Archive for Police Chief Mark DeLuca
11.26.12
Posted in Cohasset Selectmen, Governance, Police Chief Mark DeLuca at 12:57 PM by Tanna K
Cohasset Mariner on-line is reporting that a “hearing” for Cohasset Police Chief Mark DeLuca, who has been on paid administrative leave since May 25, 2012, will be held Tuesday, Nov. 27th. If so, and if the Cohasset Selectmen are attending, it will most likely be held at either of the executive sessions posted on both ends of the Selectmen’s agenda.
A decision on whether the DeLuca hearing will be open or closed has not yet been determined, according to the Mariner report. It is actually DeLuca who determines whether it is open or closed. It should be noted that Acting Town Manager Mike Milanoski, who put DeLuca on paid administrative leave last May was not officially acting in any capacity when he did so. Milanoski’s illegal Town Manager contract with the town was signed on June 26th.
DeLuca has been collecting $2,500 a week since the end of May, a time during which police overtime is skyrocketing and we could use an extra guy or two or three. When the reality of excessive police overtime happened during former town manager Mike Coughlin’s reign selectmen called in the specialized Cat Dam troops to study things. Now that Mr. Milanoski is in charge … not to worry. Quote from Milanoski at a recent meeting: “The numbers show that overtime is less expensive than headcount.” I thought we learned that last year.
In related news…it appears the Special Annual Town Meeting slated for Dec. 10th is still “on,” although it may be continued to Dec. 18th. Can’t we get it a little closer to Christmas so we can disenfranchise the entire Town?
Several months ago a group of citizens planned to place a petition article on Special Town Meeting warrant only to discover that the time had passed. We thought we had missed it. When meeting minutes caught up to the town of Cohasset website we discovered that Selectmen had never voted to open the warrant. Selectmen Martha Gjesteby questioned illegal town manager Mike Milanoski about this oversight at several meetings. He babbled something about placing an ad in the Mariner and something else. But actually, it never happened.
…just Cohasset citizens being disenfranchised, again, by the most transparent (self-styled) board of selectmen in the history of Cohasset.
Permalink
07.18.12
Posted in Police Chief Mark DeLuca, Tanna Kasperowicz at 2:19 AM by Tanna K
Tinytown Unleashed has learned that the 11 so-called charges against suspended Cohasset Police Chief Mark DeLuca were allegedly cooked up by Acting Town Manager Mike Milanoski and Deputy Chief William Quigley during an early morning phone call – mere hours before the chief was suspended.
If Selectman Chair Paul Carlson thinks he’s going to win re-election to the board with the Boy Town Manager doing stuff like this – he’s very sadly mistaken.
There will be a hearing. The charges against DeLuca will embarrass town officials to high heaven. Carlson and his stubborn, almighty board (four of them, anyway) will vote to fire the chief, nonetheless. And then there will be a civil lawsuit that Chief DeLuca will win. And we will all pay, again. And again. And again. Maybe it’s not the legal budget we can’t afford, maybe it’s the selectmen.
There’s another lawsuit on the way, the one about to be filed by former town manager Mike Coughlin. This one will generate additional legal bills for a town that is very tired of legal bills and the selectmen who manufacture them like so many cookies.
I should be happy of course, because all of this chaos is perfectly timed for spring 2013 annual town elections and serves my personal efforts to elect two more grownups to the board that will result in a majority and maybe we can start moving this town into a better place.
If Milanosoki were smart he would nip this police chief thing in the bud, now, because when this goes to a hearing, Town Counsel, Milanoski and the Selectmen are going to be discovered to be involved in their favorite pastime: character assassination. And more and more people are going to agree with me that this acting town manager and his selectmen majority leave much to be desired and truly should be relieved of their duties.
Here are a few of the “charges” Milanoski is bringing forward (according to my numerous sources)
- DeLuca asked an off-duty policeman if he would drive some cancer drugs to Logan Airport for an individual who was an honorary special police officer. The off-duty police officer could have said no. The canine vehicle was used. Using the vehicle may not have been kosher, but it’s hardly a material charge, and not a suspendable offense, particularly when the town manager (you remember Mike Coughlin, fired in early spring) had given DeLuca permission to do the same.
