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Although his resignation does not take effect until December 1, the Southampton Town Board this week stripped Police Chief William Wilson Jr. of his authority and bestowed command of the Town Police Department on Captain Robert Pearce, whom, it is speculated, is in line to become the next police chief.
As the department’s executive officer, Capt. Pearce actually has been in command of the department since October 25, because Chief Wilson has been out of town, including during the chaotic days during and after Hurricane Sandy swept through the area.
Before the Town Board unanimously accepted his resignation last Thursday, November 1, the chief had informed them he did not intend to return to work prior to his resignation taking effect. He had initially been scheduled to return from a three-week vacation on November 16, but the chief said this week that he had decided to leave his post before he went on vacation. He has already accepted a new position, he said—although he would not say what the job is.
The transfer of command to Capt. Pearce brings an end to the tumultuous 18 months of Chief Wilson’s leadership of the Town Police. It was a tenure that included his requesting that most of the department’s top officers be summarily replaced, the disbanding of an undercover unit and the suspension of its commanding officer and one of its former detectives, and an apparently ongoing investigation by the Suffolk County district attorney’s office that has already led to the release of two convicted felons from prison because of questions about the circumstances surrounding the cases built against them by town undercover officers.
Chief Wilson frequently butted heads with Republican and Conservative members of the board—board members Chris Nuzzi, Christine Scalera and Jim Malone—over policy, staffing and technical changes he wanted to make, and he traded barbs with Mr. Nuzzi as he withdrew this week.
“I accepted the position with every intention of implementing change within the Southampton Town Police Department immediately upon my employment with the P.D. And then, for 17 months, I was stymied from making any progress by partisan, political obstructionists,” Chief Wilson said. “When you couple that with the political discord that goes on among the board—the board majority clearly not supporting modernization or progression of the police department—I believe that my decision to retire should come as no surprise to anyone who’s followed the police department for the last 18 months.”
Mr. Nuzzi, who voted in support of hiring Chief Wilson, acknowledged the discord with the chief and within the board, but said it was fueled primarily by the chief’s failures as an administrator and the support for him that other members maintained even amid the “upset” of the last nine months.
“The Town Board was anticipating a more open and responsive relationship with the police chief when he was hired,” Mr. Nuzzi said this week. “Come to find out, there was a serious lack of communication on a lot of matters of finances and personnel. His insular management style and lack of communication and respect for the Town Board … was not what we had hoped for.”
The struggle between board members and the chief began almost immediately after he was hired in May 2011 by a 4-1 vote of the Town Board—only former Republican Councilwoman Nancy Graboski voted against the move, in which the board went outside the town department for its next chief rather than promoting longtime second-in-command Captain Anthony Tenaglia.
The chief said the board fought him over requests for technological upgrades that he said were essential to modernize the department and increase its long-term efficiency. The departing chief came under fire from Mr. Nuzzi and other board members for climbing overtime costs in the last two years, which he blamed on shortages of officers and the additional demands of Hurricane Irene in 2011. He also recommended early in his tenure that several high-ranking veteran officers should be forced to retire—a move, Mr. Nuzzi claims, that was made only because the officers had been part of the previous department administration.
Mr. Nuzzi pointed to a recent failure by the chief to answer board members’ requests for information on overtime costs. A work session on October 25 at which the chief had pledged to provide a breakdown of overtime hours worked by town officers wasn’t attended by the chief because he left town two days before his scheduled vacation.
Mr. Nuzzi said the failures were not only on the part of the chief but on the part of other board members who failed to hold the chief’s feet to the fire more often.
“I was astounded by the lack of response on the part of the supervisor and [Councilwoman Bridget Fleming] going back months, when they saw this behavior happening or continuing to happen,” Mr. Nuzzi said. “We should not have been in the position we found ourselves in, not only the internal disarray but also the absence of the chief.”
Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said that she did not wish to rehash the disagreements between the chief and some board members or internally on the board.
