This is an example of the chaos that Phillips enjoys creating. He has said so many times that a little controversy is good. Perhaps the logic behind that is simply, they won’t be able to look to closely at me it I confuse all the issues all the time.
Consistent to a "T", time and again Phillips throws his policies by the wayside to suit his own needs without regard to the leadership he is supposed to teach, teaching instead he has no knowledge of what leadership really is.
This police department, Policy # 44 was created Phillips and signed by all 5 of the selectmen and it clearly states:
C: Probation Period 2. Newly promoted members and employees shall be placed in probationary status, for a period of one year.
Policy #44, page III.44.2
Roberts started working for the WPD on March 21, 2008 as a master patrolmen, this after being FIRED from Hinsdale, after being DEMOTED in Hinsdale and after being STRIPPED of all supervisory duties while in Hinsdale .
Who did his background check and what did they find?
It’s been confirmed Warren Breau did Roberts background check, that Roberts had personnel issues in his background and problems with the public. Warren Breau was given limited information from Hinsdale.
Chief Gallagher and Lt. Faulkner both told Breau that Roberts had issues in Hinsdale and that he wasn’t working out there and he would work out better somewhere else. Breau informed Phillips of Roberts shortcomings, personnel problems and issues with the public and the amount of time he worked in Hinsdale and Phillips hired him anyway.
Six months later, on September 24, 2009, Roberts was promoted to Patrol Sergeant.
He didn’t get more money for this promotion, he had already been getting paid more than he should have been for the six months proceeding, against the TOWN’S POLICY of paying people more for a job they aren’t doing.
Or is their a new policy that allows the TOWN to indiscriminately pay new employees more that their job title and job description states they should be earning?
According to policy #44 Roberts was not eligible for another promotion until after September 24, 2009.
It looks like Phillips must have forgotten he had this policy or?
What was his motive for circumventing his own policy this time?
What was he trying to achieve? And for what reason? What did he hope to gain?
Was he unhappy with Dan Reppucci’s performance?
Dan Reppucci had been doing all the jobs associated with the Lieutenants position for almost a year and half and without any problems or additional compensation and at the same time he was performing the duties of the job he was being paid to do as the Detective Sergeant.
One would have to think that if he weren’t doing a good job or Phillips was unhappy with his performance that he would have stripped him of the responsibilities long ago.
But that didn’t happen. Why not?
Did Dan Reppucci do something that upset Chief Phillips?
Much of this would be understandable if Dan Reppucci were faltering, but there is no indication of that. In fact, he had just gotten another great yearly review from none other than Phillips himself and his personnel file was perfectly clean with no issues or problems contained within.
What experience did Roberts have as a supervisor in Winchester, let alone experience as a Lieutenant?
What experience did Roberts have in Winchester after being there for such a short time? His job function was doing nothing more than patrol officer duty. He hadn’t been given any of the Lieutenant position responsibilities? Why not?
Why did Phillips not pass to Roberts some of these duties if he was so confident in his capabilities?
If there were TWO qualified employees, why not have them share the load, instead of leaving all the responsibilities on one? It’s not logical and makes no sense.
Roberts rarely worked weekends and he wasn’t available to field problems and questions most of the time.
Was Roberts hiding from the people?
Roberts would not come in when needed if he was required to be there outside of his hours of duty. The person that always came in while not on duty was Dan Reppucci, this can be verified by logs and time cards and cell phone bills.
And what does Roberts being under investigation at the time of this oral board have to do with any of this?
He was accusing an officer of spreading rumors about him in the hopes the officer would get fired over it. It was found that Roberts behavior was the behavior that was looked upon as dishonorable, not the other way around.
The officer he was accusing of spreading rumors was Warren Breau.
Warren Breau had been doing his job without any problems up until the time Roberts was hired.
Why would suddenly Warren Breau be having problems and why did it seem that Nate Jette and Roberts together were behind these problems?
Maybe it has something to do with Warren Breau doing Roberts background check?
Warren Breau wanted to apply for the Lieutenants position but Phillips wouldn’t let him.
