East Lyme —The president of the town's police union, Officer Paul Renshaw, said this week he will file a grievance over the appointment of a new sergeant.
Renshaw said he and union Vice President Bruce Babcock were passed over for promotion in retaliation for criticizing First Selectman Wayne Fraser and supporting his opponents in the past two elections, as well as for union activities in which they butted heads with Fraser.
Renshaw said he will also file an “anti-union animus,” a complaint that accuses Fraser of a history of anti-union behavior. The town's resident state trooper, Sgt. Michael Collins, will also be named, Renshaw said, because he is “an agent of the town.”
Under the terms of the police union contract, the resident state trooper and first selectman are together responsible for promoting the sergeant.
Babcock and Renshaw placed first and second, respectively, in testing to become eligible for the sergeant's position. The Law Enforcement Council, in Norwich, administers the tests.
The police union contract says the first selectman and resident state trooper, in determining the sergeant, “shall select one of the top three qualified applicants for each vacancy.”
In July Fraser promoted the officer who tested third to the town's first-ever sergeant's position. On Monday Fraser named the officer who tested fourth, Joseph SanJuan, to a sergeant's slot — reviewing the files, conducting the interview and swearing SanJuan in on the same day.
One sergeant's slot is still available, according to Fraser and Renshaw.
Fraser, who is in his last week in office, and Collins each said their criteria included more than test results. They named arrests, tickets, community involvement and attendance as among the “statistics.”
“The two guys promoted are aggressive and self-initiated,” Collins said Thursday. “They go out and look for things, and are aggressive, pro-active police officers.”
Renshaw said the test was supposed to help eliminate personality conflicts from factoring into the promotion.
“There's some turmoil within the police department over the way this has come about,” Renshaw said. “And from the union perspective, we're trying to defend the process.”
Babcock, who wrote a letter critical of Fraser that ran in the weekly Lyme Times last week, defended his 22-year record Wednesday as an officer in the town. He praised SanJuan and the department's other sergeant, Terry Saffioti, saying he doesn't “want to get pitted guy against guy.”
Fraser said his intention all along was to promote a sergeant after the first sergeant was trained, and for the next promotion to come after the police moved into their new station on Main Street in Niantic.
He called the charge of retaliation “weak.”
“That's a very weak excuse for them not doing their day-to-day jobs,” Fraser said. “But that's what they do, they file grievances. They never come into this office and work out anything for the eight years I've been here. They have no interest in doing that.
Beth Hogan, who will be sworn in as the town's first selectman on Monday, said Wednesday she didn't know of the hire other than through rumor. She said she has contacted the town's labor counsel and said she would “investigate what happened and get to the bottom of it and try to resolve it without additional cost to the town.”
© The Day Publishing Co., 2005
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