For the second time in four years, Shelburne has signed a settlement deal with a police chief in whom town officials had lost confidence — and residents are not happy.
“We have a flat tire somewhere in the governing body of this town. Something brought us to the point where in four years we again have to make deals to get a chief out of the seat,” said Shelburne resident Sean Moran at a selectboard meeting on Tuesday night. “The town is certainly not happy we are here again.”
Police Chief Aaron Noble struck a deal with the town government to resign and collect two years of pay, selectboard members announced at a meeting on March 30. His annual salary is $102,440.
Under terms of the settlement shared with VTDigger, Noble, 53, of Williston will keep his benefits through October and his salary through Oct. 15, 2023. That is expected to cost taxpayers about $170,000 paid over 17 months, selectboard Chair Michael Ashooh confirmed during public comment on Tuesday.
Given that state labor laws make it difficult to fire law enforcement personnel, Ashooh said they had to carefully evaluate the risks, costs and benefits.
“And doing so, we concluded that this agreement was best for the Shelburne Police Department and for our town — that it was most likely to cost us the least and was most likely to yield the best possible outcome in both the short term and long term.
“Now we can now begin to repair, rebuild and reorient our police department and move forward. And that is a good thing,” Ashooh said.
Like other police forces across the state, the Shelburne department is severely strapped. Authorized for 12 full-time officers, the department is down to five with two part-time officers helping out, said Michael Thomas, a former lieutenant who was sworn in as acting police chief on Dec. 27. He has been with the department since 2009.
Noble, who’s been with the department for 30 years, became chief in February 2018 after his predecessor, James Warden, who also served for 30 years, was mysteriously suspended in July 2017 by former Town Manager Joe Colangelo before the town struck a settlement deal with Warden in August 2017.
Following a similar pattern, Noble went on paid medical leave in late December shortly after Town Administrator Lee Krohn expressed a lack of faith in his leadership. Noble filed a grievance and soon hired a lawyer and began employment negotiations with the town, the Shelburne News reported.
Noble’s lawyer, Norman Blais, told VTDigger that he and his client think they have a fair settlement, which also includes a consultant agreement. That means the town may seek advice from him on police matters such as the search for a new chief, the expected next step in the Shelburne police saga.
“Aaron never brought suit because no disciplinary action had ever been taken against him, which would have given rise to the grounds for a lawsuit,” Blais wrote in an email. “When it became clear that the Town wanted Aaron to leave his position as chief, negotiations ensued to see if an agreement could be reached whereby he would resign from that post.”
Given the recent exodus of about 16 police department employees, however, the town commissioned former Vermont State Police Director James Baker to look into the police department in January.
His report, released in February, points to a lack of trust in the process by which Noble was chosen chief, a divided department, a lack of leadership with Noble being “checked out,” as well as “a great deal of animosity leading to staff departing.”
The report cited several instances that raised questions about Noble’s leadership.
“I was provided three clear examples of either medical problems or assaults of staff that required transport to the hospital that were never acknowledge(d) by the Chief,” the report said. “In policing there is no clearer message that you are not supported than when you are assaulted and require medical care — you never hear from your Chief.”
These are all issues residents have concerns about, especially when the town is about to launch a search for a new police chief.
“If we can afford to pay Aaron Noble that amount of money, we can surely afford to pay our dispatch and police excellent wages and put every employee on the appropriate step,” said Shelburne resident Linda Riell at last week’s selectboard meeting. She also called for a new legal team to advise the town and for transparency in the process to hire a new police chief.
“We would like to hear about those things. We would not like to come to a meeting and have it told to us a committee has been put together,” she said.
Selectboard members assured her that transparency will be maintained.
“One thing we are committed to is getting the process right,” Ashooh said.
While the pandemic and staffing issues certainly compounded the problem, “mistakes were made,” he acknowledged, reading from a statement he prepared for Tuesday’s selectboard meeting.
Ashooh also addressed concerns that the board had not been forthcoming about details of the agreement.
“First, there are obviously things that we cannot disclose about circumstances of the settlement, because to do so would invite additional legal and financial risks to the town,” he said. “This makes it difficult to fully explain the decisions we reached and why. This is also because, to reach this settlement, we signed a nondisparagement agreement, and we intend to honor our agreement.”
Selectboard member Matt Wormser said the process had been challenging but the board is committed to understanding what went wrong and installing checks and balances to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The town has started a human resource audit to better understand how to improve municipal operations, Ashooh said. It also is considering adding a new HR adviser and having a better contractual letter in place before the next hire, said selectboard member Luce Hillman.
Although board members disclosed the dollar amount and addressed questions pertaining to the settlement for the first time this week, residents remain skeptical.
“We pay the money, we start over with the police department, but what brought us to that and what’s going to not bring us to that in another four years? We have to find out why,” resident Sean Moran said. “There’s something going on and the town wants to know why. And the town wants to know what you, as a governing board, are going to do about it.”
In addition to losing two police chiefs under similar circumstances within the last five years, and about 16 officers and dispatchers in the last year, the department is among three that received a memo from Vermont State Police asking them to exhaust all possibilities before they seek assistance.
With only five full-time staff members, the town police department is no longer able to provide 24-hour service and is instead depending on state police to cover from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. “We always covered Shelburne 24/7 with Shelburne officers. This is the first time we’ve had to reach out to get that assistance,” said Thomas, the acting police chief.
And police and dispatch have not had a contract since the last one expired on June 30, 2020. Thomas told VTDigger he is fairly sure they are close to reaching an agreement, after which he hopes to hire and give current employees much-needed raises and promotions, and hopes he can add new positions like a detective, a school resource officer and a canine officer.
For now, his main goal is to “stabilize the department, to start rebuilding the department, to get us all pulling in the same direction and moving forward.”
“Shelburne is a great place to work and I welcome the challenge,” he said.
