TA selects veteran outsiders as police chief finalists
Published on August 29th, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - Town Administrator David Ragucci selected a pair of grizzled police veterans, one from Winchester and the other from Cambridge, as the two finalists for the vacant Chief of Police position.
During a Selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday night, Ragucci publicly announced that Winchester Police Det. Lt. Jim Pierce and Cambridge Police Capt. Richard Bongiorno had been named the two most qualified candidates out of the five semi-finalists.
Attempts to reach Pierce and Bongiorno on Wednesday morning, just hours before presstime, were unsuccessful.
According to The Winchester Daily Times, a sister paper of The Stoneham Independent, Pierce was one of the two finalists to head up that town’s police department last January, when he lost the bid to current Chief Kenneth Albertelli.
According to Ragucci, who is awaiting a background check on the finalists, he will name Stoneham’s newest Chief of Police on Sept. 11. Both Pierce and Bongiorno, both longtime veterans in their respective departments, beat out more than 21 candidates vying for the post.
Ragucci’s top choice will replace Chief Herb Moore, who stepped down from his administrative position for medical reasons after serving less than a year in the position. In the interim, Stoneham Police Lt. Rick McCarthy has been tapped to lead the department.
Moore, himself a well respected veteran within the local police department, had replaced Chief Gregory O’Keefe, who left under somewhat controversial circumstances after negotiations over his contract broke down in late July of 2006.
“We had many excellent candidates apply for the job,” said Ragucci. “These two possess the management skills and experience to head up a police department that’s forward looking.”
“Both of these officers have long distinguished careers as police officers. I feel that any one of them are very capable [of serving as Stoneham’s next Chief of Police],” furthered the Town Administrator, who conducted interviews of the candidates two weeks ago.
In early August of this year, a four person search committee appointed by the Town Administrator selected three finalists for the vacant Chief of Police office after conducting interviews of eight applicants.
However, in a move that drew some criticism, Ragucci, reportedly under pressure from several Selectmen, pulled three other resumes into the finalist pool, all from candidates with local ties.
At least one of those local applicants apparently dropped out of contention, purportedly because of questions over whether he met the qualifications for the post.
The search committee process had been stalled during its deliberations this summer, once when the Selectmen unexplainably agreed to extend the application deadline two weeks after it had expired, and later when Reading Police Chief James Cormier stepped down from the group.
Last week, Selectman George Seibold criticized his Selectmen counterparts, arguing that their political meddling in the search process was jeopardizing any hope that a well qualified and deserving candidate would be selected as Moore’s replacement.
For his part, Ragucci made no quips about the fact that he had considered additional candidates besides those recommended by the search committee, but insisted that he would ultimately choose a new chief who was best for Stoneham.
In announcing the two finalists this Tuesday, both of whom were part of the pool of finalists selected by the search committee, the Town Administrator stood by that contention.
“They’ve both raised through the ranks of patrolman to their current ranks in their respective city or town,” continued the Town Administrator, who added that both have the required master’s degree and years of service in an supervisory role.
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