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Webster Police ignore request from
selectmen
Board seeks to suspend dock permits bylaw; WPD continues to send
violation notices
By Ryan
Halliday
Webster Times
August 14, 2002
WEBSTER – the
Webster Police Department has ignored the Board of Selectmen’s
request that enforcement of the town’s dock permitting bylaw be
temporarily suspended.
The board of
Selectmen voted 2-1 Monday, Aug. 12 to send another letter to the
WPD requesting that it suspend enforcement of the town’s dock
permitting bylaw after lakeside residents, including Selectman
Robert J. Miller, continued to receive notices over the weekend
directing them to comply within 10 days or be subject to stiff
fines.
Suspension of
the bylaw is sought until a public forum can be scheduled with
Lakeside residents, selectmen, a state Department of Environmental
Protection representative, and the town’s Lake-Conservation
Commission.
“The chain of
command has been destroyed in this town,” said Selectman Robert
Stawiecki, who along with Miller voted to send the second letter.
Selectmen Chair
Irene A. Martel cast the dissenting vote. “No, I’m not going to
buck the Police Chief (Richard Bergeron).”
“I would like
to remind the other members of this board that we are the police
commissioners of this town,” Stawiecki said. “We are the governing
body of this town. We instruct the Town Administrator (Mark
Stankiewicz) on his duties, and the town administrator instructs
the police chief on his.” According to the town charter, the TA is
supposed to have authority over the police chief.
Two weeks after
the Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to send a letter to the
WPD requesting that the enforcement of the town’s dock-permitting
bylaw be temporarily suspended, lakeside residents have continued
to receive notices stating that they will be subjected to fines if
they do not pay the town’s $10 dock fee or show proof of
registration through the state within 10 days.
“whether this
board has any power or not, I thought we sent a letter saying to
back off until we can fine-tune that bylaw (at the next Town
Meeting),” said Miller. “I’m highly insulted that we sent a letter
as a board and it’s ignored.”
Stawiecki said
he was “encouraged” by Miller’s stand, calling the matter
symptomatic of what has happened to the chain of command in this
town.”
Martel said
that she called Officer Reid Bagley, who is in charge of the
marine control, before the meeting and asked why the notices were
sent out.
“I spoke with
officer Bagley and he said that it was a decision made by the
chief and himself because it was a bylaw,” she said.
“That night we
took the vote, I knew it was a wrong, but I didn’t dare say
anything. The fact is that you cannot fool with a town meeting
vote,” said Martel, who along with her four colleagues voted to
send the letter July 29.
“We did not
have the right to send that letter,” she said Aug. 12. “If he
(Bergeron) told this man (Bagley) to go there and do it because
the bylaw stands, who are we to say he’s wrong?”
Martel argued
that the only way to suspend enforcement of the bylaw is through a
town meeting vote in October.
“You (Stawiecki)
may say we’re the highest authority, but the town meeting is
higher than we are,” Martel said. “We do not have the right to go
against the town meeting vote.”
“There are
many, many bylaws that are not enforced in this town,” Stawiecki
countered. “The fact of the matter is, we haven’t snubbed the town
meeting vote, the police chief has snubbed us.”
According to
the bylaw, the first late notice comes with a $50 fine, $75 for
the second, $100 for the third, and $200 after that.
Miller voiced
his concern that, because the money collected for the permitting
program goes into a general account, it will not be used for the
maintenance of the lake.
Martel told him
that the money goes from the general account into the waterways
account.
“I don’t
believe that,” Miller responded. |
