Letter to the Editor: 'Garwood Rushed Appointment of New Police Chief'

As a member of the Garwood Borough Council, I believe our Police Chief Search Committee engaged in an inadequate and hasty selection process for a new Chief of the Garwood Police Department. In January, Chief Legg informed the Mayor and Council of his intention to retire in 2011 after more than 30 years of honorable service to the Borough. By mid-March, he informed us that his specific retirement date would be June 30, 2011, giving the Borough more than three months to conduct a broad and thorough search for a qualified candidate to fill his position. With all that time, the Committee only interviewed two lieutenants currently on the force and chose one of them as Chief. No one outside the Borough was interviewed and, as a result, I believe the residents of Garwood were not served by this narrow search process.

I do not believe the position was publicly advertised and the Committee did not reach out to nearby municipalities, counties or other law enforcement entities to encourage qualified candidates to apply. Is it possible not one other man or woman in the entire State of New Jersey was qualified and interested enough even to be considered for the position? I think not. I believe the Borough and the Department deserved better.

Unfortunately, this hasty process may cloud Lieutenant Underhill's ascension to a position for which he may very well be qualified, and I have told him so. Indeed, I do not feel qualified to criticize or to praise him on his credentials as I am not familiar with them. To date, I have never seen his resume and have only read about his credentials in the . The few dealings I have had with the new Chief have been positive and I find him to be an extremely likeable officer. Other than that, I cannot truly say I know him or the other candidate who interviewed for the position. I believe the Committee owed it to a new Chief to have a rigorous search process that may very well have served only to validate the Lieutenant’s qualifications for the position. Had they done so, I would have been much more willing to defer to their judgment.

I preferred to discuss this issue privately with members of the Committee in order to avoid any negative ramifications to the new Chief, but that avenue was foreclosed to me. Rather, I attended the last Council meeting and was surprised to discover a decision had been made by the Committee and the position had been offered to, and accepted by, Lieutenant Underhill. It never appeared on any agenda I received. Had that been the case, I would have made my inquiries and expressed my concerns accordingly. In addition, as the Chair of the Finance Committee, I do not know the salary being offered to the new Chief or the terms of his contract. I hope I will find out soon as I am responsible for the Borough’s budget.

In closing, I wish to reiterate that my dissatisfaction is with the selection process for Garwood’s new Police Chief and not with our new Chief. On the contrary, as I told him today, I look forward to working with him and getting to know him better. It’s just that I wish I had that opportunity before he became our new Chief of Police and that the Committee had executed its mission in a more responsible manner.

James A. Mathieu (R)Councilman, Borough of Garwood