Throne-Holst Explains Her Decision To Go With Wilson

As Southampton Town Police Chief William Wilson Jr. started his new job on Monday, and the dust around his high-profile appointment finally began to settle, Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst offered some insight as to why she backed the former Southampton Village Police chief to replace longtime Town Police Chief James P. Overton following his retirement earlier this spring.

The supervisor also shared stories of what she said were the difficult dealings she has had over the years with Town Police Captain Anthony Tenaglia—the second-in-command at Town Police headquarters, and the man who many viewed as the obvious choice to replace Mr. Overton.

The process of appointing the new Town Police chief was marked by many twists and turns, starting when Mr. Overton announced his retirement in March. The board was poised to appoint Capt. Tenaglia shortly after interviewing him, according to Town Hall sources, before Ms. Throne-Holst, Town Councilwoman Bridget Fleming and Town Councilman Jim Malone reportedly changed their minds and sought to interview Chief Wilson for the position. The move prompted allegations that the three were driven by political motivations—and being influenced by the Southampton Town Patrolman’s Benevolence Association—to give the job to Chief Wilson.

But Ms. Throne-Holst vehemently rejected those claims during interviews this week, and instead pointed to significant policy and management style differences between the two candidates that led her to chose Chief Wilson over Capt. Tenaglia. She also documented a complex history with Capt. Tenaglia that also influenced her decision.

One thing that did not influence the decision, four of the five Town Board members said this week—Mr. Malone was the only one who did not return calls seeking comment—was an ethics complaint filed against Capt. Tenaglia on March 27, shortly after Chief Overton had announced his plans to retire. Capt. Tenaglia is the president of the Superior Officers Association union, which represents the town’s police sergeants and lieutenants. The complaint filed by PBA President Timothy O’Flaherty references a phone conversation between the two men in which Officer O’Flaherty accuses the captain of being intimidating and improper, and threatening to “start a war with the SOA” if the PBA supported Chief Wilson over him.

Another document, submitted by PBA Vice President Kevin Gwinn on April 13, claims that Officer O’Flaherty’s complaint was unlawfully disseminated to all supervisors in the police department by Capt. Tenaglia—an effort, he said, to influence his subordinates in hopes of intimidating Officer O’Flaherty.

Capt. Tenaglia said this week that he believes that Officer O’Flaherty’s complaint was aimed at jeopardizing his chances of becoming chief, and that their conversation that day was a personal one, “one union president to another union president.” He said that exchange should not fall under the purview of the town’s Ethics Board.

“It’s an embellished complaint,” Capt. Tenaglia said. “It’s his word against my word. And it’s just extremely coincidental that it just happened to come up right when I was being considered.”

Officer O’Flaherty is on vacation until May 24 and could not be reached for comment, according to a police dispatcher this week.

Ms. Throne-Holst said previous encounters with Capt. Tenaglia influenced her decision not to support his appointment. Shortly after being sworn into office, the supervisor said she convened a committee to hone in on repairing relationships within the police department, in which the superiors and the rank-and-file officers were frequently butting heads. At the heart of the issue was whether or not the department’s officers should switch to a steady tour schedule. The group examined the idea of instituting steady tours, or steady working shifts for police officers who currently work erratic hours that prevent them from staying on normal sleeping patterns.

It was during these interactions that Ms. Throne-Holst said Capt. Tenaglia labeled the discussions a sham, and accused her of having her mind made up on the issue. She said his comments were inappropriate and offensive, and that he refused to keep an open mind about the steady tour issue. Chief Wilson, on the other hand, she said, demonstrated a willingness to explore the issue during his interview.

“It was made very clear early on from the top brass [that] this was not a welcome process, that they felt that this was stacked against them, that I had preconceived notions and conclusions—and that was conveyed to me in a less than professional and, I felt, courteous, way,” Ms. Throne-Holst said. “That was not at all the case. There was no reason why anyone thought that.”

Capt. Tenaglia said he did not have any preconceived notions about Ms. Throne-Holsts’s opinion of steady tours. He said he’s a fan of steady tours, but that conventional, steady 12-hour shifts just don’t work for the town’s police department due to its seasonal needs. Instead, officers work fewer days in the winter and need to work more days in the summer. And while both he and Ms. Throne-Holst said the group had reached a compromise on the issue, settling for a version of the Suffolk County Police steady tour schedule, the PBA union balked at implementing anything, he said.

“It’s not us guys,” Capt. Tenaglia said. “It was the union that didn’t want it. They wanted the 12-hour tour. At that time, the union president wanted a 12-hour tour.”

After interviewing Capt. Tenaglia and other candidates, who included the town’s three police lieutenants, Ms. Throne-Holst said the captain maintained the same opinion about the issue. But Town Councilwoman Nancy Graboski said she does not recall things happening that way. Ms. Graboski—who voted against appointing Chief Wilson—said Capt. Tenaglia expressed a willingness to revisit the steady tour issue during his interview with the Town Board. “My impression was he certainly was amenable to change in the department and taking a look at such things as steady tours,” Ms. Graboski said.

Ms. Throne-Holst said she had other reservations as well. Last year, she said Capt. Tenaglia demanded promotions for certain officers in his department, showing up at Ms. Throne-Holst’s office the day that the Town Board was poised to sign off on them. The supervisor said she had previously asked to hold off on the promotions, until she had time to review the budget, but was denied.

“I was just denied that courtesy,” Ms. Throne-Holst said. “The captain showed up with the badges, and although I asked for the courtesy of holding off, that courtesy was not granted to me.”

Capt. Tenaglia said he was directed to request the promotions by former Chief Overton. “I said, ‘You’re going to have to have that discussion with the chief of police,’” he said, recalling what he told Ms. Throne-Holst after she requested to hold off. “Don’t kill the messenger. I wasn’t demanding anything. I was just doing what I was told to do by the chief of police.”

Additionally, Ms. Throne-Holst said Capt. Tenaglia was not willing to consider participating in a Suffolk County-run forfeiture program, in which the vehicles of repeat unlicensed driver offenders are impounded. Southampton Village is participating in the program, which has resulted in $250,000 in additional revenue for the village, she said. Capt. Tenaglia said the town already seizes vehicles, noting that the county vehicle forfeiture program was never brought up in his interview.

Ms. Fleming, meanwhile, also offered her reasons for supporting Chief Wilson over Capt. Tenaglia. She said it had more to do with being impressed by the chief’s qualifications, and his knowledge and ability to speak articulately on a variety of issues, like shared services, creating a diverse workforce and community policing.

“I was just extremely impressed not only with Chief Wilson’s interview and the other discussions that I had with him privately, but also with the references that I spoke with in regard to his candidacy,” she said.

Capt. Tenaglia said he wants to move on and put the controversy regarding Chief Wilson’s appointment behind him.

“I don’t think he’s a bad guy at all,” he said of Chief Wilson. “We went for a position, he received a position. I just would hope this whole thing would go away … This whole thing should just go away and let everybody go on with their job.”