(From left) Commissioners Leonard Osowski, Felix Otero, and Westfield Police Chief Lawrence Valliere at Monday’s meeting. Commissioner Karl Hupfer was not present.
WESTFIELD- The Westfield Police Commission convened Monday evening to interview a new Animal Control Officer (ACO) at City Hall, but the lone candidate did not show up for the meeting.
Stacey Mortimer, the only candidate to be interviewed as a new ACO, was unexpectedly absent from her interview with the commission. Attempts to reach out to her were unsuccessful, and Westfield Police Capt. Michael McCabe said that it’s possible that she never received the message that she was selected for an interview in the first place, so she may not have known she was supposed to be there.
Despite her absence, the Commission chose to provisionally vote her into the job anyway, as she had been interviewed privately beforehand by McCabe and ACO Spenser Afonso. The vote is conditional on Mortimer giving the reason for her absence to Chief Lawrence Valliere.
McCabe said that it needs to be straightened out soon because the Westfield Animal Shelter has been running with a very short staff in recent weeks. There is just one ACO working at the shelter right now and Director Lori Charrette has been out on medical leave.
McCabe chose to read some information from Mortimer’s resume to give the Commission a chance to learn about her. Mortimer is an E-6 Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy with references from two high ranking Naval Officers.
