Molly Farrar
The Belmont Police Department is preparing its new hiring policies after Town Meeting members voted 160-101 (with one abstention) on Monday night to leave the state’s Civil Service process.
The program required Belmont to make hires from a list of people who passed the Civil Service exam, with preference given to Belmont residents. Applicants were also required to be 31 years old or younger. Belmont joins dozens of other communities who have left Civil Service in recent years.
Belmont first adopted Civil Service in 1915, and many Town Meeting members criticized the program for being archaic, while the Belmont Police Patrolmen’s Association (BPPA) said it protects their members from nepotism and discrimination.
Heated Debate
Dozens of Town Meeting members spoke during an hours-long debate that took up most of Monday night’s meeting, ending with a vote around 10 p.m.
Outside Belmont High School, members of the police union were handing out flyers, urging members to vote no, and during the vote, they waited in the balcony with other spectators.
Select Board Chair Roy Epstein presented the town’s case for leaving Civil Service, saying the department has been unable to fill four vacancies due to the restrictions of the program.
“It’s a public safety problem because of the inability to fill positions, and we’re looking ahead,” Epstein said. “There is a looming wave of police retirements in the next few years. This is going to make this problem dramatically worse.”
He also said Civil Service hinders the department’s ability to add diversity to the force, noting that 95% of the force is Caucasian.
Town Meeting Member Paul Roberts (Precinct 8) spoke for a group of residents who opposed the measure. He said the town lacked hard evidence that leaving Civil Service would solve the hiring problems.
“There are far too many unanswered questions of the practical, and even more importantly, the financial impact the ‘yes’ vote would have on Belmont residents and taxpayers,” Roberts said in front of Town Meeting Monday.
Despite vocal opposition, the warrant article passed.
Union Concerns
Cory Taylor, BPPA president, told The Belmont Voice that the town is now headed into “unknown territory,” especially when new union contracts come up for negotiation.
“It does give [the town] a little bit of an upper hand,” said Taylor. “There’s a lot of disappointment.”
Chief James MacIsaac, who has been advocating to leave Civil Service for years, said while union support would’ve been “preferred,” the situation was too dire to wait.
“I looked at it as a management choice,” MacIsaac told The Belmont Voice. “I’m in charge of the police department, and I just couldn’t turn a blind eye to this problem that has been ongoing now for at least since 2016 that we’re not vetting enough qualified candidates.”
MacIsaac said a new hiring policy should be released by Dec. 1 and will be posted on the department’s website. To fill the four vacancies as soon as possible,
MacIsaac said he’s first going to look for lateral transfers from surrounding police departments and then run an exam early next year to qualify new candidates. He said the department can now also take resumes from potential applicants.
“Nothing changes with the exception of where the candidates come from,” MacIsaac said. “Now the real work begins, because now I get to go out and recruit officers and good people to come in here and work.”
