residents with the best level of service that we can and uh that is rooted in community policing. My cornerstone of my career
has always been community policing and a lot of that started here. Um when I got hired in Hampton as a full-time officer, you know, I was uh I was one of the four school resource officers. Um Scott Tromley and I were assigned to Green Meadow and Bill Joy and uh Jeff Farnworth were assigned to the middle
school. Um I also took part in the RAD kids program. So my my foundation for community policing started here with within Hamen and that has segueed throughout my entire career. in um Long Meadow. I um when I became a sergeant um
I took over and re brought back the community police the community policing academy. I um started the uh walking school bus program which is uh where we kids will meet in an area instead of the school buses and carine we'll walk to school. Uh did a lot of programs at the
senior center. So uh community policing has always been one of the foundations of my career in Hamen. It's especially important. You know, it's a small community and and as as police chief, I feel it's I need to be front and center with the community.
You know, being out there um I one of the things I I have on my list if I am selected is uh community chat sessions with with residents. um coffee with a cop where I can meet them in different locations, have open houses throughout
um you know, not just once a year, but throughout the year at the police department where they can come and meet with the chief, but you know, community policing is is you know, needs to be the foundation of of of the police department and I it starts with the police chief.
>> Thank you. me, chief, >> if you'd like to. Okay. Uh, describe what your understanding is of the relationship that would be between the police chief and the town administrator and the select board. So,
my understanding is the the select board is the governing body. Um, you're you're in charge of the town and the the day-to-day would be myself and the the town administrator. So, the the select board makes the decisions and um
you know, and then, you know, I probably have day-to-day um conversations with with the town administrator, but you know, the select board is is the governing body. They're the ones that um you know, the appointing and and firing authority with the within the town. So, I I believe there there needs to be a
cohesive collaboration between the three and um that that's something I would be bringing as your chief. I have a great deal of experience of of meeting and working with the select boards. Um, even in Long Meadow when I was in charge of traffic and safety, I would meet with yearly and go over just different
projects going on in town, different traffic concerns they may have. And Long Meadow has a town manager for government. So, Lynn Simmons, you know, she's kind of like the select board. you know, she's in charge of the hiring and firing and the day-to-day, but I have a great working relationship with with Lynn and um in my role as as um sergeant
in charge of traffic and safety and also my role as captain. I work with her, you know, her her office a lot. So, >> how does excuse me, how do how do they communicate an incident in town to the select boards? Do they >> uh that that would go to Lynn? So, um
Lynn Lynn is the again she's the version of the select board. So she's >> I mean not that I mean we don't need to know everything but >> No, but like what usually >> particular thing would happen that we really need to know about. So how >> so um in situations where I've been assigned you know my my chief is away I'm I'm the acting chief um being number
two in the department. Um that would be a situation where I'd be calling Lynn and saying this is what we have going on in town and then she would facilitate that message >> down. So, >> I did have a followup uh prior, so it may not be relevant to your answer, but
I want to get your opinion. Uh Hampton has consolidated dispatch in the last several years, and we see a trend over the Commonwealth for the same thing. Do you see or anticipate that type of trend happening with police departments as well? And what's your feeling about it?
>> I'll be honest, I do. I I think as um we get farther in the police reform, I think you're going to see department staffing start, you know, shrinking. And I I I you may not see full, you know, consolidation, but you're going to see more sharing of resources.
>> You know, I think every community is important to have your police department uh here just just because of the community policing aspect. You know, you walk into the police department, you know, the officers. it it's you know it's not a state trooper there or a sheriff working but I I think as down the road and it may not happen in my
career but I think you'll see more consolidations of police services and towns assisting and helping each other more when it comes to to the resources that that they need to op run and operate. So >> great now we have our town administrator
>> they let me ask one question well you've had practice so this he whines a lot so mess up like the like the first time. >> Yeah. >> Please tell us about your experience developing and administering budgets.
Nailed it. >> So, I I have an academic background with budgeting. I have a master's degree in public administration um from American International College and in that program, I took an entire semester of budgeting. Uh furthermore, I've run uh
grants. I am one of our grant writers in Long Meadow in the last three years. Right now, I'm managing about $433,000 in grants that our department has. Um I've uh it being also number two in the department, you know, in the absence of the chief, it's my responsibility to know the budget, know what's going on.
I'm in charge of training, so I have to know the training budget. Um when I was assigned as the traffic and safety supervisor, I was in charge of our crossing guards. Long Meadow has 24 regular crossing guards. is about $175,000 from the chief's budget. >> So that was one of my responsibilities.
I had to know where my budget was with the crossing guards throughout the year. So I I have extensive experience with budgeting and um organizing putting budgets together and you know not just the practical but also the academic aspect of of the budgeting as stuff. So also I'm I'm knowledgeable immunist
also. So, >> okay, I think I'm up. >> Please describe your leadership style and discuss how you would approach delivering difficult feedback or discipline while still maintaining trust and morale in a small department like Hampton. >> So, my leadership style, I have an
adaptive leadership style. I I believe as a leader, you can't have just one type of leadership. As as a leader, you need to be adaptive. So you know you may have a situation where you may be an have to be an autocratic leader that day. Uh you may have to be a
transformational leader to your officers but you can't just have one leadership. So I I over my supervisory years and now you know administrative years I have felt being an adaptive leader has been the west best way to to lead a group of
of staff and officers and even the community. you know, you it you have to be an adaptive leader. And I I just found that was the best course of action because not everybody's the same. Not everybody when you talk to somebody is going to have the same, you know, they're not going to have the same, you know, personality when it
comes to feedback and stuff. And the way I handle leadership and feedback with my officers or discipline is first I I'm always empathetic when I have to bring an officer in to speak with them. you know, that's one of my other responsibilities is I'm, you know, and and the chief's the ultimate
disciplinarian in Long, but I'm, you know, I'm his second in charge. So, I I'm that first level before it gets to the chief. And I I'm always empathetic when I have to speak to any of my officers. Um, you know, I always explain why they're coming in. So, I I I'm very
cognizant of of the environment and and I I know it's a stressful situation. So, you know, I I really think that being adaptive to that situation is important. So >> what about the post >> post >> you know
the certification things like that of discipline uh >> well with post um the chief is the ultimate one that submits to post >> um again my findings when I have my uh when when I do a an internal affairs investigation and I have to submit it
that the chief it it's to the chief's the chief's one who submits that but I know all the the post guidelines and the post rules And um I I understand that but that that the chief's the primary person every agency who submits the post um when it comes to any type of internal
affairs or complaints. >> Does the disciplinary things come to you first? >> Most of them do. Yes. >> Y >> So you have a your hierarchy is chief, you got a captain, you got a lieutenant, >> a bunch of sergeants. >> We have five sergeants. Yep. So but but
the sergeants too can you know the sergeants have um disciplinary action too you know again minor things you know late for work or you know just just minor things the sergeants will handle at their level you know and then you know they may kick it up to my level but a lot of times that could be handled at the sergeant level you know for me it's
it's the internal affairs you know the major stuff you know then I I do my report and I and I give it to the chief so >> so given the size of our police department you know we're fairly small department you know You were there? >> Yes, I was. Yeah. >> So, uh, do you envision the chief's role
to be mostly administrative or would it be involved in day-to-day as well? >> It would be involved, it would be a combination of both. It's just like I like how I'm as a captain right now. >> You know, as a captain, I'm in a unique situation along Metal where I'm still part of the union >> and that's just how our hierarchy works.
