Friday, December 31, 2010

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."

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Desperate attempt by Milardo, to end this ridiculous process exacerbated by several local politicians who want political control of the chief.

Stop wasting local taxpayer's money on this matter. To those politicians desperate to "get their own guy in", keep the underlings you already possess, bide your time, and stop this vetting.

Anonymous said...

Just like watergate. All the good stuff was blacked out. Now we will never find out where Jimmy Hoffa is buried, the true meaning of the devinci papers, why the chicken crossed the road or what is the secret ingredient that makes the cream filling in tweenkies impervious to exposer to radiation. What this last stand at the Alamo equates to is nothing short of a last ditch, harry carry, throwing thyselve on thy sword, sacraficing an innocent lamb to Zeus, 4yr old stomping thier feet in the middle of Kabachnicks (just like a naturlazation test the canidate should no where people would go to buy the best tires for their car)

All that needs to be said is the Personnel Director does not tell goverment what to do, I think its supposed to be the other way around. Never has this fine city seen so much preperation for a canidate for a Diretors position. Never has this fine city been run by the Personnel Depatment. Never has this fine city seen a more biased opinoin from The Personnel Depatment for one job applicant.

The canidate is nothing but a man trying to get a job. All in all what it comes down to is everbody in this fine city knows we wasted 50k to come to a conclusion the Mayor said he would arrive at anyways.

The flaw is in the way the canidate was forced upon the council every step of the way with behind the scenes manipulation, bullying and out right attack on anyone who disagrees with this choice of canidate, not by the canidate but those who support the canidate. The Council is not bound to appoint a canidate that is proposed. The Mayor has no authority but to bring what he belives is the top canidate. The council has the authority to confirm or deny and not because it is the Mayors choice.

Please look carefully at the BOE sittuation. It is nothing more than personnel issues that should be decided in arbitration. Please during the next Council meeting require a new canidate list be brought forward within 60 days.

Lastly please someone get that dart from the monkey. He cant even hit the board.

HAPPY NEW YEAR MR. C, WE LOVE YOU !!!

Anonymous said...

What are the circumstances of this so-called “release” of information? Don’t see any mention of this in other newspapers. Was the document given to all media or just this blog?

David Santacroce said...

There is nothing like the light of day and the consent of the governed to ensure that things work as they should. Based on this report the City has an opportunity to hire an educated and experienced former Marine. The man is described as an honest, hard-working, dedicated and ethical officer who apparently believes in and follows the chain of command. The man leads from the front; is resolute but not obstinate to the ideas of others.
He is intolerant of clock watchers and expects the same of others. In the scheme of things this is how a paramilitary organization should operate. He has had command of the police force for some time to no bad end; in fact to some plaudits. Bravo for the release of the documents-ultimately the decision is within the citizens purview and no one else.

David Santacroce

Anonymous said...

Just a question?Why is the Personnel Director lobbing so hard for this Cheif? I am from out of town ,go to a local Diner and all I hear is the Personnel Director will go through a brick wall for this guy. Is this her job or is there other motives? I don't know this Director but all I hear is she is going to cost the Mayor his chair. Wht would the Mayor allow this at his cost?

Anonymous said...

Thanx Ed, we love you too. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY {~_~} ;);););););););););););)

Middletown Eye (Ed McKeon) said...

Anonymous 9:22, that's what we call a scoop. You might have noticed that most of the rest of Middletown's media sleepwalked through this week.

Anonymous said...

Bravo, Ed. Shows that old-fashioned hustle pays off. The sleepwalking scribes aren't giving you much of a workout, though. Guess it was kind of cold and snowy this week!

Anonymous said...

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."



Really? Where was all this concern for litigation costs when it came to paying out approximately $60,000.00 of taxpayer dollars to fight the Board of Education for what amounts to nothing but a union grievance? This very same Personnel employee was just as involved in that little fiasco. In fact, it was her, not the Finance Director, who offered this local news source the estimated costs to the taxpayers for those legal fees.
So, let’s see...she did the Mayor’s bidding by attempting to confirm the Mayor’s choice for Chief, even if it meant releasing the applicant's personnel files to the public; she tried her hat as pseudo Finance Director by estimating other legal costs to the city; as well performing the everyday duties of her department. Wherever does she find the time? My guess is that you’d have to have a pretty big head to fit into all of those hats at City Hall. Talk about multi-tasking!

Anonymous said...

Ed could you please contact Channel 3 news and see if you can get a live feed to their camera on top of the Middlsex Mutual building ? It has night vision and it would be prudent to have it pointed at the Portland Bridge. I think about 10:30pm tommorow night there might be a mass jump of the bridge. It would be a shame if both the Milarado's jump in unison after the Chief dosent get appointed again. Then again if he does get appointed a good lot of our fine Officers may take the plunge. For life and safety reasons, please Ed be proactive on this one !!