Swampscott Police Hiring Changes Pledged Amid Stalled Process

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald pledged a revamped process for hiring police officers after he said the most recent round of testing resulted in one qualified candidate deemed worthy of a conditional offer out of a field of 65 applicants despite several openings in the department.

In the first Select Board meeting since Union President Kevin Reen sent an open letter to the board requesting a public summit to discuss what he called a hiring "crisis" in the department, Fitzgerald allowed that "we need to do something different" in developing a way to find quality candidates in a timely matter outside of the civil service system.

(Also on Patch: Swampscott Police Union President Calls For Emergency Staffing Summit)

"It's a frustrating reality that is not just faced by Swampscott but many other communities," Fitzgerald told the Select Board on Wednesday night. "There are many challenges. We are going to think anew about how we are moving forward with hiring — the timelines just don't work — and we really have some great ideas about how to expedite the timeline and move forward in addressing some of those critical staffing issues."

Fitzgerald said the lone suitable candidate from the most recent process — whom Fitzgerald said was presented with the conditional offer this week — was determined after a process of "months of background checks" that included what he called "the most exclusive and impressive standard where we could only get one out of 65."

Select Board member Peter Spellios challenged that it was not necessarily "impressive" that the process was so exclusive that it has become prohibitive to consistently fill the positions.

"The chief and I have had long conversations about that," Fitzgerald said of him and Police Chief Ruben Quesada. "I do trust that the chief has a game plan. He has presented me with a recommendation (Wednesday) that I am reviewing."

Fitzgerald said the town wants to work with the police union and "make sure that everyone has a chance to play a role" and agreed that "we need to do something different."

"We cannot continue to hire police officers the same way that we have in the past," Fitzgerald allowed. "It just doesn't work. It's not working."

Select Board member Katie Phelan said that there has to be a method in place to "pivot faster" when it is determined that a hiring system is flawed so the town is not in this same position one or two years from now, while Select Board member MaryEllen Fletcher presented the Board with the outline of a plan she developed to hire officers within a 41-day timeframe with proper funding of the process and "a commitment to no delays."

"Hiring a police officer is one of the most complicated and important responsibilities that we have in government," Fitzgerald responded. "And we have to really be diligent about it. But it is taking way too long.

"I have every confidence that we can do better. We just have to get back to that teamwork that has helped us accomplish a lot over the last few years. ... We're just going to have to get this done."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)