>> So, I still have to cover shift. Um, I have to go on calls for service. So in the absence of my sergeants on dayshift, I'm covering the the dayshift and in conjunction with having to do my administrative work. So I I don't foresee knowing Ham as well as I do. I
don't I don't see foresee that changing at all. It's it's it's it's the chief again being adaptive knowing that I guess I have administrative work, but also too I'm going to have to be available to assist my officers and assist the community for calls for service. So
the uh policing, we all know that policing is a 24/7 job. It's very stressful even if it's in a small town. What are your what strategies would you employ for attracting people, retaining people and
also uh supporting their employee in mental and physical health? So, uh, uh, at by the end, I'm going to give you a 90-day plan. And on my 90-day plan, it discusses, uh, uh, you know, retention and recruitment. I know the department is still down one officer. So, um,
recruitment and retention is just getting the word out there, getting, um, to the colleges, to the sheriff's, advertising. Um, you know, I I never felt Hampton had an issue of of recruiting at all. It's such, you know, when I applied here 24 years ago, and I know poling has changed over the years,
but the the reputation of the town preceded itself. You know, it's it was it it was just a great town to work for. So, um, but it's it's getting that positive feedback out there and and trying to u encourage people to apply to the department. So I just think just
being actively, you know, seeking into the colleges, the sheriff's department, you know, we have different avenues now that we can look for hiring that we didn't have four or five years ago with with with with police reform. Um, and as for mental health and wellness, you
know, it it definitely a big big topic. Um, it's one of the things I take personally, mental health and wellness within my officers and trying to get them into uh training as much as we can. um any type of um uh we just set I trying to get all my
department there's a program through the sheriff's office called struggle well it's a free program you know it just costs the time of the department to get the officers into it but I I've been trying to get all my officers into this struggle well program it's it's a it's a
two-day program um but I I think mental health and mental wellness can't just be a you know send somebody to a class this year and not next year. You know, it has to be a continuation of just making sure that you know that, you know, that they're that they're mentally well and
health. And part of that too is is also talking with them and and you know, I have an open door policy and as as police chief, I will also have continue that open door policy or my officers can come and talk to me whenever they want. >> You know, if I feel I see an officer who is struggling, I will call them in and talk to them to say, "Hey, how is
everything going?" you know, it's it's while Long Meadow may be 27 and and Hampton's 11, we're we're still small agencies. Everybody knows everybody, you know, everybody is is is, you know, it they're friends, you know, so um it's it's like I said, it's just knowing your
officers and also making sure that they get into the proper programs that that are out there. And again, these are like Struggle Well is a free program. You know, it just costs sending the officer there his time. Doesn't cost the town any money to send them there. and and I I did it uh this past summer and it was phenomenal. It was it was an excellent
program, but I I I felt like I needed to go to that program just to see what I'm sending my officers to. >> I thought that was important and um I left there and I'm like, "Yep, we're we're going to get everybody in there as soon as we can." So, >> you did ask your body camera before we
move it up the the last one. >> Okay. >> I got a mental health question, though. I know you do. >> But you want to ask it to him? >> Yeah. Then I'll do then I'll then I'll do the next thing because we're on mental health. >> Okay. >> We're on mental health. Uh
>> that's for the officers. >> Yeah. >> Uh can you describe briefly the mental health co-responder program? >> Yes. So Long Meadow currently we have a co-responder program with East Long Meadow and it has been phenomenal. I I I cannot believe um how successful the
program is. I I think it should be in every single program. I mean, every single community, the co-responder program. Um, just, you know, she the co-responder is in East Long Meadow Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday, and then the other half of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, she's in Long Meadow. But that doesn't matter. She she
will go back and forth to both communities. I I had a referral um for her on Tuesday for a situation in Long Meadow and um she quickly jumped on board and was able to call that person. So just so people know this is if an
officer is called to St. Francis domestic situation, they could call the co-responder to come in >> if if if they're working or what they can do is give the co-responder >> the address and they will call that. That's what we do a lot of the times. We'll we print out the report. They have
a they have a box and that that report will be in her mailbox u when she comes in and then or we can call I mean we she's very accessible so if if there's some type of emergency she can call from her house you know right there but she's uh the program has been amazing. It it
it is um you know I I I think it's helped the community a lot you know and also too she's there for the officers too. you know, she she's not just there for this for for the residents, she's there for the officers can go in there and speak with her and so it's you know, it's um so it's a it is a great program.
So, >> okay. Now, now the one body cameras. >> Yes. >> Your thoughts? >> Yes. No. >> Um I I think body cameras are great. You know, I I have um I I just think in today's world of technology um it
just protects the officers. It protects the community. It tells it lets everybody know what's going on. there there's no hiding of the call and if an officer is inappropriate or doing something incorrectly it's going to be on that body camera and then you know as an administrator I can handle that um
situation but um you know it just like I said we have incar cameras along metal right now so I'm working on one of the grants that I am pending is a burn called the burn grants it's for $40,000 so I'm in the process of replacing all of our incar cameras but that line item
to do that was about1 $110,000 and we didn't have the money for that. So, what I'm doing is I'm I'm first we have an on-site storage area for our incar cameras. I'm moving that to the cloud system. That that's really the expensive part. The cloud system is is is expensive. So, we're moving that to the cloud system and then I'm replacing one
incar camera and then next year my goal is to write that burn grant to start replacing the rest of the incar cameras. But what I'm getting at is is right now we have the incar cameras and they've been fantastic and at some point I mean there's grants out there. East Long Meadow got the the grant from through Massachusetts to pay for their their
body cameras. It didn't cost the town anything. Um so, you know, if down the road that, you know, that would be something I'd be looking at is I I just find grant funding important for smaller communities to supplement that. >> So, that um but yes, I I do support body cameras.
>> So, the last question and kind of the hardest one I think >> your first 100 days Yeah. I mean, are are a big thing. >> Yes. But why should we choose you as chief of police? What are you going to bring in that first 100 days that's going to validate our choice?
