By Patrick Cronin
Hampton Union, Friday, January 6, 2006
[The following article is courtesy of the Hampton Union and Seacoast Online.]
named Hampton’s new police chief
[Photo by Jamie Cohen]
HAMPTON — The majority of selectmen signed off Monday night on allowing Police Chief Jamie Sullivan to fill the $80,000-a-year captain’s position left vacant when he was promoted.
Selectwoman Ginny Bridle-Russell was the only board member opposed.
Bridle-Russell said it’s not right that the Police Department will have two second in commands while the majority of selectmen voted last year to eliminate one of the two deputy chiefs in the Fire Department.
“It has nothing to do with the personalities involved, it’s just the position,” said Bridle-Russell. “I’m adamantly opposed to hiring another captain. We are in a default budget, and last year in our other major department we had to move a fire deputy chief to a lower position.”
Bridle-Russell, who had been against eliminating the deputy fire chief position, said by filling the police position it gives the appearance of a double standard.
Despite her objections, the board OK’d filling the position on the recommendation of Sullivan, who wanted to promote Lt. Richard Sawyer and hire a new entry level police officer.
Sawyer will join Capt. Timothy Crotts as Sullivan’s second in commands, and the department will revert back to having only two lieutenants.
“The operations captain is vital to our department,” said Sullivan. “I felt we hada to fill it very quickly because the position oversees the daily operations of the department.”
Selectman Ben Moore said the new chief has to do what the new chief thinks is right and said he doesn’t think there is a double standard.
“I think she might be forgetting that eliminating the deputy chief position in the Fire Department was a reaction to the fire chief’s recommendations,” said Moore. “The fire chief originally recommended laying off eight firefighters. We didn’t want to do that and decided to lay off only four and eliminate a deputy chief position.”
Selectman Cliff Pratt said he would like to see only one police captain in the future but for now would go with the chief’s recommendation.
“I would hope we can get it down to one captain, but I hate to put the new chief behind the eight ball,” said Pratt.
Selectmen Chairman Jim Workman agreed.
“I think we should give the new chief the benefit of what he’s looking for and strive for an eventual restructuring so there is only one captain,” said Workman.
Their comments caused Bridle-Russell to say, “We didn’t ask the Fire Department or Chief (Hank) Lipe his recommendation. We didn’t ask what he wanted. I don’t operate in double standards.”
Town Manager James Barrington said, “If you look at recent history, it is less expensive to have a captain than a lieutenant. A lieutenant is eligible for overtime as captains are salary exempt. Last year all three of our lieutenants made more than our captains did.”