Six years after Hadley Police seized a badge from a former selectman who waved it out his window after he was stopped for speeding, town officials are grappling with another questionable use of a badge by a Select Board member.
On Nov. 29, the Hadley Select Board voted 3-2 to refer the most recent badge-flashing episode by board member Donald J. Pipczynski to the state Ethics Commission to determine whether it constitutes an abuse of power.
Time will tell what the inquiry yields. In the meantime, though, Hadley officials should hasten the step they should have taken long ago and recall all badges being held and potentially used by non-police officials.
The incident occurred Oct. 15 at the Hadley Young Men’s Club where witnesses allege Pipczynski flashed his gold police commissioner badge at the gate and did not pay a $40 entry fee. On that night, Pipczynski had been busing University of Massachusetts students to an Oktoberfest party at the club and decided to enter the private event.
Pipczynski told the Select Board that he was using the badge in his capacity as a police commissioner in an oversight role, not as a law enforcement officer. Details of the incident were outlined in three letters to the Select Board, including one by Police Sgt. Mitchell Kuc who was at the club the night Pipczynski used the badge.
In another letter sent to the board, the Young Men’s Club alleged that Pipczynski’s presence on club grounds was retaliatory because his membership recently had been revoked and when members asked him to leave, an argument ensued and police intervened.
The use of the badges by Select Board members goes back to the tenure of the late police chief Dennis J. Hukowicz, who issued them to an unknown number of former and current Select Board members. However, some past board members told the Gazette in 2010 that they never received them, declined the badges, or did not remember if they got one.
According to the Select Board’s mission statement, its members serve as police and fire commissioners “and in these capacities provide departmental oversight, policies and procedures, budgeting, and hiring/firing functions for the town’s Police and Fire Departments.” Select Board members have no police powers, however.
When the former Select Board member brandished his badge at police in 2010, police correctly confiscated it and issued him a speeding ticket. The incident prompted a review led by Town Administrator David Nixon to determine how many badges were held by current and former Select Board members. At the time, Hukowicz issued a memo to the police force, notifying officers which town officials had authority to possess the special badges.
“As time goes on, we will continue working on this issue,” Nixon said then.
Time has gone on, but the police commissioner badges keep turning up. They serve no useful purpose and raise questions about perceived favoritism and privilege not granted to ordinary citizens. For these reasons, town officials should renew their investigation into who has the badges and confiscate them, including from any current board members who possess them. Pipczynski said last month that he has thrown his badge away.
The State Ethics Commission is an independent state agency that oversees the administration and enforcement of the state’s conflict of interest and financial disclosure laws. Its mission is to foster integrity in public service and to promote the public’s trust and confidence in that service, as well as prevent conflicts between private interests and public duties.
We hope the agency conducts a thorough review of the Pipczynski incident and provides some clear guidance to town officials about the powers they have as police and fire commissioners, whether or not they have a badge to flash.
That should help put an end to any real or perceived abuse of power by Hadley officials. And it should end the reruns of Hadley’s version of the Keystone Kops.