- Another Coughlin-related incident. This time - Sarah Coughlin. Mike Coughlin’s daughter. Bright girl, studying to become a lawyer like her dad. She was briefly involved in an unpaid internship with the Cohasset Police Department to study juvenile justice. Milanoski thinks that was against the law. Huh? Unpaid internships are given out freely in all police departments in all towns to attorneys in training. DeLuca should be fired for this?
- The former charge of “forgery” has now been downgraded. DeLuca’s attorney is unable to get a copy of the forged letter. We’ll just have to wait and see.
- Stealing toys from children. Does anyone really think Mark DeLuca, who volunteered his time at NY’s 9/11 digging out police and firemen, would steal Christmas toys? Even I know this should not be one of the charges. When she writes about it, Johanna Seltz at the Globe will lead her article with the Christmas toy charge.
- The other 7 “charges” are just as nuts.
DeLuca and his attorney are scheduled to meet with the Town Investigator Thursday.
If Selectmen don’t nip this in the bud, they should be nipped in the bud. Alas, another year we don’t have recall.
Selectman Martha Gjesteby didn’t win former selectman Ted Carr’s seat because it was a hot summer day and the young fathers and mothers were frolicking on the beach with their children. Hardly. Those young couples couldn’t bring themselves to go to the polls for Ted Carr who in over 6 years had led the Town into an abyss.
Permalink
06.26.12
Posted in Police Chief Mark DeLuca, Tanna Kasperowicz at 3:30 PM by Tanna K
The investigation into Acting Town Manager Mike Milanoski’s interference with the police department will be further discussed tonight at 8:30 p.m. at the Selectmen’s meeting. Investigators met with Chief DeLuca and his attorney yesterday afternoon. It is expected that suspended Police Chief Mark DeLuca and Atty. Jack Shea will attend tonight’s meeting.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
06.22.12
Posted in Mike Coughlin, Police Chief Mark DeLuca at 4:38 PM by Tanna K
This past Tuesday I returned to Town Hall to hear the preliminary report on the whether the Interim Town Manager interfered with an internal investigation being conducted by Chief Mark Deluca. As a former Assistant District Attorney, Army JAG lawyer and town manager/administrator, I was amazed at the approach the investigation is taking.
In any investigation the complainant is the first to be interviewed. In this case, Chief Deluca will be the last. It is also erroneous to assume that an objective investigation can only be conducted on the basis of a written statement. As to claims that he was extended a fair opportunity to comment is outrageous as his attorney was only contacted 10PM the night before Tuesday’s meeting.
The preliminary report was also quick to exonerate but deficit in its reasoning. First, it was reasoned by the Chairman that Chief Deluca launched an inquiry only after Chief Deluca learned that the interim town manager spoke to the union president. I can tell you from over a decade of experience that an internal inquiry is launched the moment a Town Manager/Town Administrator contacts the community’s chief law enforcement officer. In other words, the fuse was lit the Saturday of election day when Interim Town Manager Milanowski called Chief Deluca. A fact buttressed by former Chief Jim Hussey – who in addition to being Cohasset’s former top cop headed the Internal Affairs Division of the Boston Police Department.
Secondly, while the fact that a Town Manager has the authority to speak directly to union personnel without involving either the chief or department head is technically legal, no seasoned town manager/administrator worth his salt would ever undercut the actions of a top manager except in the most extreme circumstances. The fact that the Interim Town Manager specifically asked the Town Attorney to point this out weakens the public’s confidence in the objectivity of the inquiry and creates a question as to whether the one being investigated is actually leading the investigation.
The letters from both the Attorney General’s Office and State Ethics Commission do not actually clear anyone. The Attorney General letter- typical in such matters– the criminal division leaves the issue to the local administrative authority while the State Ethics Commission bases its letter on a phone conversation that the circumstances of the matters are exactly the way the Interim Town Manager has portrayed them. In any investigation, there are always two sides of every story, conflicting statements as well as circumstances. So the reasoning that one could base exonerating the Interim Town Manager can be based upon these documents is also clearly erroneous.
Chief Deluca needs to be heard as he has direct knowledge of the events not hearsay as it was reasoned by another commentator last night nor can the magnitude of the issue be diminished like another tried to do. Chief Deluca’s job and reputation are on the line as well as the integrity of the department. This is as serious as it gets. Finally, the fact that four of the five selectmen are ready to exonerate the Interim Town Manager before a final and complete report is rendered is also troubling as to their objectivity and fairness in the future.
