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Methuen police chief saga trudges on

Jan 9th, 2009 by Noah R. Bombard

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Former Methuen Mayor Sharon Pollard testifies at a Civil Service Commission hearing in Boston yesterday (Staff photo by Angie Beaulieu)

The Civil Service hearing for fired Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon brought two interesting perspectives to light yesterday at 1 Ashburton Place in Boston. The most striking testimony came from former Methuen Mayor Sharon Pollard who essentially backed up the disgraced chief, who is accused of mismanaging federal grant money, verbally abusing officers and violating state bidding laws by purchasing a boat for the town from his sister and brother-in-law. The chief has faced an onslaught of criticism over his tenure in Methuen, so Pollard’s testimony certainly ran against the grain. Contrary to other reports, Pollard described the PD under Solomon’s leadership as having good morale and where “people got along.” Pollard also rejected the notion that there was a “hands off” policy regarding management of the police budget.

Eagle-Tribune Reporter J.J. Huggins was on hand yesterday to chronicle the latest development. 

Earlier in the day, however, Methuen City Auditor Thomas Kelly essentially testified that any mismanagement of grant money would have been happening at a level which his department would not have detected. If the chief signed something, they accepted it, he said. It wasn’t until later that Kelly said they became aware that the chief could not provide propper documentation for dispersement of funds from the federal “Weed and Seed” grant, a program aimed at cleaning up crime and replacing with positive community policing.

What’s it all about? Much of the questioning at the hearings seem to be trying to get to who knew what and what they’re responsibilities were in regard to knowledge and oversight of the PD budget. We seem to be working our way closer and closer to the center of the storm at these hearings with police officers and the chief himself scheduled to testify next week.

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Methuen City Auditor Thomas Kelly (Staff photo by Angie Beaulieu)

A trip down memory lane

For the scorekeepers at home, here’s a look back at some of the key moments in this saga thus far:

Timeline leading up to firing:

Multimedia

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  • jgodsey

    oh….THAT’s where the boat came from…i was wondering about that.

  • http://blogs.eagletribune.com/headlines/ Noah R. Bombard

    There was actually some discussion about that at the hearing. The question was brought up as to whether it would have been a conflict of interest for the department to purchase a boat from the chief’s relative if someone outside the department — like the town’s purchasing agent — were to conduct the bidding process. In this case, however, there did not appear to be a bidding process. It appears the purchasing agent simply singed a purchase order for the boat the PD asked for. That, in turn, goes back to the question of whether there was a “hands-off” policy with the department where they handled their own budgetary issues and just had them signed off on.

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