Why?
Why was Warren Breau not allowed to apply for this position when he submitted his letter of intent to apply?
Too much education? Too much experience? Too much knowledge of others in the dept?
Phillips would probably say because he wasn’t full time certified at the time he submitted his letter but Warren Breau would argue he was going to classes and would have been full time certified at the time of the Oral board.
If Phillips was interested in being fair since he bent the rules for Roberts, he should have bent the rules for Breau?
Or maybe he shouldn’t have bent the rules for anyone and he should have stuck to his policy.
Prior to the oral board and after the oral board Phillips has stated publicly that Roberts does not know how to deal with people, that he has problems dealing with people and that he doesn’t trust him. He also has stated Roberts needed Dan Reppucci’s expertise because he didn’t know how to do anything.
This looks pretty crooked and you have to wonder what Phillips motive is to go to such extents to protect Roberts who has such a questionable past and a past that Phillips was aware of.
There are some people in the community that have been led to believe and have said that Chris Roberts and Nate Jette were cleared in a probe by the state. If you read the AG's letter, nowhere in it does it say they were cleared of anything, only that there was insufficient evidence at the time to pursue criminal charges as quoted by the Attorney, not to say this can not be done at some time in the future.
People DO NOT take eveything at face value, ask questions and read between the lines. Unless the statements are absolute they are not always what they appear to be.
UPDATED WITH MUTUAL AID POLICY:
MULTIPLE POLICY VIOLATIONS?
ANOTHER CASE OF BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR THE WINCHESTER POLICE DEPARTMENT AND THOSE WE PAY TO SERVE AND PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY?
DO THEY WORK FOR US OR DO WE WORK FOR THEM?
ANOTHER CASE OF BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR THE WINCHESTER POLICE DEPARTMENT AND THOSE WE PAY TO SERVE AND PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY?
DO THEY WORK FOR US OR DO WE WORK FOR THEM?
32 comments:
If Bob Gray and the selectmen want to keep saying this is because of a couple of disgruntled employees they lie to us.
Remember the towns employees tried to start a union a few months ago.
They did that because they weren't happy with the way things are going in town.
You have more than a couple of disgruntled employees at work here.
Keep digging and keep giving us the info.
If you go to the blog "More Sobering information about the police department …… " and look at the document entitled "Sloppy record keeping or something to hide?" You can see a pattern.
Phiilips has repeatedly been deceptive and dishonest.
PHILLIPS daily patrol log of July 24th posted in the above blog shows he put a total of 12 miles on his cruiser that day.
How did Gary Phillips go from the Winchester PD to Keene and back and did the other running around he did and only put 12 miles on his cruiser that day?
What’s his excuse now? It's a couple of disgruntled employees tampering with his police car’s mileage?
Phillips lets this go on with his employees because tha's the way he lives his life.
Hey didn't he just leave on vacation? Perhaps he will resign while he is gone...that would be a pattern....
According to the budget numbers Roberts was making $5,000 a year more than he should have started at. For what, he didn't do anything?
Why the hell did Phillips do that and why did the selectment allow him to get away with it?
What an insult to the taxpayers and to the other employees in this town who have worked for the same salary for years with no raise.
This yahoo started at the same pay as the Sergeant and wasn't doing the job.That's wrong, he didn't bring anthing to this town except his problems.
The problems these people have made they have they made themselves and what people think of them and know of them is because of the way the act and the things they do.
I hope the AG's office puts them out where they belong and I'll be singing in the streets if they do and I won't be the only one.
Hey citizens of Winchester, here we go again. It is 10:30 on Friday October 23, 2009 and Another Winchester Police Department off duty policy violation is in progress. Officer Jim Fisher and Officer James Mecheam who are still on probation are working the Midnight Madness detail at Keene State College. Who is supervising them? Who will be held liable
if they do something wrong? Does Keene State College know that these two officers are still on probation? The joke is on you citizens of Winchester. What are you going to do now?
