Sag Harbor Police Chief Takes Sick Leave

Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Austin J. McGuire has taken a personal leave of absence, and Lieutenant Robert Drake is serving as acting chief in the interim.

The news, which began circulating in the village midweek, was confirmed on Monday by Mayor Thomas Gardella.

“A.J. is on sick leave. He is dealing with a personal health issue, and Rob Drake is running the department,” Gardella said.

The mayor said he could not say if, or when, McGuire would return. “I don’t know what the future is going to be,” he said.

McGuire informed him of his need to use sick time on the Fourth of July, the day after Gardella was sworn in as mayor.

Gardella declined further comment, saying an employee’s health issues were a confidential matter. The matter was not discussed at Tuesday’s Village Board meeting.

The news is the latest development in an ongoing saga that began with stalled negotiations between the village and the chief, who has been working without a contract since July 2021.

Shortly before leaving office last month, Mayor Jim Larocca, who was upset that McGuire had gone public with his frustrations over the stalled contract negotiations in February, voiced his own concerns about the contract talks, saying he objected to McGuire’s compensation demands and was frustrated that the chief had failed to take steps to correct unstated personal behavioral issues as requested by the board.

The mayor’s accounting drew considerable push-back from other board members, who laid the blame for the stalled contract talks squarely at Larocca’s feet, saying his personal animosity for the chief undermined any chance a deal on the contract would be reached while he was in office.

On July 3, just before his term ended at noon, Larocca, in a letter to The Express, took issue with their characterization of the situation, saying there was no personality clash.

“My issues with the chief bear on performance and behavioral matters, and on compensation. Period,” he wrote.

“Dating back to 2021, Chief McGuire has steadfastly refused to acknowledge or correct issues of performance and personal behavior raised by the mayor, trustees, the village police commissioner, labor counsel, and occasional members of the public — issues that threaten damage to his reputation and that of Village Hall, and outshine his otherwise satisfactory record.”

Three members of the board, speaking anonymously, said the timing of McGuire’s decision to take a leave of absence literally a day after Larocca had left office pointed to an atmosphere of animosity and mistrust that existed between the two.