>> Can I give you a document first and we can talk about that for the my first 100 days? >> That's not a PowerPoint. I mean I thought it was going to be a DVD presentation. >> No, I I I if I had I could. So I do have a 90day basketball. >> Oh 90 days. I >> I have a 90 day plan but we >> I can add the extra first 10 week 10
days of vacation on contract. Is that like abs of steel? >> Absel dice. >> I went past I have no idea what you're talking about. >> Remember that? Yes, you do. >> Yes, I do. >> So, one of the things I'm very passionate about is the 21st century
policing model which was developed during uh President Obama's administration and I I feel every police department in the country should model the six pillars of 21st century policing which is building trust and legitimacy. police uh policy and oversight, technology, social media, community
policing, crime reduction, officer training, education, and officer safety and wellness. And that's how I would be assessing my 90 days for the Hampton Police Department. You know, my my first day day one through day 30 to me is the
assessment phase of me coming in as new police chief. uh scheduling one-on-one meetings with all the staff, officers, sergeants. Um establishing the open door policy. Um just shadowing the shifts and the different divisions. Um conducting my first staff meeting. Um and then
externally again meetings with one-on-one meetings with each of the select board members. Um the town administrator, uh dispatch, um with the dispatch director, uh meeting the department heads. I I collaborate all the time in Long Meadow with our department heads. have a great working relationship with
all of them, including the superintendent's office. Um, establishing regular meetings with the union leadership. Again, I talked earlier about the community listening sessions. I think that that's very important. And then again, meeting with uh the police department and, you know, the police
department safety committee. So, you know, that's where I would be in my first day one through day 30 is is that beginning assessment and and getting myself out there, getting people to meet me as a new police chief. It's it's important that they know there's been a new change in leadership within the
police department. Um so you know that's again internally and externally I I think that is um important. Then for the operational aspect of everything is um one of my passions is accreditation. Um Long Meadows accredititation manager. >> I know Hamen is is at that beginning
phase of self- assessment. For accredit accredititation there there's there's self assessment certification which is 159 standards. Then there's the accredititation which is about 100 28 standards depending on your on your side size of your community. So but I I again
reviewing department policies and procedures I I'm um analyzing current theorganization structures and the effect effectiveness and efficiencies um use of force any incidences citizens complaints uh technology and anything
with the technology within the department the fleet. I I watched some of the meetings. Um I I know there's been some talk about the the fleet within the department trying to extend the the the mileage a little bit within those um the the vehicles. I can tell you Long Meadow. We are we keep our cars
somewhere about 100,000 and then we we move them on to um either spare cruisers or you know and then from there they move on to the different aspects of the town will use them. So and then what the department currently has for grants. So
day 31 through 60 is just you know analysis phase uh looking at the strength and weaknesses of department conducting uh comprehensive budget review. You know my my goal I know I know Chief Tromley came in about 6% um of a budget that he submitted last
year. You know my my goal as a chief is always try to be as level funded as possible. um you know obviously you have your contractual increases that you're going to have to um bring in but you know as as chief you know and I've learned that from my current chief he does a great job with our budget is um
you know come as level funded as possible within within your budget again current staffing levels I mean I I Hamen has always relied heavily on their reserve unit it was the same way when I worked here and you know that's something that you know with that
recruitment and retention is keeping that reserve staff healthy cuz it it helps out with the budget, helps out with the full-timers and time off. And then um and then looking at any overtime recurring patterns or causes.
Um then professional de development, you know, I I feel as my as a captain in charge of training, my job is to make all my officers the best versions of themselves and as chief that would continue. And part of that is getting them into training. the department has a healthy training budget at about
$40,000. So there's there's money there to send officers to training and that's a great way to build morale and and um you know within the department is if a department has if an officer has a niche get them into that class. I always say if the training is applicable to the
department in the community you know we'll send it to you. you know, I'm not going to send somebody to, you know, learn about biker gangs when Long Widow doesn't have an issue with biker gangs, you know. So, but I tell my officers, if there's something that you want to go to and it's applicable to our community and
in our in our town, we'll send it to you. You know, it just it just benefits the community at the end. You know, that's that that's what it does. And again, it builds that morale within within the department. Um, my other role I had for many years was I was a field training officer. Um, I have now passed
it on the field training manager aspect to one of my sergeants. Still oversee the whole program, but one of my sergeants run a day-to-day operations. So, um, very passionate about the field training program. And then researching more grant opportunities. You know, there there are a lot of grants out
there. You know, there's a lot of different trusts out there that give money to law enforcement. So, it's again, the burn grant is is another great one. You get $40,000 a year. Last year I replaced all of our laptops and our cruisers with a grant that that you know we we didn't have the money for it.
So that that burn grant paid for all our new laptops, new keyboards, everything in it. So you know that that was key um there. So and even the mass gaming grant, you know, it's it's again $433,000 I had brought in the last three years
through Mass Gaming. And a lot of that was to update the town's uh fiber optics. the town that I pretty much closed all the fiber optic loops within the town from the mass gaming grant. So, and the town wanted a robust um start putting cameras up in parks. We've had
some incident in parks and stuff. So, um >> they sorry the money from the gaming commission as part of the MGM settlement you this is the grant. >> Okay. >> The grant the MGM. So, every year there's the the mass gaming grant that comes out >> that communities can apply for, right?
>> So, and there's there's different tiers of that. There there's the uh public works side, there's um the town side, and then there's the public safety side. >> Okay. >> And they all have different >> This is not the gaming commission. >> No, no, no. Absolutely not. Nope. >> What was that relevant to? All right. >> No, no. Um I I've been able to tie a lot
in traffic >> with with the mass with with the mass gaming grant that comes out every single year. >> So, we've been able to purchase um the automated speed signs. Um, I know our town manager requested uh there was a road that had some issues with the
residents exiting. She was requesting to put a uh one of the sensor cameras up there. So, I was able to tie that into traffic and get that paid for through that. Um, >> here's a question for you. >> We talked about this before. You have a street that has speed bumps on it. >> Yes. Yeah. I was How do you get away
with that? >> Um, so well because we've been told you can't do that on a certain over a certain miles per hour. >> Well, they're they're speed tables. So they're tech it's just the wording they're not they're not speed bumps. So they're at raised they're raised
crosswalks is what they are. >> So they're at a raised crosswalk to slow traffic down. Chabe has a similar >> going down I think it's Front Street. >> But if you notice where they're they're located. They're by the crosswalks >> for the raised crosswalk. So the one at the high school um that was done through
a grant through the town um and then one by the um community house for both both paid for through grants. Mhm. >> to have those put in. And the one by the high school, we had a fatality there and we were tasked to make that safer. So, that was one of the ways was making it safer.
