NORTHAMPTON — Two city police unions have filed complaints with the state attorney general in which they allege the City Council violated the state’s Open Meeting Law during a public session last week that resulted in the Northampton Police Department’s budget being slashed by 10%.
Filed by Northampton Police Sgt. Brian Letzeisen and Officer Joshua Wallace on behalf of their unions, the complaints allege that some city councilors had privately communicated with each other during a recess of the public meeting. Letzeisen and Wallace both submitted separate complaints in their capacities as presidents of the New England Police Benevolent Association (NEPBA) Locals 187 and 186, respectively.
The unions’ allegations were scheduled to be the subject of a special meeting of the City Council on Thursday night.
The complaints center around the discussion to cut the Police Department’s funding by 10% during a June 18 public meeting of the City Council. During the meeting, which was streamed live over the internet, Ward 7 Councilor Rachel Maiore proposed an amendment to cut the police department’s budget by 10% and it passed 6-3. Councilors Marianne LaBarge, Jim Nash and John Thorpe cast the dissenting votes on the amendment.
After the 6-3 vote, Ward 5 Councilor Alex Jarrett made a motion to reconsider the amendment — which would mean a revote — arguing that the full budget with the amendment wouldn’t pass a final vote because three councilors voted against cutting the police department’s funds by 10% and Jarrett was going to abstain from voting on the full budget. Jarrett said he was abstaining because of a line item in the city’s budget that benefited Pedal People, the business he founded. Not passing the budget would have meant that Mayor David Narkewicz’s proposed budget, without the 10% cut, would have gone into effect.
“It’s not safe to presume that everyone who voted down the amendment are prepared to vote down adopting the order,” Councilor At-Large Bill Dwight told Jarrett during the meeting.
Maiore soon made a request for a recess, which was taken. When councilors returned, LaBarge said she thought that the 10% cut was low, saying that she believed it wasn’t “aggressive enough.” Jarrett then withdrew his request to reconsider the motion, saying he would trust that other councilors would “honor this amendment and vote for the budget.” After some procedural votes that passed with an overwhelming majority, the complete budget was later approved 8-0, with Jarrett abstaining.
According to the complaint filed by NEPBA Local 187, the union is raising questions around a moment after the recess when Jarrett withdraws his motion to reconsider the amendment to cut the police department’s budget. Councilors LaBarge and Thorpe had originally voted against the amendment that cut the Police Department’s funding, “then adopted the budget five minutes after the recess with essentially no open discussion in the meeting,” NEPBA Local 187’s complaint states.
“I believe that investigation in this matter will reveal that some of if not all of the councilors participated in communication with each other or were aware that other councilors participated in communication with each other,” NEPBA Local 187’s complaint reads. “Either way these acts need to be investigated to protect the legitamacy [sic] of the Open Meeting.”
The other complaint by NEPBA Local 186 took issue with the same moment, alleging that Jarrett has an “unethical relationship as a city councilor and a financial beneficiary of the central services department of the city.” The complaint also questions LaBarge’s “change of vote,” though the vote on the Police Department’s budget cut specifically was never retaken, just new votes to adopt and eventually approve the full budget with the police department cut amendment included.
“This is indicative of a conversation that Councilor Jarrett and Lebarge [sic] had outside of the public meeting in order to change her vote,” NEPBA Local 186’s complaint reads. “The motion should be brought back to the floor and Councilors Jarrett and Lebarge [sic] should be forced to abstain from the vote as they cannot be trusted to vote in an ethical manner.”
Local 187’s complaint also says that LaBarge could be seen on the Zoom live stream answering her phone before being muted and her screen going off.
“I request that the Northampton City Council fully investigate this incident including reviewing all forms of communications from each councilor including text messages, cell phone calls, landline phone calls, and email,” Local 187’s complaint reads. “If a violation is found I request an order rescinding the vote taken after the violation, assess civil fines due to the intentional nature of the violation, and order any other remedies deemed necessary by the Northampton City Council or the Attorney General’s Office.”
Representatives from NEPBA Local 186, the city’s police patrol union, declined to comment for this story, saying a statement from the union on the complaint would be forthcoming. Officials from NEPBA Local 187, the city’s union for police sergeants and lieutenants, also declined to comment. Ward 6 Councilor Marianne LaBarge said she was unavailable for comment. City Council President Gina-Louise Sciarra and Ward 5 Councilor Alex Jarrett could not be reached.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.