Date: Fri 05-Sep-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

police-Rusczcyk-Lysaght

Full Text:

PAGE ONE

Police Union Delays Release Of `Confidence' Vote Results

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Over the long Labor Day weekend, members of the Newtown Police Union conducted

a vote of confidence in Police Chief James E. Lysaght, Jr, but by Thursday

morning, they still had not decided whether to disclose the results.

A union meeting at which members were scheduled to decide whether to disclose

the results was scheduled for Thursday afternoon, after the deadline for this

edition of The Newtown Bee .

Police union spokesman Scott Ruszczyk said he expected a big majority of those

who voted in the poll would express their lack of confidence in the chief.

Chief Lysaght gave up his job as second-in-command in the Bristol Police

Department to head the Newtown department in July 1996.

The police union is criticizing the chief, expressing unhappiness with the way

the police department is being run, especially with the way the police chief

and the Police Commission recently moved together to reorganize the department

without any discussions with the rank and file police officers.

Chief Lysaght says progress is being made in reforming the department into a

law enforcement organization that will capably deal with the challenges of the

future.

But Ruszczyk claims Chief Lysaght violates the department's policies and

procedures and also misinterprets the union's labor contract in running the

department. Ruszczyk is calling for the chief's ouster and replacement by

someone else.

At a Police Commission meeting Tuesday night, resident Dick Simon, a friend of

Chief Lysaght, said he read an August 29 story which appeared in The Bee on

the police union's objections to the chief.

"I was kind of disturbed. It cast a lot of shadows in everyone's direction,"

he said. "I thought it was kind of damaging... That article was a very

`lose-lose' article."

"That article was almost the same kind of article that could have been written

a couple years ago," said Police Commission member Robert Connor, Jr.

"It didn't give the true picture of the chief," Mr Simon said, asking how the

commission could control the damage.

Police Commission member Carol Mattegat said most people she spoke to were

upset by the article. Mrs Mattegat said members of the public told her the

union criticisms of the chief remind them of the time when former patrol

officer John Kotch ran the police union.

Some Police Commission members said no matter who serves as police chief, the

police union will criticize him.

"This is like the past, all over again," Mr Connor said.

In the past, when Kotch headed the union, he often criticized the actions of

Chief Lysaght's predecessor, Michael DeJoseph.

Reacting to the newspaper story, Mr Connor said, "The honeymoon's over. We're

back to the same old stuff."

Police Commission Chairman William Meyer said on Wednesday that Police

Commission members did not discuss the situation between the police union and

the chief in an executive session after Tuesday night's public session.

At that meeting, Mr Meyer asked for and received commission members' approval

to enter an "executive session." No specific reason for the session was given.

The Freedom Of Information law requires that specific reasons for entering an

executive sessions be stated publicly.

Ruszczyk said the Police Commission illegally enters executive sessions at its

meetings apparently to privately discuss police matters that members prefer

not to discuss in public.

"It seems to me they're using it for anything they don't want public" in

apparent violation of the state FOI Act.

Mr Meyer said the union is objecting to the chief because he is "activist"

police chief. Veteran police officers are not used to such an approach to

policing, according to Mr Meyer.

Ruszczyk said Wednesday no progress is being made in reforming the police

department and the department is moving backward.

Union members have made the chief aware of various labor problems at the

police department, but the chief chooses to avoid dealing with those problems,

Rusczcyk alleges.

For the first six months of the chief's tenure, the union filed no grievances

although it could have, he said. Smoldering problems in the department reached

a "flashpoint" when the department was reorganized August 5, Ruszczyk said.

As long as the chief continues to violate the union contract, police

department rules and regulations, police policies and procedures, and the town

charter, the adversarial relationship between the town and the union will not

pass, according to Ruszczyk.

In a letter to the first selectman and Police Commission chairman, Ruszczyk

requests various information pertaining to the chief, including copies of job

evaluations done on the chief since he began work here; the name of the firm

that conducted a background investigation on the chief for the town; a blank

copy of the psychological test given to the chief in his hiring; and copies of

changes in police department structure, organization and the duties of

officers approved by the Police Commission August 5, among other information.

The union wants the Police Commission to stop supporting the chief, but it is

unclear if they will do that, Ruszczyk said.

"I feel strongly that this information has to come out. This is not going to

do wonders for my career," Ruszczyk said.

The Chief Responds

"I'm working with the Police Commission and the union to try to improve our

organization... I'll base my fitness for duty on my performance in duty,"

Chief Lysaght said.

The police union is entitled to its opinions, the chief said.

"I'll work as hard as I can, as well as I can, to make this a professional

organization."

Chief Lysaght has repeatedly lauded the efforts of the department's patrol

division, giving them credit for their on-the-road performance.

"It's my officers on the street that are doing the job," he has said. "I've

got good people here that are doing a good job."