WESTFIELD – The manager’s position of the city’s animal control efforts has been filled – but not by the Police Commission, the appointing authority.
The position has been vacant since the retirement of Kenneth Frazer, who had held the position since it was established.
In late April, Frazer was placed on paid administrative leave but, at the time, no city officials would discuss the move, saying only that it was a personnel issue which could not be discussed.
Frazer himself said, in an interview with The Westfield News, that he “wasn’t even told why I was being investigated” and subsequently retained a lawyer in an effort to reclaim his job.
After his contract expired at the end of the fiscal year in June, he claimed his retirement benefits.
Since Frazer was placed on administrative leave, his role has been filled by his subordinate, animal control officer Kerri Francis, but her tenure as the acting department manager will come to an end when her new boss starts working for the city on Sept. 15.
Karin Decker, the city’s acting personnel director, said yesterday that that a hiring committee comprised of herself, Police Chief John Camerota and police Capt. Hipolito Nunez has met, interviewed three candidates, and selected Lori Charett to fill the vacant position.
Decker described Charett as a nine-year veteran of the Thomas J. O’Connor Regional Animal Shelter and said that Charett had served as “an animal control officer with some supervisory duties.”
The other candidates interviewed were Francis and Nancy Rogers, a veteran veterinary technician who has worked at a city animal clinic for decades.
The curious aspect of the hiring process is that hiring authority for animal control operations normally is vested in the city’s Police Commission.
The Police Commission routinely interviews and hires candidates for employment as police officers and hired both Frazer and Francis. It does not normally interview applicants for clerical and administrative positions but considers and accepts the recommendations of police leadership.
“The commission relinquished their hiring rights over to me,” said Decker but when and how the commission did that seems to be in question since the commission has not met since the position became vacant July 1.
She said she did not know why she was asked to become involved in the process to hire a manager for the animal control aspect of the police department.
Camerota said that about a month ago he polled the commissioners and “they have given their blessing to have the personnel office oversee that process.” He said that they will formalize that agreement when the commission meets in October as one commissioner is expected to be absent at the September meeting of the commission.
When Decker was asked if the City Solicitor, Susan Phillips, had proffered an opinion about the legality of the commissioners taking action in private she said that Phillips had been kept informed of the process.
Phillips said that she had not been asked specifically about the legality of actions by the commissioners when they are not sitting in a formal session.
She said that some commissions, which are usually comprised of volunteer commissioners, elect to have professionals interview applicants for employment and then vote to approve or reject nominated candidates.
She also said that sometimes interim appointments are made.
Camerota said that Charett will begin a six-month probationary period when she reports for work on Sept. 15
