Hartford council confirms police chief, COO
Thody approved for police post; Montañez to lose interim tag
HARTFORD — The Hartford city council confirmed Mayor Luke Bronin’s appointments of Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody and chief operating officer Thea Montañez, both of whom had been serving in those positions on an interim basis.
Thody, named interim chief in April after a 24-year career with Hartford police, was approved by a 7-2 vote, with Wildaliz Bermudez and Josh Michtom opposing.
Thody weathered a rocky nomination process, in which residents and the Working Families Party council members criticized Mayor Luke Bronin for not opening up the job to other applicants and questioned Thody, 44, for his lack of experience in community policing and a blemish on his personnel record from an off-duty bar fight in 2010. Thody’s vocal supporters in City Hall and the community have praised him for his strong administrative background, grant-writing experience and efforts to stabilize the department and expand its partnerships over the past 10 months.
Thody responded to the criticism and questions during three separate public meetings, and explained he was committed to increasing the diversity of the department and building a relationship of trust and transparency with residents, particularly youth and marginalized groups. Thody also addressed concerns over the altercation he was involved in at Pig’s Eye Pub in downtown Hartford a decade ago, saying he learned and bettered himself after the incident.
Michtom, one of the two no-votes, said he has come to agree that Thody is a good candidate and has faith he will do a good job. However, he said there’s a lack of trust between the residents of Hartford and its government, and Bronin’s appointment process did nothing to rectify that. Michtom wanted council to send a message to the mayor “to go back and do it right.”
“Just picking someone without interviews, without any apparent effort to find a candidate of color, that’s not how you build trust,” Michtom said.
In response, councilman Nick Lebron noted that he did not see the same public outcry over the recent nomination of Montañez, who served as Bronin’s chief of staff since he took office in January 2016 and took over as interim COO in September 2018, succeeding another interim appointee, Ron Van Winkle.
Montañez has seen a far smoother nomination process than Thody. City council members voted unanimously at a
February meeting of the Committee of the Whole to give Montanez’s appointment a favorable recommendation. She was confirmed at Monday’s regular meeting by unanimous vote as part of the consent agenda.
Lebron said the council can explore changing the city charter to create a broader hiring process for department heads. But that time will come later, not ahead of Thody’s appointment. Instead, Lebron said, council members should vote for Thody on his merits and based on their hopes for public safety in Hartford, such as the need to reduce gun violence.
“At 8 years old I lost my grandfather to murder and last week I just lost my cousin to a murder,” Lebron said. “… That’s how seriously I take this vote for police chief, because it is of the utmost importance.”
Council president Maly Rosado and
council members Shirley Surgeon and Thomas “TJ” Clarke II also spoke in support of Thody.
The chief previously served as assistant chief of professional standards and administration. He retired briefly in June 2018 to pursue other law enforcement opportunities before he was rehired in August 2018 as an assistant police chief.
As chief, Thody will continue to collect his $114,000 a year pension and will receive a salary from the city of $78,000 per year, per a 2016 city ordinance that caps returning retirees’ pay at half of the maximum salary for positions listed in the city charter.
Montañez’s annual salary increased from $128,000 to $175,000 when she took on her second role. She will continue to make $175,000 in her new role, according to city spokesman Vasishth Srivastava.
Bronin also intends to nominate a replacement for the chief of staff position, Srivastava has said.
As the temporary COO, Montañez led the opening of Hartford’s Reentry Welcome Center for individuals returning from incarceration, and the formation of the Hartford Youth Service Corps, which offers paid service-learning projects for Hartford teenagers. She has also helped with hiring efforts at the police and fire departments and building partnerships with the school system, state and nonprofit agencies and business community, Bronin said upon her nomination.
Earlier in her career, Montañez worked at the Hartford Financial Services Group and The Waterford Group.
Several openings remain in Bronin’s administration.
Charisse Snipes has served as acting director of Metro Hartford Innovation Services, the city’s technology services arm, since January 2017. Jolita Lazauskas has served as the acting director of management and budget since last January. Snipes and Lazauskas have exceeded the city’s six-month time limit on interim directors, as did Thody and Montañez, a violation Chief Auditor Craig Trujillo flagged in June.
Town and city clerk John Bazzano resigned earlier this year, leaving another opening at City Hall. Eric Lusa is the acting clerk.
City council members Clarke, Lebron and Surgeon had planned to introduce a resolution Tuesday night to appoint a new clerk in Noel F. McGregor, a former Hartford city councilman, police detective and chairman of the Hartford Democratic Town Committees.
On Monday, though, the council voted to suspend the rules so President Maly Rosado could call a meeting of the Committee of the Whole on March 4 for the purpose of interviewing candidates for the clerk position in a “transparent and inclusive process.”
Interested candidates must submit their resumes to city council as soon as possible to be called to that meeting.