Top cop posts now exempt from civil service law

City Council OK’d request from Mazzarella

LEOMINSTER » City Council approved a request from Mayor Dean Mazzarella to exempt the positions of police chief and police captain from the Civil Service Law at a March 15 special meeting.

“The union and I worked on negotiating this, it is a big change,” Mazzarella said. “We worked with members of the police department, who wanted to move cautiously. We spent some time working on it and came to an agreement that will be for everyone’s benefit.”

Civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or

elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil servant is a person employed in the public sector by a government department or agency or public sector undertakings.

Interim Police Chief Aaron Kennedy said the department collaborated with Mazzarella on the wording of the request.

“Civil service is a broken system, you are restricted in civil service,” Kennedy said. “If you are not in civil services you can change the hiring process and promotions. I have no problem being second in command if the next guy steps up. We want to be able to be a team and work together.”

City attorney Brian Maser stated at the meeting that in both the chief and captain positions, the individuals will need to file paperwork each year with civil service to retain their entitlement.

Kennedy, who has been with the department for 26 years, said oftentimes when someone becomes police chief they remain in that position for life.

“This is going to keep things fresh and people coming to work wanting to be there,” he said. “The mayor is thinking outside the box, and in the end, this is going to work out just fine. We are not going to miss a beat. You have to be able to work together, that is going to be the key to this.”

Kennedy noted Fitchburg’s Police Chief Ernest Martineau is an example of a command structure exemption.

“It works,” Kennedy said. “I go to these meetings with them, and they work great together. I think this is going to be fine.”