>> But it's labeled as the crosswalk. Therefore, you >> It's a raised crosswalk. Yes. Yeah. >> There you go, Eric. >> Now, you need a crosswalk. >> Keep going. >> But, but we do get that request. >> We're actually hitting our time limit
here. I I'll so um but like I said this is my my my 90 >> my my 90-day plan and then the final 61 to 90 days is my action plan. I I plan on putting a 3 to 5 year um report together what my long-term goals short-term goals are after going through
this this 90 days for the select board for the town administrator's office for you to review and and see where we can move this department forward. So that's so this is my 90-day plan and I will find the extra 10 days Sure. So
>> yeah, down at Old Key West or something. >> Yeah. So that's a great So that's Island Reserve. >> Um so any further questions? >> If you'll go down and ask him to give us five minutes. >> Okay. Sounds good. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. >> Thank you.
>> Where's your resource? Well, that was that was all that was open for sale. We So, we've been there about uh Thank you. Thank you very much. We've been there about 15 years. So, thank you very much. I appreciate the time. >> All right.
>> That's interesting though. >> Raised crosswalk. >> Raised crosswalk thing. But >> raised crosswalk. That's what you got to call it. Raised crosswalk or he called it something else. >> Speed table. raise speed table speed. >> Speed tables. You don't call them speed bumps. You call them speed tables.
>> Maybe where they're cross. >> Maybe that could be raised. >> Yeah, that could be raised there. >> Why is there one along the way? That's all you need. >> But tough to get away with a crosswalk when you get on the sidewalk on the other side. >> I think there's a speed limit requirement that you can't go you can't put people in
front of 40 mph street. Well, on front street they have them there's three of them and they're not 50 feet apart. >> Mhm. >> Because there's there's they have one by the church, the St. Dust church. They have one by the middle school
>> and they have one by the high school and they're all in that, >> right? But if that's how they're rationalizing it, good. We'd have a tough time with no sidewalks to put a crosswalk in. >> Put like speed table in. We could put we
could put one by that that right away at Raymond Drive. >> Well, that's what I'm thinking. You know, >> the rightway right there. >> There's a right away. >> There's a golf course has a right away. They paved it that goes from the golf course to the
farm across the other side of Raymond Drive. >> Or we could put on Raymond Drive. We could put one of a little sign. It is a select select board crossing. >> Sure. >> All right. Just see how it's going right
there. It's going to wing right now. >> She's got front putting them on on Sunday. >> Yeah. 95. >> Yeah. Damn.
[Music] He's a deputy sergeant. He's on medge or detective sergeant. Brian, that was much better. >> Thank you. But I would have thought with your experience in the MVP video.
>> I know. You know, >> maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was the shirt. >> Had multiple takes on that one. So, >> this one's live. >> This is the one thing. >> Live reads are harder. What can I say? >> Cookies. >> I wanted to look professional. Sorry.
>> That was those chips in the department down the office. >> Oh, that's right. Yeah, we had the chips. >> Oh, yeah. We got to be nice and Come on. Not that I couldn't go a week without right now. Kill me. >> Yes. >> Good evening.
>> Hey. Hello. >> Watching the clock down there. It said 5 minutes. >> Perfect. Well, you got the you got the shortest distance to go afterwards. So, >> I do. Yeah, I do. And I made a joke with Tom that there were two cruisers right at the end of North Road. and I thought he was gonna try to barricade so I
couldn't get down here. He said that was a good idea, but no, that wasn't it. Um, I have just updated resumes. I think I had to change one thing on here since because that was a month and a half, two months ago now. That means some period of time. So, um, if you'd like to have a fifth if
you'd like. Thank you. >> Okay. Do you mind having a seat right there? >> Thank you. And the camera can see it too. >> Okay. and hear you better. >> Okay. So, our third interview is Daniel Bruno. Dan. Okay. >> That's fine. >> All right. Great. Was a detective
sergeant in the East Lo Police Department. And we'll start off. We have the same questions for you that we've gave the other two c two candidates. Same order pretty much. There might be a couple follow-ups, but we're going to try and make sure everybody got the same.
>> Okay. >> And let's start off. Uh, tell me something about tell us something about yourself that's not on this resume. And why did you choose law enforcement for a career?
>> Um, so I chose law enforcement. I I remember I declared that as my major in college, but going back to middle school, I think this is what I wanted to do. One of my grandmothers used to joke that, "Oh, Danny's going to be a cop someday. That's what he's going to do."
>> I always had the cowboy gun belt on. And it was just something that I always aspired to. I am the first person in my family to uh be in law enforcement. I didn't have a a father, an uncle, or a cousin, anybody in law enforcement. So, this was all new to me. Um, it was just
something I was always drawn to. Um, I can't even tell you what the the the defining moment was that made me want to be in law enforcement. It's just something that was always there for me and I knew going into college well before I went in that was going to be my
declared major. >> Um, so besides what's on the resume, obviously I'm a town resident here, which you see by my address. Um, moved here just about 20 years ago. um grew up in East Long Meadow and that's why I started uh the East Long Meadow Police
Department. You typically I think in this field are drawn to your hometown. You want to you know a lot of a lot of guys in town want to be firefighters or police officers in their hometown. And I uh went to school for that. I started taking civil service exams and police
entrance exams and uh I had my heart set on East Long Meadow at that time. And so that's why I have been there for my entire uh almost 28-year career. Um, and then in 2004 and five, I I bought land here up up on the mountain as you know,
and uh moved to town, built my home in town here. Um, gcied my house working the working the night shift and worked hard to to build my house and uh took a couple of years. We we moved in with not not a lot on the on the walls and not all the tile on the floors, but we moved
in anyway. And the change then um was really because Hamen became the town that it felt like where I grew up and East Long Meadow has grown up as you
know in a small city. Um Hamen still has that small town feel. That's why we decided to come here. We wanted to be a little bit away from it, a little bit insulated, yet this is the small town that I grew up in. You know, it's it's kind of nice to be in a place with no
traffic lights. I'm not going to lie. We we like that. I'd like to keep it that way. No traffic lights in town, but yeah, love living here in Hampton and uh always wanted to be in law enforcement. >> Okay. So, back to the phone. Sorry, I chatted one down on my phone. Sorry.
>> No, no, we modified a question. So, Eric's got Okay, >> we had a bunch of question. >> So, we got the same exact wording for everybody. I I rewarded it on my phone so I'm not looking up anything. What does protect and serve mean to you and how does community policing policing
support that mission? >> Protect and serve is so this is a serviceoriented job. This is a public profession. Uh protect and serve. So the the protect piece of what we do in law
enforcement is is such a small small piece of it. um when you're a little kid and you want to become a police officer, you know, you you think about arresting people and getting into high-speed police chases and everything. It's such a small piece of what we do. That actual protect
piece, the service piece is really what this this career, this profession is about and it has really developed into that. From when I started until now, policing has evolved and policing has changed. This is a serviceoriented profession
first. The protect piece goes along with it. Um, community policing, that was, you know, a big catchphrase and buzzwords back in the 80s and early 90s. And policing evolved into community place policing in small towns like Hampton, like East
Long Meadow, like Long Meadow, like Wilberham, we always felt that we had been engaged in community pleasing. So in the cities like Springfield and Worcester and Boston, community policing was this great paradigm shift in policing, but for us in the small towns, it really
wasn't. We'd always been been doing that, and that's the service piece. So, you know, you can joke about a firefighter getting a cat out of a tree. Well, with the police, it may be. Well, I've definitely helped a lot of people unlock their keys from their cars. Um,
I've found their lost pets. We've coralled their horses. uh with Pat Bean, you know, we've we've definitely gone out and brought horses back. This I pride myself on being community oriented and serviceoriented.