“Our job as elected officials is to do what’s right for the town, for the police and for public safety,” she said. “I’m focusing on the future here. It’s been a difficult 18 months, and my job is to make sure we move forward positively.”
Ms. Fleming did not return requests for comment.
The most contentious sparring between the board and the chief—albeit an episode that took place largely behind closed doors—arose after the chief suspended Lieutenant James Kiernan and filed more than 30 disciplinary charges against the 15-year veteran, stemming from his years as the head of the department’s undercover anti-drug Street Crime Unit. Chief Wilson had himself promoted Lt. Kiernan, a Southampton Town Republican Committee member, from sergeant just three months before suspending him.
Following close on the heels of the disciplinary charges against Lt. Kiernan was a high-profile seizure of police department internal-investigation files and, just weeks later, the announcement by District Attorney Thomas Spota that his office was recommending that the charges against two convicted drug dealers be vacated and the men released from prison.
After more than five months’ suspension without pay, attorneys for the town and the Superior Officers Association union agreed to a settlement last month that returned Lt. Kiernan to his post on November 1. The specific details of the settlement have not been made public.
Mr. Nuzzi said that the chief’s handling of the Kiernan case was deeply divisive and, in the end, not worth the problems it caused.
“There were a lot of things [he did] that were called into question, the Kiernan issue was one of many,” Mr. Nuzzi said. “There were allegations made, and the end result is that that individual is back in the position that he was promoted to by Chief Wilson a year ago. The way in which some of these things seemed to be handled, and the reasons behind them, don’t seem to be the best strategies for operating and managing a police department.”
Chief Wilson, who has steadfastly defended his decision to bring Lt. Kiernan up on charges, said this week that had he decided to remain in the town job, he could “absolutely” have worked well with Lt. Kiernan despite the unpleasantness of the disciplinary process. He said his absence over the last two weeks and his decision to leave were not made because of the settlement of his case against Lt. Kiernan. The chief said his vacation was scheduled long before the settlement agreement on October 19, and that he had informed the attorneys handling the case that he would be gone for the last week of October and the first two weeks of November—a vacation period he says he has taken every year for 20 years.
His absence from the job on October 25 and 26 were not part of his prearranged vacation, however, and the chief acknowledged this week that his early departure was spurred by his frustrations with the board. He said that an October 23 resolution by the Town Board to link his contract to a lower-level schedule of vacation time and other benefits than other high-ranking officers in the town receive, was the last straw.
The chief said that it was following that resolution that he decided to accept an offer he had received for a new position. He would not say what the new job was, but confirmed that he visited Washington D.C. on October 25 and 26—when he was absent from the work session at which Mr. Nuzzi had asked that he present information on the town’s overtime pay—before continuing on to Florida and then the Caribbean for his prearranged vacation.
The chief said that he was never specifically asked to return to Southampton as Hurricane Sandy approached.
But Ms. Throne-Holst said that she did contact the chief the weekend before Sandy hit and asked him if it was possible that he return, but that he informed her he was already in the Caribbean and could not make it back. She said there was no discussion of asking for his resignation at any point.
Capt. Pearce would be eligible to succeed Chief Wilson once the town has fulfilled the requirements of State Civil Service hiring codes. The town must request a list of eligible candidates for the job from Civil Service administration, according to parameters set by the Town Board.
On Thursday evening, shortly after the board voted to unanimously accept Chief Wilson’s resignation, Ms. Throne-Holst said that the town plans to request that only officers with a rank of captain or above be considered for the post. Only Capt. Pearce would be eligible from within the Town Police ranks under those parameters, although Civil Service laws say that the town can hire from among qualifying officers from departments within the township, including village police departments.
Chief Wilson was himself the chief of the Southampton Village Police Department when he was chosen to succeed retired Chief James Overton, with the board bypassing Captain Tenaglia, who retired in February 2012.
on Nov 14, 2012