HADLEY — A complaint accusing a Select Board member of improperly flashing a police-issued badge to enter a UMass Oktoberfest party will be referred to the state Ethics Commission following the board’s 3-2 vote Tuesday.
In a heated meeting, member Donald J. Pipczynski sparred with fellow board members, accusing them of disparaging him for political reasons and wasting taxpayer money. He argues he entered the Oct. 15 event at the Hadley Young Men’s Club in an oversight role, not as a law enforcement officer.
“I just want this to end for both myself and the taxpayers of Hadley,” Pipczynski said.
On Oct. 15, Pipczynski was busing University of Massachusetts students to the Oktoberfest party. In accounts provided to the board, witnesses say he flashed his police commissioner badge at the gate and didn’t pay a $40 entry fee.
The Young Men’s Club complained his presence on club grounds was meant as retaliatory because his membership had recently been revoked. When members asked him to leave the private event, there was an argument, and police intervened.
Pipczynski’s attorney, Thomas John Rooke, said no charges were ever filed and that Pipczynski has since thrown his badge away. He urged the board to drop the matter.
“This is something of inside quibbling,” he said. “It’s almost childish. You’re taking this time and energy away from a man who has invested 45 years of his life to the town of Hadley.
“He claimed, or asserted, he was a police commissioner and had a right to be on the grounds, which I would suggest he certainly did,” Rooke said.
But the board didn’t drop the complaint. Chairwoman Molly A. Keegan said the episode is the latest of three incidents the board has taken up since Pipczynski took office in April.
The previous two were handled in executive session, so Town Administrator David Nixon said he couldn’t offer details when asked after the meeting. Pipczynski opted to have details of the latest dust-up heard in open session.
“We’re all in agreement that this is an utterly colossal waste of the town’s time and resources,” Keegan said. She added the board had a responsibility to see that residents “aren’t bullied or there is some sort of abuse of power occuring.”
Clerk Joyce A. Chunglo said that while the board grants liquor licenses, members don’t have the power to oversee sales or enforce laws.
“Nobody has ever brought out their badge and said they were a police commissioner,” she said.
Member Gerald T. Devine said selectmen should bring grievances to the board, not act as individuals in public.
“We don’t want people acting independently,” he said.
Member John C. Waskiewicz said the board should move on.
“From this point on, I think it’s quite clear, that if anything does happen, then it’s going to be acted on,” he said.
Keegan said Pipczynski wasn’t acknowledging that there was at least a perception that he was abusing his authority.
“I’m concerned because I haven’t heard any acknowledgement on your part, Donald, that you even recognize how this could be perceived by others,” she said. “It’s not in concert with the code of conduct.”
Pipczynski said he witnessed urinating and vomiting on buses that day, but didn’t report it because his employer chose not to.
“I was doing my job,” Pipczynski said of observing the alcohol service. “Simple as that. And I’m apologetic for it ever happening. I didn’t want it to happen.”
Waskiewicz moved that the board take no action, but that was voted down, with Chunglo, Keegan and Devine opposed.
Keegan said the board could vote to continue the hearing, issue a letter of reprimand, refer the matter to the Ethics Commission, or move for a public censure.
Devine made a motion that the board send the issue along to the Ethics Commission. Chunglo, Keegan and Devine voted in favor, while Waskiewicz and Pipczynski voted “no.”
It wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday when it might review the complaint, or what penalties it might levy.
Nixon said the town is paying KP Law Firm of Boston between $165 and $175 an hour to handle the case, but didn’t have an exact figure Tuesday on how much has been paid so far.
Though Pipczynski was elected to the board in April, he also served years earlier when he was issued the badge. In 2010, former Select Board member David Moskin waved his badge “vigorously” out his driver’s side window during a traffic stop, according to police.
He later said he shouldn’t have done that. Since then, Nixon said, the town has attempted to collect old badges. He has said it’s unclear how many are still floating around, but that none has been issued in recent years.
Contact Jack Suntrup at jsuntrup@gazettenet.com.