That's what this profession is. It's developed into that, but we've been doing it all along. And in Hampton, I think even more so. This truly is still such a small town, which is what's so great about it. And our police officers here, and I'm fortunate, I know most of
these guys. I've worked with them just by the nature of uh mutual aid calls and working together over the years. This is what they do best in Hampton. >> I think that's one of the strengths of Hammond PD is community service. They have one of the best national nights out
that they do. We do one, but we don't have fireworks to match that. I can tell you. Um I volunteered here for years at the National Night Out because it's it's part of our town. It doesn't matter that I work next door. It was what we do here in Hampton. We do those things well in
Hampton. Um, one of your officers is frequently in the schools, you know, visiting kids, having lunch with them. This is what community policing is in a small town. Maybe finding creative solutions to problems that don't result in criminal court action, right? That's
part of the service model. And I think they do that well in Hampton. And that's what I would like to continue here in Hampton. >> Okay. Don, >> he told me describe what your understanding is or
will be with the uh between the relation between the if you're selected police chief of police and the town administrator and the select board the roles. So those roles I think obviously uh you gentlemen part of the
select board and now having a town administrator which is newer to the town um I think the police chief and all of your department heads I would envision having a very close working relationship with all of you to the point of I think in a town this size this is we would
have each other's cell phone numbers and certainly the select board the town administrator um the other town department heads Mark and the highway department, the fire chief, Chief Puland. Um, these folks, I think we would all be in a very tight loop. Um, I envision if I were to be
selected having very open lines of communication with the select board and with the TA to have a smooth running department and a smooth running town. I think it isn't just an isolated police department or fire department. I think we all have to
work together in this role. We are still a select board community. Um, other communities like East Long have changed. They've gone to a town council. It's a much bigger unit. This has a working group that's smaller and I think manageable. I feel like your department
heads and the the police chief specifically should be working with you, not against you. I mean, there's always going to be differences of of opinions and come budget time, there may be differences there, and we might have to fight for money or disagree on that. But I would envision that open line of
communication, working together with all of you folks, um, and letting you know when, hey, guess what? Even if, well, we had a bad crash in town, guess what? I would feel it's appropriate to give you guys a call and say, just so you know, you're going to be getting phone calls
from your friends and neighbors asking you about, hey, what happened at Allen Street again? We had another bad crash. I think you should be kept in the loop on that and not get blindsided by that. So, I envision just a very uh open door policy and open communication between
all of the department heads and the town administration. >> And now the town administrator. My one question of the night. >> Thank you. Thank you. Kick your serve fresh. >> I'll be here on Monday too. Don't worry. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> Uh please tell us about your experience
developing and administering budgets. So I have been fortunate in that even back in college I was it's it sounds it sounds silly but I ran my college radio station and I had a
budget there $14,000 and I had employees if you will student employees >> 60 some odd DJs and then uh college uh internship type programs where they were paid employees. This is a small potatoes budget, right? But I got my first taste of that
>> in college, which was kind of daunting, but kind of exciting. Um, and in my current job, I've been fortunate. I've been tasked with quite a few different um roles. Uh, we for a very long time, we only had sergeants as a secondary
rank in the police department. So, each sergeant was tasked with various things. And over the years when I was asked um I typically stepped up and took on additional roles. So I'm in charge of our cruiser maintenance program. I'm in charge of our uh weapons program and
firearms instruction. I've been I would like to to think instrumental in in that I have overseen those pieces of the budget. And so when it comes time for capital planning events every year, typically November and December in my town, I've met with
the chief, uh met with now the lieutenant, and we discuss here are our needs for the future. Um whether it's tires, whether it's ammunition, whether it's equipment needs, um if I'm getting ready to hire two new employees and we need to spec out all of their gear they're going to need for the academy,
things like that where I can then contribute at capital planning and say, "Look, here's our future. We need to earmark $140,000, three cruisers. We need our budget for our cruiser maintenance side of the house to maintain our fleet of of 17 vehicles.
I've always taken a pretty active role and I've been asked to help with that. So, although I don't administer the budget and I would I would never claim that, I'm fortunate that I have had my hands in it and been involved with it so that I know quite a few of the budget
lines. Um, sad to say we in policing we don't really have much of a revenue line. We have mostly expenditure. It's kind of funny that we even have a revenue line on the police side of the house. You know, the firefighters can. They have EMS, but we we don't. >> Oh, you have detail work. >> Yeah. The town gets a piece of the
detail work, but uh we can't even charge for reports anymore in Massachusetts. So, >> you know, a dollar a page is gone. We have no revenue in the policing side. So, it's kind of hard to argue with you folks and say we need more money, but we we we brought in zero again. But, so at
least I have a I feel I have a very solid working knowledge of our budget. And again, I'm fortunate. I get to have my hands in on it a bit and get to make suggestions and make recommendations. I get to go to trade shows and and spec
out equipment. So, I've been fortunate that, but I I've had an active role in that, sir. I'm up. >> All right. All right, Dan, please describe your leadership style and discuss how you would approach delivering difficult
feedback or discipline while still maintaining trust and morale in a small department like Hamon. >> So, my leadership style, I have always prided myself on being that being a leader. um not just a
supervisor. I was fortunate. I had some good good sergeants who taught me and who who gave me some some good instruction when I first came up. Uh I was promoted to my first sergeant role in 2013. I'm very much a believer in believer in
leadership, not simply supervision. I have a very um lead from the front mentality. I have always been a person who will show you the way. Um, and what I mean by that is I won't sit back and
just bark in order at you and instruct you. I'm going to teach you. I'm going to lead you. I'm going to show you how to do it. And if I need to, I'll be right there with you kind of in the trenches. And in small towns, in small police departments, even more so in
Hampton, the chief could get could be working and get called to a scene where he only has two officers on the street. and the chief sort of needs to get his hands dirty. Uh to use the expression, I've always prided myself on being a leader who will lead from the front. I
believe very much in situational supervision. So when it comes to tough feedback, um and what I mean by that in situational supervision is different employees, you know, we talk about putting round pegs and round holes. Different people can do different
jobs better than others. Um you try to put the right people on the right task. if um if I can pick the right person for the task, that's what I'm going to do. So again, situational leadership um
sometimes you have to let people make mistakes too to learn from them. So now in policing that can be a double-edged sword. We can't let you make the big mistakes, >> but we can let you make the minor things, do do the minor mistakes, and as long as you learn from them as a
supervisor and as a leader, that's that's my goal and that is my role to get you to learn from. If you've made a mistake, make the correction, teach you how to do it correctly, and moving forward, ensure that you do it correctly. If I do my job right, when
I'm not around, and in a chief's role, the chief's not always going to be around, but if we do our jobs correctly and we lead our people correctly, when I'm not around, they're still going to do the right thing. I can trust that they're going to do the right thing even in my absence, whether I'm on vacation or I'm just not working, right? So, I
need to bring my people up correctly. You asked about a tough situation and giving maybe negative feedback to an employee. I think there's again I go I'll go back to there's a way to do that where sometimes you may even have to discipline an employee and deliver bad news and say look here it is you
violated a policy and I'm going to hold your feet to the fire and I'm going to hold you accountable for that. I'm not going to look the other way on a policy violation. We have policies for a reason. Here's where you went wrong. Here's why you're being, let's say, verbally reprimanded. I'm going to document it all. We're going to inform
the town administrator. But here's where you're going to make the correction. And in the future, we're going to grow from this. So if we use it as a learning experience, I think there's a way to deliver that that negative, but put a positive spin to it and say, "Look, we've all made mistakes.
