Local candidates forums are typically low-key events, but that was not the case during Thursday night’s Plymouth Area League of Women Voters forum at Town Hall when the topic turned to a question on the May 17 election ballot regarding civil service.
The Police Department, with the backing of the Select Board and Town Manager Derek Brindisi, wants to opt out of the state’s civil service system, saying its restrictions make it difficult to recruit and retain officers. Both police unions also support the change. But Scott Vecchi, one of five candidates for two seats on the Select Board, placed the blame for the department’s chronic vacancies on Police Chief Dana Flynn and Brindisi.
“The problem is the toxic environment that exists at the Plymouth Police Department, the lack of leadership,” said Vecchi. “There isn’t good leadership up there right now. And that is a problem that rests on the town manager’s shoulders for failure to supervise his department heads.”
Vecchi said he was in “a unique position” to speak on the subject because he worked for more than 25 years in the Plymouth Police Department. He resigned in December 2023 with a $280,000 payout. During his career, more than 30 civilian and internal complaints were filed against Vecchi, who has maintained he did nothing wrong.
Vecchi, who supports opting out of civil service, said during the forum that 10 officers left the police department over the last year, and that no officers from other cities or towns have been hired in Plymouth for three years.
Vecchi did not elaborate, and because of the forum’s strict format, there were no follow-up questions from the moderator.
According to the Police Department website, the force has 128 full-time and six part-time officers.
Flynn told the Select Board on April 15 that although 10 officers are scheduled to graduate from the police academy in June and two more in September, he would still be short six officers when they come onto the force. He also expects five offers to retire by the end of the year and said an additional officer had been hired away by another department.
Flynn, who was traveling on Friday, was unavailable to comment.
Brindisi, in an email to the Independent Friday morning, defended Flynn’s leadership.
“I respectfully disagree [with] Mr. [Vecchi],” Brindisi said. “Since Chief Flynn became chief, he has instituted new and innovative community policing programs such as two police substations, body camera program, crime analysis unit, enhanced [school resource officer] program, liaisons to all of our village steering committees and new reorganized command structure. His achievements are unquestionable and speak to his leadership.”
During the forum, Select Board member John Mahoney, who is running for re-election and spoke immediately after Vecchi, backed the move to leave the civil service system, which the town has been a part of since 1917. For one thing, he said, it would speed up the hiring process.
“[If] Chief Flynn loses an officer tomorrow, it takes 18 months under the current system to replace him,” Mahoney said. “So there’s a bunch of variables that go into retention and recruitment.”
Mahoney also cited inadequate pay as a reason for the difficulty in hiring and retaining police officers but said that “significant strides” have been made in recent years to change that.
Under state law, voters must approve the department’s request to leave the civil service system.
Although the hiring problem is years old, its placement on the ballot came about quickly. During an unusual Friday meeting on April 11, the Select Board voted unanimously to put the binding question before voters in the May 17 election. April 12 was the last day it could have done so.
Michael Bradley, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said that of 433 law enforcement agencies in the state, only about 120 remain in civil service.
In exchange for their support for opting out, Plymouth’s police unions negotiated increased educational incentive pay for their members. That will cost the town $115,000 a year starting in July 2026, according to Brindisi.
Also, 28 officers hired since 2012 will receive annual raises — 10 percent if they have bachelor’s degree, and 25 percent if they have a master’s degree. They currently collect lower stipends.
Officers hired before 2012 already receive the higher educational benefits.
The unions also approved proposed changes to their work schedules. For a trial period, officers will work four days on, with four days off. They now work four days, with two days off, Flynn said last month.
Flynn also said then opting out of civil service will let him hire officers from other towns. Currently, the department an officer wishes to leave to come to Plymouth must agree to the transfer.
At Thursday evening’s event, the other Select Board candidates had already spoken on the civil service issue before Vecchi, so they did not have an opportunity to directly support or rebut him.
Addressing civil service broadly, Bill Keohan, former chair of the Community Preservation Committee, expressed caution about dropping its requirements, which were designed to prevent nepotism and ensure a fair and unbiased hiring process.
“I do have a great reservation about opting out of something that we’ve been participating in for some time, especially when it comes to finding qualified people that are chosen based on their knowledge.”
Keohan suggested instead that the department foster a culture more appealing to young officers.
“We need to have a police department that retains these new recruits after their training,” he said.
Candidate Deborah Iaquinto – a retired business consultant and current elementary school teacher – supported opting out.
“We have a public safety issue here if we’re not able to retain and recruit the number of police officers that we need,” she said.
Iaquinto noted that she was married to the Burlington police chief when he successfully pushed that town to leave civil service in 2007.
“What they saw was a broad, talented recruitment pool that they could draw from without the lag time caused by civil service,” she said.
Charlie Bletzer, who is running for re-election, returned to the issue in his closing statement to criticize Vecchi.
“The opinion of the police management being toxic is just not true, and that opinion, take it from where the source came,” Bletzer said.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.