By KENNEDY GRIFFIN
(Greenfield, MA) At Tuesday’s Greenfield City Council Committee Chairs meeting, the proposal to remove. the police and fire chiefs from civil service was introduced. City Council President Dan Guin shared that action has already been taken on this matter and communications with the Mayor’s office have produced a plan for this agenda item.
In the meeting City Clerk Kathryn Scott said she had sent a memo to President Guin and Mayor Wedegartner stating the “police and fire chief have to come out of civil service the way they came into civil service.” According to Clerk Scott, the police chief had been brought back into civil service by way of a ballot question in 2003. The fire chief has been in civil service since the 1930s through a town meeting vote.
Since there are no town meetings currently, Clerk Scott suggested to also remove the fire chief from civil service by ballot question. This would be “setting a new precedence for anything to happen in the future.”
The next step is to send this proposal to the city attorney to get more information. President Guin added that the attorney’s fees will be paid with the city council’s funds as this is a council request. Once it comes back from the attorney, the proposal will go to the appropriate subcommittee before it becomes a ballot question.