I've made them. I've learned from them. You're going to do the same. Let's move forward from it. Don't make the same mistake twice. That's going to result in further action. But if you don't make the same mistake the second time, isn't that what I want? That's what I want as a leader. So, I think there's just a
good way to put a spin on it and and have a positive outcome even in that negative situation, even if it is discipline. >> I've had occasion to discipline employees in the past. It's never pleasant. >> But if they grow from it, that's what I ask a leader. >> So, your your command structure over
there is chief lieutenant. >> Chief lieutenant and six sergeants, patrol officers. And what role do the sergeants have in the discipline area over there? >> The sergeants don't discipline. They're not part of the internal affairs team
>> that now falls to the lieutenant and the chief. Previously, I believe it fell to the typically the top ranking sergeant who has my role now, but I don't do that now as the detective sergeant. Now it's lieutenant chief, but the frontline
supervisor. So even on in my role now as the detective sergeant, I still get called on to run patrol shifts. So as as a sergeant, >> how does the post sort of how does the post things fit into that? The post disciplinary things. And
>> so in my role, the sergeants don't discipline as a first line with post. We might write somebody up. We might have them write what's called a two from. We might write a report to document an incident that's going to go next chain of command
to the lieutenant. The lieutenant and the chief as the IIA department now have a duty to report to post. So obviously post is very new to us in Massachusetts, but it's pretty clear-cut. Anything that they think they should report, even an inkling, I think it's post has
recommended that's best practice. So, we push things up chain of command and I think in the chief role the chief's going to defer to um within 48 hours filing his post report at least for post to review. Internal issues, you know, an employee shows up late for work a couple
of days that doesn't go to post. Right. So given the size of our current police department, obviously different than what you're seeing in Esau Meadow, um do you envision the chief spending most of their time as an administrator
or daytoday mostly or what combination of that? >> I think so there's obviously a disparity in those two two agencies. It's almost >> right two to one almost >> two/3 bigger. Yeah. So, the chief here in Hampton, and I I've touched on it
with your question. I think the chief has a bit more of an active hands-on role here in Hampton. U clearly the administrator administering the budget, running the department dayto-day. That's going to be their primary mission as the chief. There's I I can envision a lot of
emails and a lot of phone calls and a lot of planning and and administrative tasks, policy updates, things like that. But day-to-day, I feel as if the chief here can take an active hands-on training role that you have a fairly
young department now. You've had some retirements, you've had some people move on. You have two brand new sergeants in Hampton that although they're they're well experienced, and I've worked with both of these men, so I I know them on a firstname basis, they're not inexperienced police officers, but they are inexperienced sergeants. And those
are your leaders of your department, and those are the people that you call on. They're, you know, they're the non-commps, if you will, in the military, those are your your frontline leaders. So, I think especially now, any new chief that comes in here, if it were
me, I know that I would be spending a lot of time, specifically with those two new sergeants, >> getting them as much training and as much as many skills as we could get them. There's a lot of free training out there from the academy. You know, there's always costs with with time, but
we need to train these people up. Um, those are the leaders for the future. Those are going to be the people that likely replace this seventh chief in Hammond. Um, I feel like the chief has to take an active role in that. So, any new chief coming in right now, I think, has quite a bit on their plate. We've
got somebody to hire. We've got potentially a detective position to to still fill in the department. It's it's sort of temporary at the moment, I think, from from what I understand. Um, I think somebody's kind of filling in at the moment, but there's going to be some some things to take care of right away.
But I feel like the chief has to take an active role. I'm I'm the type I am that personality where my my vest and my gear is going to be in my cruiser every day. I I run with all my gear now. I'll respond to calls now. And >> if I hear something go out on the radio
and my guys need help, I'm going to be there. I think the chief here has to take an active role. And I pride myself in doing that. Now, I'm the type of person who is is going to be there for his people and and take a role in that. And I think even as the chief here, I think I'd have to pull
back a bit and make sure I didn't get too caught up in doing the day-to-day street work and and focus on some administrative things here. So, I'd have to discipline myself a bit. >> Okay. [Music] So we know that uh police work is very
stressful whether it's a small town or a larger town and uh what strategies would you employ to u attract and retain quality officers but also what strategy would you employ to support them with
the mental and physical well-being and the stressful jobs that they have? >> It is a stressful job. This is the understatement of the nicer. Um, I have found my own personal ways to to cope with it and deal with it. Uh, but it
this can be such a selfdestructive profession and I call it that. I I take pride in this being that a profession, not a job. This is a profession. This is a career choice. This is one of the most stressful positions I can envision. And
you don't know this when you get into it. You hear stories, but you don't know it until you actually live it a bit. Um, I have lived it. I have found my own coping strategies. I love to hike these great We live in such a great town for
hiking. I can head over to Goat Rock or head over to the Mini Land Trust and just get my head clear. Um, that's one of the things I do. That's how I cope with it. um go to one of my kids sporting events and just sit there and watch and just take it in for a minute.
