Rotondi, Seibold engaged in acrimonious discrimination complaint with MCAD
Published on January 30th, 2008
STONEHAM, MA - The Stoneham Independent has learned that Stoneham Police veteran Lawrence Rotondi has lodged a complaint with the state's discrimination bureau, accusing Selectman Chair George Seibold of abusing his position to carry-out a personal vendetta against the safety officer.
The claim against the town, filed with the Mass. Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) last fall, reportedly alleges that the Selectman hurled obscenities and harassed the on-duty officer during two confrontations along Main Street.
This Thursday, both Seibold and Rotondi, represented by a lawyer from the town's insurance carrier and an MCAD attorney, respectively, will meet with an independent arbitrator in an attempt to settle the matter.
The town's insurance carrier would likely be on the hook, if a financial settlement were reached, although several local officials suspect the matter will be resolved without any monetary obligations.
Town Administrator David Ragucci and several Selectman declined to comment on the proceedings.
"I have no comment. I know it's going through the process," said Ragucci, during a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon.
"I can't comment on that. That's between George and my brother," responded Selectman Paul Rotondi in a separate interview.
According to Rotondi, he filed the MCAD claim last October in the wake of two separate incidents. During the first encounter, Seibold allegedly chastised the safety officer for sleeping on the job while he was in his police cruiser at the intersection of Main and North Streets.
The safety officer denies that he was asleep while on-duty, but claims that he might have been a little woozy from a purported exhaust leak in the cruiser.
During a separate incident, the Selectman Chair reportedly hurled insults at Rotondi while he was stationed nearby the Redstone Shopping Plaza with another officer, awaiting the word to move in on a bust at the retail area.
The police officer, a 32-year veteran on the force, is also accusing Seibold of making disparaging comments about family members and of wrongly seeking out and disclosing private information about his son.
"There have been charges filed with MCAD. This has been going on since last October, but he and I haven't seen eye to eye for a long time," Rotondi said this week. "If the shoe was on the other foot, I'd be suspended and forced to take anger management."
"At first, I just wanted an apology," responded Rotondi, when asked what he was seeking from the town. "But we couldn't come to an agreement, so now we're going to mediation. At this point, I don't know [what I want to gain from this]. He hasn't even apologized."
Seibold doesn't quibble with the fact that he confronted Rotondi on both occasions.
According to the Selectman, during the first incident, he drove past Rotondi's cruiser in a work vehicle and noticed that the officer's head was facing upwards.
Seibold then reportedly returned home, retrieved a second car, and drove back to the intersection, to find that the officer was still sound asleep in the vehicle.
The Selectman Chair, who's employed with the Middlesex Sheriff's office, claimed that he couldn't ignore the incident, which he felt endangered the lives of other officers on the short staffed department.
"The people elected me to do a job. I caught an officer sleeping while on-duty. The easy thing for me to do would have been to turn my head," Seibold responded. "But I wasn't comfortable with it. If I see someone sleeping, I have to report it."
"Because of what I saw, he's now trying to twist this around," the Selectman charged. "I have never used this title for anything other than to change this town for the better."
Seibold also admits to berating Rotondi during the second incident, which partly stemmed from the first encounter.
According to both town officials, who admit that they were once close friends, the MCAD filing is part of a larger falling-out between the pair shortly after Seibold was elected to office.
During the first dispute, the Selectman denied a request to fund some of Rotondi's son's medical bills from the Stockwell Fund, an account that foots such costs for local citizens.
The Board of Selectmen reportedly endorsed the request, but the first fissures between Seibold and Rotondi surfaced.
The Selectman chair contended that the safety officer should have footed the bill, as he had the means to do so. But Rotondi argues that his son, who was in his twenties at the time, fit the criteria for the Stockwell Fund appropriation.
"It started with my son, who needed an operation. And he got caught with no insurance, so he went to the Stockwell Fund," the police officer recalled. "George said I should pay for it and started telling people about it. Well that should not be discussed outside executive session."
"That's exactly where it went sour," Seibold recounted. "He thought that because he supported me as a Selectman, that I would automatically say yes. But then I found out what that fund was for. I felt that money should be used for people with dire needs. That's what it's for."
The feud between Seibold and Rotondi reportedly escalated during a future Town Meeting, when the safety officer lobbied against the Selectman's push to erect a $6 million addition at the Stoneham Arena.
According to Rotondi, he was able to ignore those initial disagreements, as they weren't interfering with his professional life. However, in the aftermath of the encounters along Main Street, the safety officer thought differently.
"If he has any type of problem with an employee, he should go through the right channels. There's a protocol," said Rotondi. "He should go to the town manager instead of taking things on himself."
"I think this is long overdue. I think I'm doing the right thing by bringing these things forward," Seibold countered. "When I ran, I said I'd be a new face to change old ways."
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