CUSHING RESIGNS AS WINDSOR POLICE CHIEF

(for Shelly and Margo)

By SHELLY JARVIS and MARGO HOWLAND

Contributing Writers

WINDSOR - In a surprise move to many in Windsor, Police Chief Jim Cushing resigned effective Thursday, on the one-year anniversary of the day that he was hired by the selectboard following a six-month stint as interim chief.

“The chief’s stated primary reasons were frustration over the long hours he felt compelled to cover due to a severe manpower shortage in the department, and inadequate pay,” Interim Town Administrator Mike Farrell said in a statement issued later Thursday morning announcing the departure. School Resource Officer Randy Christensen was put in charge of the day shift. When asked if he was Acting Chief, Christensen declined to characterize it that way, saying only that the department was “regrouping.”

The resignation came to light after an emergency selectboard meeting last Wednesday that was executive session only. It was at this meeting that the resignation was accepted “with regret.” Currently Farrell, the interim town administrator from Municipal Resources, Inc. (MRI), has stated that a new interim police department manager will be hired to fill in until a new Chief can be found. Cushing, 64, has been put on paid administrative leave and Farrell left open the possibility that he would remain with the department, perhaps with the open sergeant’s position that was not filled when he stepped up to the Chief position.

Cushing wasn’t talking to the press last week, but his wife, Diana, told the Windsor Area Observer that it was untrue that he had resigned on less than a day’s notice, as Farrell claimed. The interim town administrator was quoted in the Valley News as saying Cushing sent him an e-mail on Tuesday, which he couldn’t open, and that after talking with Cushing later in the day, learned that the attachment was a letter of resignation. He then talked again with Cushing twice on Wednesday, the paper said.

“The town administrator has had months of notice and he chose to ignore it,” Diana Cushing said. “Jim only resigned as chief because he couldn’t get any cooperation from the administration. He asked months ago if he could return to the sergeant’s position. When he was appointed chief, he was appointed ‘pending contractual approval.’ It never happened. He kept asking and asking,” she said.

Cushing was also told that his appointment as chief, after six months as interim chief, was for a one-year period, both Diana Cushing and Fire Chief Ron Vezina said last week. That one year was up Thursday.

“Now they’re acting like this came out of the blue. No way did Jim walk away like that,” Diana Cushing said. “Farrell elected to put him on administrative leave.”

“I had a one year contract,” Jim Cushing piped up from the background.

Vezina, who like Cushing is a native of Windsor, saw this coming, he said last week. “We’ve talked about it right along,” the fire chief said somberly in an interview at his office Friday.

“On more than one occasion Jim expressed that it [his appointment as chief] was pending written agreement. But any time he tried to sit down with Don Howard, or MRI – nobody would talk to him. He expressed to me a while back that the contract was up on the 8th of May and that nobody would talk to him,” Vezina said. Howard, the previous town administrator, resigned abruptly last August and MRI, based in Meredith, NH, has been providing administrative services to the town ever since.

“Seeing this happen without anyone ever talking about it makes me worry. My own contract is up on the 30th of June. I don’t know if they want me. We don’t know if we’re doing a good enough job to keep our job. I’d like to work here until I’m 65, but I don’t know if that will happen,” Vezina said. (Vezina is 62.)

“I’d like to see it resolved. I had an extremely good working relationship with him.

Jim had my support and my backing, no matter what it was, and vice versa. We had many a coffee together where we talked about the importance of our community. I personally would like to see the selectboard and our management people in the community do what they can to resolve it. I think Jim is very capable of doing the job,” Vezina said.

The turn of events was greeted with dismay by many in the community.

“James Cushing is one of the best Windsor has to offer: honest, hard-working, loyal, unselfish,” said John MacGovern. “If Windsor can’t keep him, its troubles are deep indeed. Ultimately, it all comes down to poor leadership.”

“I have known Jim Cushing most all of my life. He is honest, hardworking, caring and most responsible person Windsor could ever want to have working for them,” said resident Fred Patterson. “This was a huge mistake and a terrible step backwards for Windsor. I hope he will reconsider. And I hope someone will finally address his concerns.”

Outside of the selectboard, Patterson was among the first members of the public to learn of Cushing’s resignation when he called the Police Department Thursday morning to discuss a concern with the chief. Patterson posted the information on the community blog, Windsor Record, and then started calling reporters.

“I think you (Windsor) made a HUGE mistake accepting Police Chief James Cushing’s resignation!!!!!” said West Windsor selectboard member Tom Kenyon. “I think you should have addressed his stated concerns and fixed the problems.”

The Windsor Selectboard is expected to address the situation at their next meeting Tuesday. The agenda shows the meeting beginning at 6 p.m. with “fourth level police grievance” as an executive session item, and “personnel matters” under Town Administrator Report, flagged with an asterisk to indicate a likely executive session.

Cushing was appointed interim chief in December of 2006 following the departure of then-chief Dennis Brown after one year to assume the position of police chief in Wilton, Maine. But instead of assisting in the transition and “handing over the baton,” Brown, 33, and from North Carolina, packed up his stuff and left in the middle of the night the very evening Cushing, then a sergeant, was named by the selectboard as interim chief.

Despite weeks of coaxing by then town-administrator Don Howard, Brown failed to return for a promised “exit interview” with Howard. And he locked up the codes on his computer and left his office window open – in the middle of December – telegraphing a chilly reception for his successor.

Notwithstanding that inauspicious start, Cushing “hit the ground running” as interim chief and among other things found that Brown had left 85 incident reports unfinished, with the result that the town’s crime statistics looked “artificially low.”

The quiet, affable Cushing, who had 24 years of law enforcement experience and had been with the Windsor Police Department for three years as a sergeant before succeeding Brown, quickly set about to heal a department hurting from Brown’s squabbles with town officials and intercene fighting, dating from when Brown and Howard put former Police Sgt. Steve Morse on paid administrative leave. Morse was eventually reinstated with back pay and benefits and then retired. His position was never filled.

One month after his appointment as interim chief, Cushing already had visible accomplishments to his credit.

“Morale is up,” Chief Cushing told the Selectboard last February. He later elaborated in an interview with the Windsor Area Observer, “the hate and discontent are gone and things are working smoothly in the department.”

“Arrests are up, caseload is up. Cases solved are up. I love to come to work. The tension is gone. People are happier. My job as I see it is to protect and serve – as professionally, as economically and as efficiently as possible,” Cushing said in an interview with the Windsor Area Observer at that time.

Over the past eighteen months, Cushing’s force made many drug busts that have helped to clean up the town. This was not without sacrifice on Cushing’s part. The town has had openings in the police department over the past year, yet the administration never seemed to be able to fill them. There was concerns about staying within budget. This led Cushing to work more hours to make up for the shortcomings in the staff.

When Cushing took the position as chief, his wage went from hourly to salary. This meant that when he worked the extra hours to cover other shifts he did it at no extra pay.

“I made more money as a sergeant,” Cushing said several weeks ago.

But through all this he had a positive attitude, always giving time to people who needed to speak with him. Even with the good job that Cushing was doing for the town, he was never given a contract by the town for the position of Chief. After a year of waiting, he is waiting no longer.

Cushing is still hoping he will be able to return to the job he loves as a sergeant.

“We don’t know what will happen,” his wife said.