Padding the retirement at the taxpayers expense again? That's no surprise. The BOS are puppets to Phillips. They don't know right from wrong as they let us know time and again.
Thanks BOS that keeps wasting our money at every opportunity.
Proof is we were already told when Roberta Fraser doesn’t pay her taxes that the town doesn’t need to borrow more money at our expense.
If 640 homes are behind in their taxes as Roberta likes to use as her excuse for being behind, then either:
1.)we need to borrow money to pay our bills and that costs us money
2.)we aren’t paying our bills
3.)we don’t need the money and they are just taxing us for no reason.
Where is our money going, besides for legal fees to fight off their incompetence?
If they had to pay the legal fees out of their own pockets, I bet they would think twice about squandering their hard earned $$’s.
Incompetence and money hungry greed are at work here.
Word has it that over $40,000.00 dollars has been paid out in legal fees so far this year. The town's year runs from June to June, so add another 6 months of fees to that total ( 4 open law suits, plus other expenditures ) and the town will more than likely spend double their budget for defending Margaret Sharra and the Planning Board for their underhandedness and for not following their own rules and regulations. In the lawsuit against the town over the Van Dyke project; if the board had just done things properly, they could have saved the town over $20,000.00 and more than likely never been sued. To this day, Van Dyke has never submitted a completed application with State approvals for water or septic; yet this board has rubber stamped his application and given him a final approval with conditions. There is no such thing, especially when he hasn't met all of the conditions they set forth in their conditional approval that they granted him over a year ago. On top of that, reading the minutes of 08/03/09, they have given him another year to meet their conditions. How is this protecting the town, the land and being fair to the abutters? Now you know why the town is being sued and headed back to court again.
I've heard a rumor that Gary Phillips had to leave Jaffrey or get fired. It had to do with some work he was "performing" on his desk, if you can catch the drift, this being a family blog and all.
Is he going to come back from this vacation?
Phillips is an individual with suspect ethics and an inept chief of police specifically.
He has no morals and he has no ethics and this blog keeps giving more and more examples of that, no different than when he was in Jaffrey.
Now he's involved with the AG's office about the Winchester Police Association?
He has surrounded himself with inept and suspect people at the WPD.
Jette and Roberts have many issues. Hinsdale didn't want Roberts anymore because of all the problems and complaints and they didn't hide that.
Roberts has lied to others and the public.
Jette has not only lied, he has admitted to being a thief.
When does our BOS step in and put a stop to this, there are many problems in our police dept, or are they too inept themselves and think this is OK?
Well run depts aren't in the limelight, this one if far from well run.
Hell of a time for the chief to go on vacation. I guess he figures if he isn't around he doesn't have to answer questions in regards to the questions being posed about his dept and officers who are suspected of wrong doings. Perhaps he'll have an attack of conscience while gone and realize by allowing this type of behavior he is cheating the taxpayers of Winchester and possibly placing us all in danger. It's hard to think about relying on people to help you when those very same people have no regard for the law.
The BOS should just acknowledge that the chief and his dept have too many problems, that they now have the proof they need to get rid of them and then be fair to all of us and have an investigation and do that. It's best for the town and that should be their concern.
I guess the Chief doesn't care what anyone things, After all that's been said Jette gets promoted?
Rumor has it when Phillips fired Reppucci he didn't follow his policy and that's one of the reasons why Reppucci has a lawsuit.
No surprise there, some of us already new he was gonna cost us more than the cruisers, too bad everyone ddidn't listen.
Why hasn't anything been done about this mess? Are your Selectmen so indifferent to the problems with your police department or are they just ignoring all the information that has been provided to them by this blog? They are either very arrogant and self serving people or they are truly inept at the position you have all voted them into. Surely there must be some way for you people to get someone from outside to look into all these problems you are having.
Speaking of being arrogant, the members of the WPD now have a planned lunch every Wednesday at the police department which is supposedly the brainstorm of Fisher and Roberts.Hey Roberts how was the fish chowder you made a few weeks ago(something sounds fishy here folks),and Fisher how was the shepard's pie? Is it possible to post your menue so orders can be placed? Do you take reservations or is it pickup and delivery only?
