SWAMPSCOTT — After much debate that was highlighted by impassioned pleas from Swampscott’s police and fire chiefs, Town Meeting members voted Monday night to allow the town’s police and fire departments to leave the civil service system.
With the article’s passage, by a 178-54 vote margin, the town is now authorized to petition the General Court for special legislation that would ultimately exempt all positions in the town’s police and fire departments from the state’s civil service law.
The Town Meeting vote came days after the town’s police and fire unions voted to leave the civil service system, which proponents say will create a more inclusive hiring process that will allow Swampscott to draw from a larger pool of candidates in the future.
Currently, the town’s hiring process for police and fire jobs is dependent on applicants’ test scores on a standardized civil service exam, which is administered by the civil service unit of the state’s Human Resources Division.
“We get three names and we’re required to select from the top-ranked candidate on the list,” said Police Chief Ronald Madigan, who spoke about how restrictive that makes the hiring process.
To bypass the top scoring candidate and hire someone farther down on the list provided to the town by the state’s civil service unit, Madigan said the police department would have to provide justification for that decision, and would potentially have to present their reasoning during an appeal of their hiring decision later on.
“Without any obvious reasons for bypassing the top candidate, we’re really handcuffed in selecting the top candidate,” said Madigan. “(In addition, they) may have absolute veterans preference and be put at the top of the list regardless of their score on the test.”
While Madigan said the early intentions of civil service are laudable, in terms of trying to eliminate political influence and corruption in hiring practices, he said that “however well-intentioned, it’s become very restrictive over the years.”
With Monday’s vote, the town will begin the process of leaving a system that has determined hiring practices for the town’s public safety departments for more than a century. The change would become effective on July 1 of next year, which would be dependent on passage of the state legislation.
The civil service system was created in the Commonwealth in 1884 during a time of “rampant corruption,” when it was “very difficult to staff public safety functions without the influence of politics,” according to Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald.
The Swampscott Police Department entered civil service in 1909, and the fire department followed suit in 1920, according to Fitzgerald, who noted that the system has served the town well, which is reflected in its “two terrific public safety agencies.”
But “civil service is outdated,” said Fitzgerald, noting that he feels the system creates restrictions that are counterproductive to best hiring practices. Out of 351 Massachusetts communities, only 54 fire chiefs and 63 police chiefs are still part of the civil service system, he said.
“We want to actually ensure that we have a broader level of diversity,” said Fitzgerald. “We want more people that would have diverse backgrounds to be considered and civil service does not provide that.”
According to Heather Roman, who sat on the civil service committee that was tasked with studying the issue, the system prevented the town’s police and fire departments from hiring a woman or Black person for a leadership position for 18 and 32 years respectively — candidates who take the civil service exam are seeking a promotion to sergeant, lieutenant, captain or chief.
“That’s just a long time for a community like this,” said Roman. “When our chiefs tell us this is something that’s very difficult to fix within civil service, we have to listen to our chiefs and their leadership on this.”
Fire Chief Graham Archer, who became the town’s first Black fire chief last year, acknowledged the initial reluctance within his department’s ranks, but said he now senses a lot of excitement among firefighters.
Since the possibility of removing police and fire chiefs from the civil service was proposed last June, and later expanded to include all members of both departments, it has been met with opposition. Although both unions ultimately voted in favor of leaving civil service this past weekend, the town’s police and fire departments initially opposed the proposal.
On Monday night, there were two separate proposed amendments to the initial motion to authorize leaving civil service, including one that called for an indefinite postponement of the article, which prompted an impassioned plea from Archer, who said that would have essentially killed the proposal.
“We have been wrestling with these problems of civil service for the 32 years I’ve been on the department,” said Archer. “We have done all we can within the bounds of civil service. It needs to go. It needs to change. The results will not change unless we make a change.”
Other notable articles that were passed on Monday night included the town’s finances.
Town Meeting members approved a free cash transfer of $1.55 million, which will be used to offset a tax levy increase for the fiscal year 2021. With the approval, the average single-family tax bill will remain the same next year, at $8,999, according to Select Board Chairman Peter Spellios.
If the transfer was not approved, the average single-family tax bill would have increased to $9,279 next year, according to Ron Mendes, town treasurer and assistant town administrator.
While Spellios said the town’s residential taxes are still too high, he said the town’s fiscal discipline has resulted in a slowing of tax growth in the community, which is evident in the average single-family tax bill only increasing by a total of $38 over the past six years.
In the six years prior to that, from 2009 to 2015, the town’s average single-family tax bill increased by a total of $1,427, or an average annual increase of $238, according to Spellios.
This fall’s Town Meeting marked the third consecutive year that members have approved a request to transfer free cash to offset the tax levy, said Finance Committee Chair Tim Dorsey, who noted that the amount in the past years was $1 million. The town’s free cash amount increased this year, which allowed for the higher allocation, he said.
Town Meeting also approved a $511,232 increase to the town’s budget, which Fitzgerald said was due to revised state aid allocations. Earlier in the year, he said the town had cut certain appropriations based on “difficult budget projections.”
Town Meeting was scheduled to reconvene on Tuesday night, which would involve discussion on the eight remaining warrant articles.
