Tom Aspell reminds me of Boss Hogg of Hazzard County:

I was interested in what the process for the choosing of the new Concord Police Chief was going to be, so I called the City Manager’s Office and spoke with a woman there.  I asked her if there was going to be a search committee, as I thought it was important to have a nationwide search, or if there was going to be a local appointment.  The woman informed me her understanding was that the job was going to be given to a deputy police chief but wanted to put me on hold to verify that with another employee.

Upon the woman returning to the phone, she reiterated the position she had stated earlier and asked if I wanted to talk with the city manager.  I stated I would absolutely want to speak with him as that action was not acceptable.  I gave her my telephone number and thanked her.

I then called three city councilors.  Two of them answered their phones and I relayed to them the conversation I just had and expressed that the search process should be a nationwide search for quality, not appointment by attrition.  One councilor asked me to put my concerns in writing at my earliest convenience and email them to the city clerk and copy it to them.

I did as asked, and then received a call from one of the councilors who stated they spoke with City Manager Aspell and that they were informed that there was going to be a search and Mr. Aspell was informed the Councilor would return my call so Mr. Aspell would not have to.

A few minutes later my phone rang and it was City Manager Aspell.  He asked me my concerns and I told him that I was informed of the lack of search committee according to his employee.  He stopped me and stated there was going to be one and that he specifically had a note from the employee who spoke with me indicating that she told me that there was going to be a search committee and that the deputy chief appoint was an interim position, and that he believed her story since he had written documentation of the conversation. 

I asked him what sense calling the councilors and sending a note to the city clerk for inclusion onto the city council agenda made if she had told me what I had essentially wished to be guaranteed;  A search committee over a local appointment by attrition.  I informed him that the version he was representing to me was a lie.  The City Manager stated he didn’t appreciate being sandbagged at 3:50 PM and began laughing and stated since he had a written document about it (which is curious in and of itself especially minutes after calls from city councilors) he was going to believe that story.  I was not told what he was claiming in his version of the conversation, I suggest the change of story and documentation was an afterthought, and it makes me curious as to why.   

Really, why would someone need to write something that had happened if it was supposedly an agreed upon point?  It doesn’t make sense, it would only make sense if it were a point of argument or in order to claim solidarity after an inquiry.

This makes me wonder that even if a search is completed now under the authority of City Manager Aspell, if the result will be the same, another internal person promoted to Chief to carry on the same politics and attitudes as are accepted today.  Below is the email sent to the city clerk and others.

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City Clerk

Concord NH

Via email 1/8/2014

Dear City Clerk,

I would like this issue to be put on the agenda at the earliest time.

This was essentially my response to the news story of the interim appointment of Deputy Chief Osgood.  I was told today by the City Manager’s Office, January 8, 2014, that the intention is to just appoint a deputy chief to the chief’s position.  This is wrong in so many ways.  This is a topic that should concern the city at so many levels.  Please read my original reaction and push the city council to become involved in demanding a proper search for police chief.  It’s a job, not a passing of the torch for sticking it out through attrition.

“And now we see, as predicted, why the city council acted at the behest of the city manager to equal the pay grades and cross knowledge of deputy chiefs and make them equals "so both deputy chiefs know both sides of the job", anticipating naming Osgood interim Chief, and a significant possibility of promotion.

What needs to happen now is a search committee be established to find the best QUALIFIED candidate, and it should be a nationwide search. If one thinks that merely promoting a person who has been with the department for so many years is a good thing, you are wrong. Promoting from within at this juncture is guaranteeing more of the same. An outside chief needs to be named to end the chain of good ole boy treatment and to be able to rid the department of the behaviors that someone who has risen in the ranks has known about and yet seemingly has allowed to exist through alliances made during such a career.

Weare recently showed how this is done, and Concord should do the same. In my opinion a recommendation committee should, after signing a confidentiality agreement, be made up of an out of county police chief from a population similar to Concord, a financial manager who understands municipal budgeting, an attorney who understands personnel/human resources and liability law, an out of county police officer who has less than five years on the job who has no intention of working in Concord, four Concord residents who volunteer to be chosen from a lottery style random pick after signing up for the drawing, and a representative from the NH Police Standards and Training Council.

This configuration will give a fair cross section of knowledge and representation of the law enforcement field, budget field, personnel field, and community to the process. They should recommend finalists by scoring to the city and then begin the elimination process by various interviews by the city council, city manager, and the public. This would be a more transparent process that would be more objective than the process being left up to the city manager and any appointed committee, or none, he would create from the onset.”

/S/

Brian K. Blackden

485 North State Street

Concord, NH 03301

415-0911