KENNETH FRAZER
WESTFIELD – Following his placement on administrative leave earlier this week, Ken Frazer, the director of animal control operations for the City of Westfield, is now seeking to get his job back, and has retained the services of Attorney Patricia Hebert to help him do so.
“I was called into the office Tuesday and wasn’t even told why I was being investigated,” Frazer said. “I’ve heard rumors since then about some decisions I’ve made at the shelter that were within my reasoning to make and for the protection of the city.”
He added that he was called the night before by Westfield Police Captain Michael McCabe, who told him he had a meeting at 8:45 the following morning, at which time he said he was told he was being put on adminstrative leave with pay by Chief John Camerota but was not told why, and was asked to turn his equipment in.
When asked whether he will seek additional damages or awards from the city, Frazer said he just wants his job back.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” he said. “People have complained, but they haven’t even asked me what the story was, they’ve just taken whatever these people complained about.”
Frazer stated that he recently had to euthanize a one year-old dog because it had bitten four people in one weekend.
“It was an aggressive biter, it wasn’t a fear biter.” he said of the mixed-breed canine. “They were getting ready to adopt the dog out to a gentleman that had two teenage kids.”
“Fear biters, for the most part, there’s a reason why they bite,” Frazer explained. “You can train them, and right now I have a dog up there (the shelter) that’s been there in training for three months.”
Frazer claims that the people who have lodged complaints are upset that one dog was placed in a training program, but not the recently euthanized dog.
“This dog couldn’t be put in a training program. An aggressive biter will go after you for no reason whatsoever, just because it reads you or whatever have you. A fear biter only bites you because it’s afraid,” Frazer said, before describing the recently euthanized animal. “It was a big dog, stood better than six feet tall on it’s hind legs, and took one girl to the ground inside the cage.”
Frazer said that the Westfield Animal Shelter’s volunteers are holding a meeting on Sunday in a conference room at Barnes Regional Airport to put a petition together on his behalf to send to Mayor Daniel M. Knapik.
“This is definitely a personal issue with an individual that doesn’t like me,” Frazer said, but declined to name the individual, saying only that he is ‘high up on the totem pole.’ “Patricia is trying to find out whether they even have the right to do what they did. I was hired by the Police Commissioner, I wasn’t hired by the Mayor. I know everybody supposedly reports to the Mayor, but my understanding is that the Mayor is a weak Mayor, and that the City Council has the final sayso. But I don’t know whether the City Council will stick with him or not.”
Hebert said Frazer had received a letter from acting Personnel Director Karin Decker and reitered that he doesn’t know the nature of the investigation against him.
“(Ken) has been a good, vocal source for the animal community, and he is knowledgable of rules and regulations,” she said. “He will definitely advocate for himself, and is looking to use every legal resource to get his job back and to preserve his good name.”