The questions that should be asked is how busy can WPD be if they can have a planned lunch every Wednesday? How busy can it be to warrant Phillips, Roberts and Fisher working they day shift?
Statistics show that 1 officer is needed for every 1,000 citizens. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2000 census shows that Winchester has 4,100 citizens which means there should only be 4.5 officers employed by the town therefore,the WPD is currently over staffed.
Look closely at and scrutinize the actual calls for service and patrol lolgs folks. These can be reviewed daily by anyone at any time. All anyone has to do is ask the secretary to produce them on request and you will see that many calls do not take much time for the officer to take care of. Question the patrol logs and ask to review the in car camera to compare with the logs.
With tight economic times it would benefit the citizens of Winchester to hold the PD accountable right down to the last penny.
Don't be fooled by the other police departments claiming they cannot find qualified people who will work for the salaries that are being paid. There are plenty of unemployed and experienced officers who are willing to work at the current wage being offered.
Working at current salaries is better than no work and no pay.
Police officers must understand their salaries are based on taxes not ptivate funding. If they want to make "the big bucks" thay need to go into the private sector.
FYI Folks,
Under the current retirement system, police officers get 50% of their highest average of their last three years worked and 2% for every year after that.
For instance,Phillips makes $57,000annually. At 50% he will get $ 26,500 per year for the remainder of his life if he only made $57,000as his highest average of his last three years. Most officers like to work an additional 5 years to get the additional 10% giving them 60% of their highest years earning. However, Phillips has 27 years, works tons of off duty earning as much as he can each year to boost/pad his average. Last year Phillips earned somewhere in the neighborhood $70,000, give or take,which if he retired today he would earn(20 years at 50% plus another 7 years at 2% = 7x2=14% + 50% = 64% of $70,000)$44,800 per year for the rest of his life plus free medical.
Folks, now you see why he works all the off duty he does and why he does not retire? Who do you think pays for his retirement? Remember folks,when there are several officer on during the day it allows Phillips to work as much off duty he can. Review with the town accountant the off duty Phillips has worked over the last three years. What will the next chief do with his off duty? This is why the town of Winchester should restrict off duty to within town limits only not other surrounding towns or in Northfield or Warwick, Massachusetts.
Hey Maryann, now you have something to run to the chief about. At least not this week since he is on vacation. You'll have to run to Acting Chief Roberts. Yep, Chief Phillips ran his mouth to several people saying Maryann is reading the blogs and telling him what they say because he doesn't read the blogs. If this true, I guess they really aren't that busy at WPD if they have time to keep up with the blogs at work and on town time. After all, this blog is free and is run by volunteers on their own time. Can you say double standards?
Self serving is definitely what's going on in Winchester, and we keep voting them in.
Rumor has it Gene Park was asked by Roberts if he would volunteer for the Halloween Parade on Saturday because none of the officers were available because there was no money in the budget.
Question? If Gene does volunteer and gets hurt or lord forbid, a child is injured,who will be responsible and held liable for
the damages? You guessed it folks, the Town of Winchester will be. Moral of the story, if the police are coordinating the event then the police should provide the protection.
Wouldn't it be nice if one or more of our "officers" would VOLUNTEER to cover the Halloween parade? A little "community service" could go a long way.
You've got to be kidding, we work for them they don't work for us. And the thing thats got me baffled is its OK with most of the selectmen. If they are out of money its because of poor management, if these people don't like it here leave.
If this is true you would think that Chris Roberts AND Nate Jette would volunteer, since they are BOTH on proabtionary status for a year and are trying hard to portray themselves as good community orientated and minded cops. Anything less than that shows you where there priorties are and always will be. If I recall correctly Roberts doesn't participate in the Memorial Day Parade either. He muct be too busy for us little folks. I imagine it's only going to get worse.