That's these are good coping strategies. Um unfortunately, I've seen the other side of that. I've seen very destructive behavior. Um whether it's alcoholism, whether it's just distinct mental health
uh difficulties, we're fortunate in East Simon have an employee assistance program. Um, I would envision here in Hampton, what I would like to sort of cultivate within the department, first of all, we want a department that will attract the right
people. Now that we have uh the post commission world, numbers are lower than they've ever been. The last time uh we tried to hire it was the numbers were so low to even hire one patrol officer. It's really hard to recruit anybody, let
alone the right people. So even if we recruit 50 people for a position here in Hampton, maybe 10% of them are going to be the right fit for this town. We want to recruit the right people for this town. I think it starts right at Minotaur High School. It starts right there. I knew I
wanted to be a police officer for a long time. So even if this is very much a community serviceoriented department, this is a community. This town is a community. If we simply as a police
agency, we can focus on recruiting right from the high school level, whether it's at Minatron and then we have so many local colleges with CJ programs, AIC, Western New England, um, all of these places. Why not take a bit of an active
participation role there and work with their people? And we can go to all of their college job fair. It's easy to send an officer to there. And let me tell you, when you have uniform police officers showing up at these job fairs at a table, handing
out literature about your police agency and talking it up, and you have a couple of sharplooking professional people there, high school and college kids love that. It draws them in. And then this is this job isn't about the money. Anybody who gets into it for that is is
in it for the wrong reasons. This is about pride in your profession and wanting to do this job for the right reasons. in Hamen. I think one of the challenges we have is this truly is a small town. If somebody wants to get in policing to do what they see on TV
and work in a big city, that's not Hampton. And we have to be, I think, cognizant of that and try to recruit the right people. Um, we also want to retain those people. Well, how do we do that? We have to have a good working environment. You guys have fabulous a great new facility for your police
department. You've eliminated that hurdle, which is a hurdle in a lot of places. They've got a great place to work. They've got a great town to work in. We've got a good school system. I'd like to see more community engagement with our officers, whether that's at our senior center
working with uh Becky Morardi, whether it's in the schools. Our school resource officer doesn't unfortunately, you know, he kind of visits places, but our SRO is a Wilberham officer. Well, why can't we get one of our hand officers a bit more involved than that? Obviously, there's
there's budgetary issues, but we can figure that piece out. Guys can go from shift. I feel like if we cultivate this agency to be a place where people are happy to come to work, >> it starts with good leadership. If they're happy to come to their to their
facility to work in the town here, I mean, what a great place. They can go stop at the Village Mark, get a sandwich, stop at LE's, get a coffee. I mean, they've got a great place to work. We We have a great way to retain people here. So, we just want to promote that.
>> One thing I missed my followup, Don, you call me out. I'll come >> fall asleep. Okay, fine. So, we talked before to the other two people about the change in structure in both dispatch and policing in Hampton. As you know, we
have the consolidation in dispatch and it's I you always use the analogy of the raindrops in the windshield. Seems like the small ones get merged together, merged together, merged together, which in our opinion has been a good thing for the town of him in terms of dispatch.
Do you envision something like that happening in terms of police departments in the future? >> It's an interesting point. I think we have all seen, anybody who's in law enforcement locally has seen a bit of a
shift because recruitment we we we do not get the numbers of applicants. >> When I was on a civil service list in 1997, um I think there were 400 applicants for the town of Islam. 400 who chose that town.
>> These numbers are unheard of now. You do not see that anymore. So that's one of our our first challenges. So with that in mind, if we can't get these people, what we've seen start to happen here is a shift where towns, especially
towns like Hampton, the size of Hampton, it's happening in I I won't say the names of the towns, but other local municipalities, have had to begin relying on the sheriff's department locally >> for their everyday policing. And I will be the first to come out and
say and I'm I'm opinionated about it. Um I do not see that as a vision for the town of Hampton. I don't like that model. I feel like this town has served by having police officers who have the town in their best interest.
>> In some cases, people who live here. I love when when people live in the town and then they work in the in the department. >> They have a vested interest in this town. That's part of the reason why I want to work here. I live here. I have a real interest in the town of Hammond, in the Hammond Police Department.
I don't want to see us in the Hamlin Police Department go the way of simply relying on outside agencies for our service. In a lot of small towns back in the day, they relied on the state police. Before Hampton had their police department, I mean, way back, everyone
relied on the state police. But that response is from too far away. I think the the community here, the town of Hampton, is best served by Hampton police officers. >> Those who have a vested interest in this town and this department and the
betterment of this town. I don't want to see us go outside. So, we have a recruitment challenge, right? We want to retain people here, but I think we need to find creative ways to do that. We want to keep the Hampton Police Department Hampton Police officers.
>> Okay. We want to keep uh the timing fairly similar to the three of you. So, um Yes, sir. >> Don's got this question, then I've got my last question. >> Okay. >> And we're going to hold you to >> We got one other question.
>> No, I'm saying Don's got his question. We asked the other two kind of touched on that I think he should touch on too. >> Yeah. About the the co-responder program, right? the mental, you know, we talked about stress for the police officers, but oftent times calls involve
mental health issues with with the the people you're responding to or victims or something like that. And East Long Meadow, I believe, has the uh mental health co-responder program. >> We do. We have a a co-response clinician. >> Yeah. How's it going?
>> Uh that's been fantastic. That has been a breath of fresh air. So, it's a shared position between East Long Meadow and Long Meadow. There's no reason why we couldn't do the same here in Hampton. Hampton and Wilberham. That's something through uh
BHN Behavioral Health Network. Um uh DCF that has been um we're on our second person. The first person moved on, I think, to a promotion, a new position. Uh we have a new person there now. uh in my role now, I work in the courts a lot and I work with her when it comes to
clients with mental health issues. So I from the the day-to-day patrol officer perspective, it's been a breath of fresh air because we really are and again going back to you know crime and punishment versus police officers today are very much
skilled in social work and the social work and psychology and um that aspect of policing. So to have that clinician, it's been fantastic because now when we've identified a person or a home where we've had multiple calls for
service and issues in the past, now that clinician responds right out with us. They jump right in the police car if they can or they take their personal car, they have a police radio through the uh the regional dispatch group that we use, similar to your Wilraham Hamen radio wreck, and they come right to the
house. um they're able to work with the the person who's having the mental health issues, the police, and we come up with better solutions rather than just, hey, you got to get out of the house for tonight or we're going to arrest you or we're going to charge you criminally. I think that's doing a
disservice now with a clinician who's got even more training than the police officers. We come up with better solutions. We work with the probation department, make recommendations to the judge. So, it's it's been a huge success and it's come at very little cost. There's no reason why we couldn't
investigate that for Hamon Wilberham. It works with that um that radio wreck as well since you have the two towns >> which you know at East Long Meadow we have five uh cities and towns with Westcom regional dispatch. And then you're fortunate I think at this point
and and Tony runs a good program. We have just two of us. >> Three. >> Oh, three now. I'm sorry. We added uh Beluretown. So, and that's been I think he's even got some room to grow that, but that could be a good a good thing to have a clinician. >> They've entered into an agreement to explore adding Palmer.
