Chief’s Conduct Worries Unions
No-Confidence Vote Initiated
WINDSOR — The unions for Windsor police officers and dispatchers have initiated a vote of noconfidence against Police Chief Donald Melanson. The vote is being held Monday and Tuesday at the public safety complex.
In a memo emailed to the town council last week, the union outlined its reasons for holding the vote. The union has been meeting with Town Manager Peter Souza for several months to discuss its concerns.
Those concerns include: credibility and truthfulness issues; claims of a vindictive and threatening style of leadership; incompetence and illegal or improper advice, direction or application of the law; and morale at an all-time low, according to the memo.
Melanson said Monday that he was disappointed that the unions decided to move forward with the vote, but added that change in any organization is difficult and that he respected the members of the department and looked forward to continuing to work with them.
The memo also outlines concerns over an independent review of the chief’s handling of a dashcam video that was part of a complaint made against an officer by a resident involved in a February car crash.
The review, which was initiated by Souza following allegations that Melanson either altered or deleted the video from the incident, found that he did not violate department policies or state statutes.
But the union, according to the memo, claimed that the review left out important details from interviews with officers that could have led to a different conclusion.
According to the union memo, the review should have found that Melanson was guilty of conduct unbecoming of an officer, incompetence, a lack of truthfulness and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
In its conclusion, the union memo states that the outside investigation was “incomplete, poorly documented and insulting to the union body,” and that it “would not meet our standard of an investigation here at the Windsor Police Department.”
Melanson declined to comment on the allegations about the review other than to say that it “speaks for itself.”
Mayor Donald Trinks said Monday that while the union is within its rights to hold the no-confidence vote, he had faith that Souza was implementing a plan that would address issues between the chief and the unions and get to the core of their differences.