Racial Equity Group Denied Role In Police Chief Hiring Process

FAIRFIELD, CT — The hiring process for Fairfield’s new police chief has created a conflict between the town’s racial equity group and the police commission, after the equity task force was denied its request to participate in the finalist job interviews.

Members of the Racial Equity and Justice Task Force expressed a desire to observe the process and lend diverse perspectives to the conversation around hiring a new chief. Participating in candidate interviews is outside the scope of the task force’s charge, according to town officials, but task force members said it was unclear to them such a request could be considered inappropriate.

“I thought it was important to bear witness to the process,” said task force Co-Chair and Selectwoman Nancy Lefkowitz, who, as a member of the Board of Selectmen, was allowed to watch the interviews but could not ask questions during the undertaking, which ended with a unanimous endorsement of Capt. Robert Kalamaras as the new chief.

In a letter sent to police commission Chair James Millington, the task force asked that two of its members be able to take part in the finalist interviews. Town Attorney James Baldwin later responded to the request and said the task force has no role in Fairfield's day-to-day government.

The formation of the task force was announced in June in the wake of protests sparked by George Floyd's death in police custody. Its mission is to find racial inequalities and injustices in town operations, and provide the Board of Selectmen with proposals to minimize or eliminate those injustices. The task force is charged with presenting its Racial Equity Plan next year to selectmen.

“If we’re not allowed to be in the room and be part of the process then we have no way to comment on it and make recommendations around it,” Lefkowitz said, after stating earlier in an interview with Patch that the police commission’s hiring system was perpetuating “what may be a racist status quo.”

Task force member Steve Bogan noted the commission’s internal hiring process dates to the 1930s and the commission’s membership is not particularly diverse. He also referenced the recent scandal in which former Bridgeport police chief Armando Perez was federally charged and admitted to cheating on the city’s chief examination.

“You’ve got to at least try to make it a little more transparent,” Bogan said. “This is not 1930, this is 2021.”

Millington said the commission intentionally keeps high-level police promotions internal when possible in order to boost department morale and elevate law enforcement officials who know the town.

“We had three very well qualified candidates in house,” Millington said. “Race was not a factor in choosing our candidate.”

The commission’s interview questions were provided by a national testing company and vetted by retiring Chief Christopher Lyddy, and were not given to the commissioners until they conducted the interviews Tuesday, Millington said.

“We were well aware of what occurred in Bridgeport,” he said.

The topic of race relations was incorporated into the interview questions, according to Millington, who added there is some diversity on the police commission, in that it includes both Republicans and Democrats.

Prior to the task force making its request, the commission decided with a vote that interview questions and deliberations would be conducted only by commissioners, he said.

First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick used strong words Wednesday in response to the task force’s request to participate in the interview process.

“I was proud to establish the task force earlier this year and stand by its mission, but tainting the legitimacy of the hiring of our new police chief is outside their formal charge and disappointing to me and I’m sure many residents in our community,” she said in a prepared statement, noting the system for hiring the chief is based on the Town Charter and state statute.

“This is a crucial department on which Fairfield’s safety and security rely and should not be politicized. Suggesting that our Police Department or Commission has done anything but follow the law, is to me, inexcusable.”

The police chief candidate interviews were conducted in executive session because they are a personnel matter, according to Baldwin, who called the task force’s request “kind of an overreach.”

“They’re going beyond the scope of their charge,” he said. “It’s just not appropriate, it’s simply not appropriate to meddle into the current policies and the current ongoing operations of town.”

Lefkowitz said the town’s response to the task force’s inquiry demonstrated the need for a conversation on process and procedure.

“The mandate is to deliver a blueprint by observing process and I think that we need to come to a better understanding of what the administration sees as our appropriate role to make sure we’re in alignment,” she said.

Baldwin will attend the task force’s meeting 6 p.m. Thursday to discuss its scope of work.