As the old adage states, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. As former Chief Hussey reminded the board on Tuesday the Cohasset Police Department suffered several years ago from ill conceived and biased investigations as to officers conduct in the past– ending up costing the town money while tarnishing the image of the police department as a whole. The Board of Selectmen would be wise to consider Chief Hussey’s advice.
Mike Coughlin (former Cohasset Town Manager
Peabody, Ma
Permalink
06.20.12
Posted in Police Chief Mark DeLuca, Tanna Kasperowicz at 9:51 PM by Tanna K
Cohasset Selectmen’s Meeting June 19
1. Town Counsel and a private investigator are giving the board the results of an investigation in which Acting Town Manager Mike Milanoski is the defendant.
2. Town Counsel finds Milanoski innocent of charges made by the suspended Police Chief .
3. Town Counsel and the investigator never interviewed the suspended Police Chief. Normal procedure would have been to talk to him before the investigation took place and then at the conclusion of the investigation. To not talk with him at all and to find it unnecessary to speak with him, is highly unusual. Selectmen vote to have the investigators interview the chief before their meeting on June 26.
3. It is now later in the evening, at the same meeting. Milanoski recommends that Selectmen sign a new contract with Town Counsel. For some time the board has been discussing putting out an RFP for Town Counsel to see if the Town can get a better price from another firm. Another firm had been tapped. But now Milanoski recommends that the BOS stay with Town Counsel; he feels the Town can negotiate some prices from within the present contract.
4. Milanoski may have been leaning in this direction, anyway. But now there’s a question of partiality.
Is suspended Police Chief Mark DeLuca getting a fair shake? The people investigating this matter should not be related to the Town in any way. Town Counsel protects the Selectmen. He works with Milanoski on a daily basis. Mialnoski doesn’t directly hire Town Counsel but his recommendation is powerful. This same evening Milanoski directed his board away from putting out a legal RFP. He, Milanoski, will be negotiating a new contract with Town Counsel, who has just found him innocent. It may not be quid pro quo, but it sure fits the definition.
Chief DeLuca’s livelihood and reputation are at stake here.
Selectmen can not be too busy to do the right thing by this man.
Permalink
Posted in Police Chief Mark DeLuca, Tom Wolf at 10:33 AM by Tom Wolf
It was all going so well at last night’s kangaroo court; Chairman Carlson thought he had this chapter signed, sealed and delivered… when did the investigation start? If it was after TM Milanoski interfered, then he technically couldn’t have interfered; case closed. Jenkins made the motion on cue; the vote was four to one, looked like a done deal.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
Posted in Police Chief Mark DeLuca, Tanna Kasperowicz at 1:17 AM by Tanna K
Selectmen voted to hold their final decision on whether their Acting Town Manager, Mike Milanoski, did or did not interfere in a police matter until such time as Suspended Police Chief Mark DeLuca can be interviewed.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
06.18.12
Posted in Police Chief Mark DeLuca, Tanna Kasperowicz at 1:01 PM by Tanna K
I am smiling as I read the Selectmen’s agenda for their Tuesday, June 19 meeting.
At 7:25 Selectmen will review the results of their independent investigation of allegations raised by (the) Police Chief after he was put on paid administrative leave –already the reader is being subjected to a pile of garbage.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
Posted in Karen Quigley, Police Chief Mark DeLuca at 11:48 AM by Karen Quigley
I’ve been watching town government from the sidelines for the past year and my conclusion and opinion is that the Board of Selectmen (excepting our newly elected selectman, Martha Gjesteby) is compromised, incompetent, lacks any respect for the rule of law, process and procedure, extends extraordinary influence to some elected and appointed officials, and has abdicated its authority to an inexperienced Town Manager, selected and appointed by them with no public vetting.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
06.05.12
Posted in Police Chief Mark DeLuca at 10:56 PM by Tanna K
Town Counsel, along with an independent investigator, will probe complaints by police officers with regard to their chief, and interplay between suspended Police Chief Mark DeLuca and Town Manager Michael Milanoski which resulted in DeLuca’s being suspended last week. Private Investigator Richard Sjoberg will assist Town Counsel Peter Barry in the internal investigation of the police department.
Cohasset Selectman Chair Paul Carlson said the result of the investigation would be referred to the Attorney General’s office.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
« Previous entries
