Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- With some city police officers seething over their treatment by Police Chief Dean M. Esserman, the police labor union has called a secret-ballot vote on a declaration of "no confidence" in the chief.

Many active and retired officers believe, according to Clarence Gough, union vice president, that Esserman degrades individual officers with a very sharp tongue in public and in front of their colleagues; sics the internal affairs unit on critics inside the Police Department; improperly plays favorites among his subordinates, in part by selectively doling out overtime pay; and has gone way overboard in denouncing department corruption before he became chief.

Many officers contend, Gough reported, that Esserman also has flouted the police labor contract in a number of ways, such as changing work hours without paying required overtime.

Members will be polled by paper ballot from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at the meeting hall of the union, Lodge No. 3, Fraternal Order of Police.

Esserman Friday issued a one-sentence statement: "I am reluctant to speculate about a meeting taking place in the future." He declined to address specific criticisms..

The intent of the vote, according to Gough, is to prompt an improvement in Esserman's behavior and adherence to longstanding collectively bargained rules on payment of overtime and other practices.

Esserman has won the praise of leaders of the minority and not-for-profit communities for his outreach efforts and productive partnerships, as well as the plaudits of Mayor David N. Cicilline, who appointed him 6½ years ago. Cicilline has credited Esserman, as well as the department rank-and-file, with having sharply curtailed crime in Rhode Island's capital city, among other achievements.

The unhappiness with Esserman nevertheless has been building for years, Gough acknowledged.

For example, he said, veteran officers and some retirees are sick and tired of hearing Esserman rail about the corruption that predated his tenure.

"Were there people on the job who may have done something wrong? Absolutely. But that was 1 percent," Gough said. He and many of his colleagues have been offended, he said, because everyone else, hundreds of people, performed diligently, effectively and respectably.

"They are offended that the person who wears the number one in the police department has been saying in public how corrupt the department was before he came in," Gough added.

City Councilman John J. Igliozzi said of the vote, "It's a boiling-up of dissatisfaction on how Mr. Esserman executes his management style."

A motion to hold a no-confidence vote was made and seconded at an FOP monthly membership meeting April 14, and a vote was scheduled for May on the same date as a state FOP election. But Gough said that was procedurally improper, and the vote was put off.

Since there are no monthly meetings in July and August, and the issue was too important to wait until September, Gough said it was decided that the vote be held now.

Gough said the timing is not meant particularly to embarrass Esserman while he is in the spotlight as a prominent participant at the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, now under way in Providence.

And he said it has nothing to do with the FOP's struggle with the mayor over unsettled contracts. Police officers Friday joined firefighters on picket lines outside the mayors conference to protest Cicilline's failure to satisfactorily negotiate with them.

(This entry was first posted at 4:04 p.m.)

 Tags  Cicilline Esserman Providence RI

Leave a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish.

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.