Perhaps if our selectmen hadn't gone against the voters in town who said no to purchasing a new cruiser and more money hadn't been wasted fixing up and registering and insuring a car that was in such bad shape that it could not even been used for detail work,that just sits most of the day at the town hall; or spending even more money to re-letter the whole fleet of town police cruisers and who knows what other wasteful spending ate up our taxpayer dollars, there just might have been enough to pay some real honest police officers to partake in the parade. Think!
It's called Mismangement. They like the money and benes but don't want to do anything for it.
I think the event is sponsored by the Winchester Kiwanis, give it some thought boys,do you want to upset the chairman of the BOS? Such stupidity and mismanagement is going to be hard to explain to the local taxpayers, you guys keep digging a deeper hole.
The police do use details to inflate their retirement and phillips, roberts and jette have recently and publicly talked about it. How much they get depends on their 3 highest years of earnings, which also means that we pay more as taxpayers, for their retirement contributions. All 3 have bragged about doing the details to inflate their earnings. Seems like they all have something to gain by keeping everything secret.
This is a perfect example of how Jette can't keep his fat mouth shut. Jette, it will be a pleasure to watch you fall. Your arrogance is going to catch up with you and you will be the one on the outside looking in. It is hard to understand why your wife braggs about how great a cop you are. How can you be a great cop when you aren't even a good cop? You're not a good cop Jette and you never will be. You are a discrace to law enforcement and what it stands for. It won't be long before you are booted out of this profession. Your arrogance is going to get the best of you whatever that may be. The only following are the people waiting for you to screw up. Do law enforcement a favor and leave. Does the expression "small potatoes" mean anything to you Jette?
Quite a few of us know what "small potatoes" means to Officer Jette. We heard him on our scanners. He said that a crime being reported in Winchester was "small potatoes" to him and that it was more important he go to a call in Swanzey.
Dispatch told him he wasn't needed but he went anyway.
He should pay attention to Winchester’s problems and stop putting his nose where it doesn't belong and where it's not appreciated.
You are right. Jette was told by dispatch he was not needed and two Keene units were already enroute, yet Jette still asked dispatch again to ask Swanzey if they wanted him to respond because he said he was was close to the call(a possible suicide threat call). Even after dispatch told Jette there were other units enroute who arrived to the call before he did, he still insisted on responding when dispatch told him he had a call in his town involving a theft and the witnesses still had the suspect in their sights. Jette's response to dispatch was the call in Winchester was "small potatoes". Yes folks, Jette had a small potatoes call, left Winchester unprotected to go to Swanzey even after he was told Keene PD had two officers enroute. According to the Mutual Aid Agreement, Jette was not authorized because he was not asked to assist,(this is very specific in the agreement) he volounteered his services which made his response an unauthorized response, therefore, Jette was a civilian when he responded to Swanzey. Talk about liability. Check the Mutual Aid Agreement folks and you will see that Jette violated it, plain and simple. This the Sergeant your town now has to live with. Jette is on probation for 1 year, therefore he can be demoted for any reason. This incident happened on a weekend less than two weeks ago. This is enough to have him demoted. What you have here folks is a regegade police officer and a serious law suit waiting happen. If Jette got hurt or he hurt someone in Swanzey the first million ( as chief phillips would say, be on the insurance company and the rest would be on the town's people. Start saving folks because sooner or later a law suit is gonna getcha!
A petition to remove him should be filed with the town administrator along with the report from mutual aid and passed on to the BOS at their next scheduled meeting. As many people who feel this is wrong and leaves the town unprotected should attend and demand his immediate dismissal.
Inflating retirement and wearing out cruisers can't be good for the taxpayers. The possibility of coming to work fatigued is not good for the town. And its been said before, if its such a good deal why is it only Winchester getting most of this work. I had an area town manager tell me that there taxpayers couldn't afford detail work. We are being had folks. I hope the budget comm. cuts them back to where they don't have the men or cars for regular detail work.
Ref: the first Post "From the Desk of John Keenan" and the comment made about reading the Union Leader "Hooksett" article today...Do also read the "comments" and ref. to COMMON DENOMINATOR...hhmmmmm
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