Frydryk said he is in the process of hiring the department’s 21st officer, which would bring staffing back to levels last seen seven years ago.
PALMER - The Police Department will continue to use civil service when it needs to hire new officers, as the town manager and police chief have decided that leaving the system is “not in the best interest at this time.”
In early 2012, Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard and Police Chief Robert P. Frydryk began exploring the possibility of withdrawing the department from Civil Service, which requires those in the system to use a state-generated list for all new hires, but the news concerned the police union, which noted that the Civil Service system had been in place for 70 years.
Frydryk had said that removing the department from the system would allow him to set his own requirements for officers, such as requiring a college degree, whereas now the requirements to be a police officer are a high school diploma or general equivalency diploma. He also said that using the Civil Service system takes longer to hire new officers.
Blanchard recently updated the Town Council to let it know that the Civil Service issue was no longer on the table after Council Vice President Barbara A. Barry asked about the status of the investigation.
“Both the chief and I have concluded that this is not in the best interest at this time,” Blanchard wrote in a memo to the Town Council.
Said Frydryk, “I still think it’s a good idea, but the union is not on board.”
Because removing a department from Civil Service requires the approval of the Legislature, Frydryk said he would need union support to change it.
Sgt. Christopher J. Burns, New England Police Benevolent Association Local 071 president, declined comment.
When he heard last year that the chief and town manager were exploring eliminating civil service, Burns wrote a letter to Blanchard asking that the union be included in any discussions.
Burns at the time said the union blamed hiring delays not on Civil Service, but on inadequate funding of the Police Department, inadequate staffing of the Police Department and a failure to plan for the replacement of personnel.
Frydryk said he is in the process of hiring the department’s 21st officer, which would bring staffing back to levels last seen seven years ago.