Gilmanton cuts police chief pay

Gilmanton Police Chief Matt Currier

By DAVID CARKHUFF, LACONIA DAILY SUN

GILMANTON — After voters approved the town budget and provided money for raises, selectmen this week trimmed $3,604 from the Police Department budget, money intended as a pay increase for Police Chief Matt Currier.

"It was my salary, that's what they changed," Currier said.

But Selectman Marshall Bishop said the board simply hewed to a new wage scale adopted townwide last August, declining to give the police chief a requested increase based on his comparison of area towns' police departments.

The Gilmanton Budget Committee recommended Currier's salary at $71,729 and added $3,604 to the bottom line of the department budget as a way to reach that level.

On Monday, selectmen took $3,604 out of the police department's budget in a line where the money for the raise had been set aside.

A Gilmanton native, Currier has worked for the Gilmanton Police for 15 years, earning his associate's degree in criminal justice while he was on the job. He was promoted to sergeant in 2012. Over a year ago, Currier was named as the police chief in a unanimous decision by the selectmen, following the retirement of Joe Collins. Currier earned $65,000 in his first year, which was less than Collins earned. In 2016, Currier's salary was $67,422, according to the 2016 town report.

According to the town report, the Gilmanton Police Department sought $74,402 for the police chief's salary for 2017. The Gilmanton Budget Committee voted, with Selectman Michael Jean in opposition, to approve a Police Department budget of $569,828. Without the police chief's $3,604 pay raise, selectmen had recommended a Police Department budget of $566,224.

For months, the police chief's salary has been a political football in a town where different cliques have battled and sparred for years.

On Jan. 7, during the Budget Committee's "Super Saturday" town budget review, back-and-forth voting played out on the topic of Currier's pay raise.

"There was extensive discussion regarding the department's request versus the selectmen recommendation, noting that the difference was with the Police Chief's salary," minutes of the meeting report. "The department is asking for the chief's position to go to Step 13 and the selectmen are recommending a one-step increase at step 8."

Budget Committee member Richard Bakos made the motion to approve the department's budget request of $573,432, a motion seconded by Adam Mini.

But Chairman Brian Forst foreshadowed how this drama would play out. "Chairman Forst reminded the committee that the Budget Committee does not set salaries; the selectmen do and that by approving the amount that the department is requesting would not guarantee that the selectmen would award this wage increase," the minutes report.

By a 3-4 vote, the motion to award the department budget failed.

"Anne Kirby made the motion to move the total amount of $569,828, representing an increase of $3,604.00," the minutes report. "The motion was seconded by Joanne Melle. Ms. Kirby stated that this amount was one half between what the Selectmen had recommended and what the department had requested. Chairman Forst called Ms. Kirby's motion to a vote. The committee approved the amount of $569,828 by a majority vote. Michael Jean voted in opposition."

By 663-134, voters on March 14 approved a $3,619,691 general fund budget, including the police department budget of $569,828 — the same one recommended by the Budget Committee, with money for Currier's $3,604 raise.

But on March 20 and 27, selectmen undid the pay raise. On March 20, after Selectman Jean left the meeting in a dispute over board appointments, Selectman Stephen McWhinnie and Selectman Bishop discussed employee pay.

Town administrator Heidi Duval noted that August 2016 evaluations prompted adjustments in pay, which would be effective retroactively on Jan. 1, 2017.

Duval asked selectmen to complete budget review, "dealing with the wages as budgeted."

The agenda called for review of line-by-line step increases and a letter from Chief Currier about the pay scale as discussed with the Budget Committee.

Duval explained that employees expected their pay raises to go through based on budget passage. "Because the board did recommend the same budget that the Budget Committee put forward, the question was were you recommending the bottom line or were you recommending the line by line, and how to deal with the change that was made in the police department budget," Duval said.

McWhinnie said, "The bottom line."

Bishop said, "I thought we went over all this when we had the meetings in here."

Duval said staff needed selectmen to approve the individual salary lines now that the budget was in place, and to "review the one difference."

Bishop said, "We had talked about the raise," but speaking directly to Chief Currier, he said, "The problem that we had, Chief, is that this is the town of Gilmanton. We don't have a lot of businesses here ... we just don't have the tax base. But that being said, it doesn't mean a person shouldn't get paid what he's worth. It's just a tough one."

Currier said the bottom line in the budget was recommended by both the Budget Committee and the selectmen, so the money was budgeted for his pay increase. "It's not a matter of money and tax base, it's a matter of how much you want to pay me," Currier said.

Duval said she did not recall a conversation by selectmen about the police chief's salary as part of the overall budget.

Bishop said, "If his budget has the money in it for that raise. ..."

McWhinnie said, "It's not the budget that we put forward."

Duval said, "It is your determination how these go forward," referring to the individual salaries.

Bishop recommended the board table the budget line review. Currier said, "Every time we table something, I get screwed."

"If it's in there and we approved it, there's no reason you shouldn't have it," Bishop said.

McWhinnie said, "We meet next week."

Currier said, "The voters, the same ones who elected you guys, said go forward with this budget."

Selectmen tabled the entire budget line review to March 27.

On March 27, selectmen started with two nonpublic sessions. After returning to public session, the board resumed discussion of the budget, this time with Jean present.

McWhinnie said, "I think that all the salaries will remain the same. What I would like to do is take the balance that was projected in line 014210800 that is the balance of $3,604 ... I'd like to add $1,000 to line 014130620 and I'd like to take the balance of $2,604 and apply it to line 014130750."

According to the town budget, line 014210800 is for "other programs" in the police department. This is where the Budget Committee recommended $6,104 as a line item, but the selectmen only recommended $2,500, marking the difference of $3,604 for Currier's pay raise.

According to the town budget, line 014130620 is for office supplies in the executive office; and line 014130750 is for "CD office equipment" in the executive office.

Bishop seconded the motion, and the board voted 3-0 to approve the change, taking Currier's $3,604 raise and transferring it into the two executive department lines. The board then voted to approve the 2017 salaries with the change to the police chief's salary, 3-0.

Allegations of personal vendettas often accompany decisions in Gilmanton. Currier's parents, Brenda and Brett Currier, have been involved in Gilmanton politics and often at cross purposes with those in power. Brenda Currier has been an outspoken critic of Bishop because Marshall and Carol Bishop, owners of the Gilmanton Winery, are in a legal dispute with the Gilmanton Planning Board over site-plan regulation of the winery. Marshall Bishop defeated former Selectman Brett Currier in the 2016 election for a one-year seat for selectman.

But Marshall Bishop, in an interview Thursday, said the selectmen could not support the original request for a five-step increase in pay for the police chief nor the three-step increase approved by the Budget Committee. "We just couldn't do it, we couldn't justify it," he said. "It all depends on us, and we said, 'No,' we said, 'A one-step increase, that's it.'"

Bishop said Currier had every right to look at police chief salaries in the region, but that Gilmanton lacked the tax base to support it.

"It's not that he's not worth the money, but this is what the town can pay him," Bishop said.

An email to McWhinnie seeking comment about his reasoning failed to prompt a response. Jean explained during the March 27 meeting that he opposed the pay increase based on a lack of policy for salary adjustments.

Gilmanton Selectmen Stephen McWhinnie, left, and Marshall Bishop discuss policy during a recent meeting. (David Carkhuff/Laconia Daily Sun)