Westbrook’s Public Safety Commission will be re-interviewing candidates for promotions in the fire department after it was discovered that some interviews done earlier this year were completed without a quorum and were thus invalid.
Howard Reben, an attorney for Teamsters Local 340, was asked by the union to investigate the hiring process that ultimately led to the promotion of Mark Theriault, Christopher Shepard, James Rogers and Donald Trafford to the rank of lieutenant on July 1. Reben found that the Public Safety Commission had failed to comply with quorum requirements.
City Administrator Jerre Bryant agreed with the findings and recommended to the commission that the oral portion of the interview process be repeated. The comission met on Tuesday and voted 3-0 to repeat the interviews.
The commission, a group of citizens involved in the review, promotion and hiring of public safety employees, is supposed to consist of five members, but at least one of the seats is vacant and another member is inactive, leaving three active members. Three is the quorum of the five-person board, which leaves no room for any absences at commission meetings.
Bryant wrote in a letter to Westbrook firefighters last week that the lieutenants who were promoted will remain lieutenants unless different recommendations for promotion are brought back after the oral interviews are repeated.
Bruce Dyer, a member of the commission filling in as chairman, said the lack of quorum was an oversight. In hindsight, he said, the interviews that did not have quorum should have been canceled.
“It was an error. It wasn’t done deliberately,” Dyer said. “We’re going to do whatever we can do to maintain the integrity of the process.”
In his letter to firefighters, Bryant wrote, “How or why this issue was raised by the union is irrelevant. The facts are that it was a legitimate concern and is being appropriately addressed.”
Alan Churchill, the union’s business agent, was not available for comment.
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