ANSONIA — There are three finalists for permanent police chief in Ansonia, including current interim Chief Wayne Williams. A second finalist is New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski, The Valley Independent Sentinel has learned.
The city’s board of police commissioners will be meeting with the Board of Aldermen as soon as next week to talk about employment contracts for a potential new top cop. Only the Aldermen can approve contracts in Ansonia.
Mayor David Cassetti prefers the city make Williams the new chief, citing the veteran officer’s performance since taking the reins after Chief Andrew Cota retired in August.
The new Ansonia police station on Main Street.
The hiring process for a new chief involves several steps and has been underway for months.
The Ansonia Police Commission has its own set of qualifications for the job, which they handed over to a panel of police chiefs from outside Ansonia. The independent panel reviewed resumes and then a second independent panel conducted interviews with qualified applicants. After the interviews, the panel passed final candidates to the Ansonia Board of Police Commissioners.
In the Ansonia process, about 10 applications were initially received, corporation counsel John Marini estimated. Four qualified candidates made it to the panel interview — and three made it to interviews with the Ansonia Board of Police Commissioners.
The police commission’s qualifications are tough. Example — the qualifications say a candidate must have experience as a chief or second in command for a certain number of years.
That automatically eliminated candidates such as Renee Dominguez, the interim chief in New Haven. Dominguez, despite her vast experience in law enforcement, wasn’t qualified because she had not been chief or second in command for long enough.
The chief or second in command also automatically disqualified at least one local lieutenant with vast experience in the Valley.
Sgt. Vincent Orlando is the president of the Ansonia police officers union. The rank and file officers play no role in the police chief search, but Orlando said officers want the police commission to make a decision ASAP because the department is understaffed and a permanent chief is needed to address the problem.
Too many officers are being required to work double shifts and to work on their days off, Orlando said, and it’s hurting morale.
“It’s at the point where it’s getting dangerous,” Orlando said.
He said the department is also having a hard time hanging on to officers who transfer from places such as Bridgeport and New Haven due to the problems with scheduling. Orlando said a recent officer who left Bridgeport PD for Ansonia ended going up back to Bridgeport. That’s a problem, Orlando said.
Ansonia Police Lt. Patrick Lynch said Ansonia is short six officers, and that the department is incurring overtime costs. However, Lynch said the problem isn’t the fact there’s an interim chief in place. The problem is finding qualified applicants to become police officers.
“We have continued our hiring process with Chief Williams as interim chief,” Lynch said. “The problem is, like every other police department, we’re having a hard time getting people to apply for a job that has been demonized. Our candidate base is much less than it used to be. Our issue is hiring, and that’s an issue that every police department is having.”
The Ansonia Board of Aldermen could discuss the police chief’s position Tuesday during an executive session. It should be noted that, under state law, executive level search committees are exempt from the state’s Freedom of Information regulations.
