City Personnel Director Releases Background Report on McMahon

In a move she herself describes as "highly unusual," the City of Middletown's personnel director, Deborah Milardo, has released the entire background report developed when Acting Chief Patrick McMahon was first considered for the job of Deputy Chief in the Police Department three years ago.  The report was released after consultation with the candidate for Police Chief, McMahon, and the mayor, who has appointed McMahon for a second time.

The Common Council rejected McMahon's first appointment  in a contentious meeting of the Council on October 4.

The appointment of McMahon will be considered again at the next Common Council meeting, next Monday, January 3.

"I really defy any member of the Council to come up with objections after reading the report," Milardo said.  "I think this will focus their thinking, and their will only be one question to ask, 'Is he qualified?'"

Milardo said that although background checks are done on every director-level hire, an entire report has never been released before.

"But no one has ever been put through such a rigorous process before," Milardo said.

"Deb Milardo suggested releasing the report, and I told her I had to read it first," McMahon said in a phone interview from a ski cabin in New Hampshire.  "I knew it existed, but I just read it for the first time.

The picture that emerges of McMahon in the background report is of a dedicated, hard-working, community-minded and occasionally imperfect police officer who has pushed his fellow officers, and those who worked for him, to meet the high standards he set for himself.  Many of the interviewees and references note that McMahon has a naturally loud speaking voice that can be intimidating at first, but is soon accepted as his everyday vocal volume which accompanies a straightforward, and straight-speaking personality.  Just as many mention his seriousness about police work, and his dedication to doing the job well.

What's more revealing is a series of interviews about his tenure in Groton City, a period of McMahon's career which, according to reports, was difficult, and controversial.

According to the interviews of nine colleagues on the City of Groton Police Department, McMahon was hired by Groton City Police Chief to be an "enforcer," dealing with the problems of overtime abuse, and a power clique of longtime officers on the force unhappy that outsiders were named as chief and deputy chief.

According to Jad Bickford, an eight year veteran of the department: "All of these people have been 'running' the department as they control the union and have been there for over 20 years.  People in the department had been doing whatever they wanted and nobody was following procedures and overtime was being misused.  These people were responsible for causing trouble for two Chiefs and a Deputy Chief in the past that were forced to leave."

Another veteran police officer, Richard Chimiel, concurred and added: "They believed the Chief was directing McMahon to enforce discipline.  When the three troublemakers in the department caused trouble and went after McMahon to get at the Chief, neither the chief nor the mayor backed him up."

According to reports in the Hartford Courant at the time of McMahon's confirmation as Deputy Chief in Middletown, McMahon was slapped with a three-day suspension in Groton City "for allegedly making an angry face at an officer working unauthorized overtime and telling an ethnic (Polish) joke."  In his confirmation hearing McMahon referred to his behavior as a "dumb, stupid mistake."  The suspension was rescinded and removed from his personnel jacket as part of a legal separation agreement, which is also part of Milardo's report.

"It's clear when you read the report that McMahon got screwed by the City of Groton because of politics," Milardo said.

"The fact that (City of Groton) Mayor Popp signed a letter of recommendation is important.  There's nothing negative in there about me," McMahon said.  "They didn't want to see a good guy get screwed and they negotiated a fair agreement."

The thirty-one page report, compiled by an independent investigator, Frank Collins, includes letters of recommendation, interviews with past employers and co-workers and formal work reviews.  Milardo said that the report falls within Freedom of Information regulations, and so can be considered a public document, with some redactions including medical information, results of psychological testing and complaints or consultations which may have appeared in a personnel file but did not result in disciplinary action.

Milardo said that she was motivated to release the report after Council member Gerry Daley requested the ability to speak to an official from the City of Groton about McMahon's time as Deputy Chief in that municipality.  She could not recommend an individual that met Daley's demands, but remembers the background check, and decided to send it to all Council members.

Milardo insists that she released the report in her duty as Personnel Director to be sure that the city doesn't "head down the slippery slope toward litigation."

The report is not completely flattering, discussing McMahon's history of auto accidents, and a court-ordered garnishing of wages for child support after divorce ended his first marriage.  McMahon says that he never missed a child support payment, but the garnishment was granted by the court at the request of his ex-wife.

"It's a double-edged sword," Milardo said.  "People will read into this report what they want to see.  It's not the normal process to release a background report like this, but none of the process has been normal."

"I think what the Mayor and the Personnel Director are trying to do is to provide every opportunity to the Council to have the information they need,"  McMahon said.  "And to prevent them from saying we don't have enough information."