Chief debate
Cox, Lawlor take test, for top-cop short list

GUILDERLAND — In eight to 10 weeks, the names of the town’s two top police officers will be the only ones on the Civil Service’s certified list of candidates for the vacant police chief post.

Acting Chief Carol Lawlor and Lieutenant Curtis Cox took the promotion-class Civil Service exam on March 8, and, after the tests are graded, those who passed will be put on a certified list, which will replace and nullify the list of three eligible candidates that the town was given last year.

Although Supervisor Kenneth Runion anticipated this week that there would be five candidates to interview, Civil Service officials said otherwise.

“We don’t combine lists,” said David Walker, deputy personnel officer for Albany County’s Civil Service department.  “Once we certify this new list, we will inactivate the old list.”

The promotion class exam is given once a year, as is the open competitive exam, which four people took last year and three people passed, Walker said.

Since James Murley, Guilderland’s long-time police chief, retired amid controversy about a year ago, Lawlor has been acting in his stead.  Two of the councilmen on the all-Democratic board who appointed her to the position were replaced by Republicans after November’s election; the Republican councilmen, Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm, campaigned on opening up the selection process.

“I think that the way it’s being done is inappropriate,” Redlich said this week, after Runion, a Democrat, posted an ad for the position with a March 28 deadline on the town website.  Another ad is running in this week’s Enterprise.

“It needs to be an open process,” said Grimm who ran on a platform of opening up Town Hall.  “At the very least,” he added, “we should have an open discussion.”

Both Republicans have called for the town board to discuss the process.  Yesterday, Grimm formally requested that an item be added to the agenda for the March 18 meeting and feels confident that Runion, who sets the agenda, will include it.

“With a police chief leaving,” Runion said last week, “there’s this huge power vacuum, and everyone’s jockeying for position.”

During an executive session on Feb. 12, the board voted, 3 to 2, along party lines, to hire attorney Claudia Ryan to advise the board on the selection process, Runion and Redlich said, independently of each other.  On the day before that meeting, the town had been served notice of a possible lawsuit by Lawlor and Cox, who felt that they might be discriminated against — citing a blog post from Redlich in which he called them “political flunkies.”  (See “Legal action? Top cops threaten to take town to court,” at www.altamontenterprise.com, under “archives” for Feb. 14, 2008.)

According to the minutes from the meeting, the board retained Ryan “to review the letter of Paul Clyne,” who represents the officers, “… and to provide an opinion to the town board as to how to address the contents of the letter and to counsel the board as to how best proceed with the process of filling the position of chief of police or police commissioner in view of the issues raised in such letter.”

New York’s Town Law, Section 150, says that a town board “may establish a police department and appoint a chief of police.” It doesn’t define the duties of the position, but does go on to say that the town board may also create a board of police commissioners.  That board can be made up of one or three people, appointed by the town board, and will serve at the pleasure of the board — which means they are much easier to fire than a police chief, whose position falls under the realm of Civil Service and, therefore, has protections.

“It’s one of the options,” said Redlich when asked about a police commissioner post for Guilderland.  “I think we should consider all options.”  He is concerned about the bureaucratic nature of the Civil Service exam process, he said, explaining that a well-qualified person with a college degree may not meet the technical specifications of Civil Service’s required qualifications.

“All municipal positions are Civil Service,” Lori Mithen, of the Association of Towns, said of why the Civil Service is involved.

“Any position that’s created is considered competitive,” said Walker, unless the town requests otherwise, in which case the classification would need to be approved by the state’s Civil Service department.

Redlich, a lawyer, had cited Section 53-a of the state’s Town Law, which says that the town board is to appoint the head of any department created under the law and that the position will be unclassified service.  According to New York Civil Service Law, unclassified service applied to “the head or heads of any department of the government who are vested with authority, direction and control over a department, and who have power and authority to appoint and remove officers and employees therein,” as well as various elected and appointed positions.

“You’ve got to read between the lines,” said Runion, who is also a lawyer.  “53-a — exempt.  Commissioner — exempt,” he said, emphasizing that section of law and that position are appointed and serve at the pleasure of the board rather than going through the competitive class Civil Service exams — although neither are technically considered exempt class.  “I’d love every position in Town Hall to be exempt if I wanted unfettered control.”  He concluded that keeping the classification as competitive, which requires testing by the Civil Service department, keeps politics out of the job.

“The Guilderland Police Department has been far too political for far too long,” Grimm said in January.  Since the Democrats have a 3 to 2 majority on the town board, they can select whomever they want, Redlich said, but he added that the process should still be open.

When asked by Democratic Councilman Paul Pastore at the March 4 town board meeting if he thought the Civil Service process for selecting a police chief was not “open, fair, and transparent,” Redlich cited the recent appointment of a police officer and said, “If the selection of the future chief of police is that… Mr. Grimm and I are presented with an up-or-down vote on one person, I don’t consider that an open process.”