>> That's concern we have because the reason we didn't join Westcom is we the small fish in that pond if they do grow to the four communities again were the small fish. >> There was there was that concern. So, I sit on the dispatch review committee
>> u from for East Lime now with Westcom. So I go to monthly meetings. Uh we talk about what's good, what's bad, some issues we've had, you know, put some changes in place. We go over policy things. I think most of us um in East Loto had
that same fear. We're going to go and we're joining what who Westcom it's going to be. And at the time Chabe police department was that big fish, right? So we were a small fish. uh Mson I think felt even right >> a little more fear than we did and certainly where said oh we're going to
be left left out hanging here there were some teething issues absolutely the first year year and a half there have been some recent leadership changes there at Westcom they finally good for them moved into their new building which is a fantastic facility they have a lot
of room to grow now they have the right leadership team now I feel and now sitting in those meetings um I've heard nothing But good good feedback now. And I think our fears were I wouldn't say fully unfounded, but in
the end I I think we found that we haven't become the small fish. >> Okay. >> They still listen to us. >> Just want to touch on that. >> So it's it's been good. >> Body camera. >> Body cameras. >> Yeah. I mean we're cutting it down. Body cameras. Yes or no?
>> I'm just passionate. >> No. Body cameras. Yes or no? >> Body cameras? >> Yes or no? from this police officer's perspective and absolutely yes. >> Okay, good. >> That's all we do. So, last question. >> Why the heck should we hire you? And if
we did, you can see how it changes as we go on through tonight. >> Okay. >> Much more stilted before. >> Um, what would you do in the first 100 days? >> First 100 days? >> No. Why? First, why should we hire you? >> Why should you hire me?
So, I have been full-time law enforcement 27 going on 28 years now. >> I feel like I have the experience. I feel like I have uh the background >> that makes me the best fit for your police department. Obviously, I'm coming
from a bit of a bigger agency. Um, but I have always been tasked with uh quite a bit of responsibilities. So, I've always stepped up to fill those roles. I think that I'm the right fit for this town and for the department. I am truly committed to this town. I, as I said, I
moved here 2005. >> That was an absolute um win because growing up in that town that has become a city, this really truly feels like the town I grew up in. >> This has that feel to it. I love it
here. I have three children in the school system here. Um, we liked it here so much. In uh 2009, my parents moved here on the same street. They built a home here as well. They moved out of East London. They live on the same street. When we come to vote, it's a mess. They've got to go down that that list there and check us off. >> Got to work that out. Okay.
>> But I am I feel blessed to live in this town. Um, >> okay. >> You gentlemen have found a way. >> First 100 days. >> First 100 days. I want to give back to this town. I I just don't want to. Before I get to that, I just want to give back to this town. This is my way
to do it. You gentlemen have found your way. This is my way. This is where I'd want to end my career. My first 100 days. Um, again, I'm fortunate. I've met worked with every officer in the department except for your newest hire, um, who I did get to meet when we did a
I assisted at the shooting range a few months back. So, I've met him. I don't know him well yet, but for years I've been working with the officers of this department. Um, I think they all know me. I think I would I would like to think that they all already have a level of trust and
level of respect for me. So within my first 100 days, I would very quickly like to sit down with my leadership team, which is uh my three sergeants. Um get them all together um within the that's within the first couple of weeks,
have a staff meeting and discuss discuss some of their goals and some of their needs for the future, where they envision the department going, what I would like to bring for the department. um some of my goals in that first 100 days, some continuity, which I think
I've I overcome that hurdle a bit because I've worked with these these men before and they know me. And I I mean that's that helps me in that role if I were to get the job. >> I would envision um I think we need to
really square away um a hiring. We we've got to look at hiring and hiring for the future. To your point, getting the right people for this >> for this police department. Uh we need to work at firming up um who's going to fill that detective and court liaison
role and how that's going to function. Since I work as the detective sergeant now, I I like to think I have enough experience with that where I'd like to maybe work with the the men for the first 50 or 100 days and see who best fills that role and then get that get
that squared away. That's a vital role to have both your detective and your court liaison. Every criminal complaint, you need a good liaison with the Palmer District Court. It's important. Um I think we need to square that away and I think I need to work in that first 100 days with building some trust. We
Obviously, we got our national night coming up. Um, that's something it's it's kind of a big deal in Hammond, right? And we need to make sure that's all set to go and and and in place. Um, work with the officers to square that away. I would like to meet with every department head in town within that
first 100 days. I know some of them, but I'd like to get to know them better. I'd like to meet the others. Um, and I'd like to sit, frankly, with all of you folks, maybe sit on some more town meetings. I don't know how you run all your town meetings. I've only gotten to watch them, you know. I I get to watch
on But >> how do you not go? >> Well, I don't go to all the meetings, but I do watch them. Um been at some planning board meetings. I can tell you that. Um but I'd like to get to know all of the >> people in in leadership positions in
this town so that we can work together. It's a small town. I envision us all working together. >> I think that's something I can accomplish in the first 100 days. um get on board and and hit the ground running. I envision myself as a a very active
chief if I were to get the job. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. Anything further, >> Ryan? Good. >> Lauren? >> Nope. >> Okay. >> Well, we thank you for your time. >> All right. Thank you all so much. I said at the beginning, we're probably going to talk about this on Monday night. Okay. Is that we still that plan, guys?
>> We So, >> okay. Well, I look forward to hearing from you on Monday. Thank you all for your time. I appreciate it. Um I know Thursday night so >> this wasn't on your wasn't on your regular agenda. >> Thursday night you're throwing me off. I mean where on mountain road? Are you
past the >> very top? >> Very very top. I live next to Bill and Debbie. >> The very end on the left >> center. Oh okay. Wow. The new across. >> Yeah. So when that street expanded >> I signed them. I signed that expansion. >> Thank you. >> No problem. Where'd your parents die?
They're about They're just before Builton's Builton has that gate there. >> Yeah. >> They're the house just before that. >> Okay. >> Right on the back. >> So after D Roer on the left hand side. >> Yeah. D Roer's next one. Uh yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. Rich D Roger. Next next house up. Thank you very much. Appreciate your
time. Nice to meet you again. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Dport. >> Okay. >> Have a good night. You >> too. >> All right. Is there anything to discuss? I I will say that and we have the scoring sheets here. I was more interested in listening to the answers
rather than writing down scores. That's the advantage of having the Zoom the YouTube that we're going to be able to watch and do the scoring. >> It's going to be must see TV for our board. >> Correct. >> We forgot to record it. Just kidding.
>> You are just full of it. >> You know what, Frank? I don't like that attitude. Take tomorrow. Take tomorrow off. Okay. >> Thanks. >> No problem. Motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> I thank you. Thank you.