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Sunday, May 26, 2013

By Nelson Sigelman
Published: July 2, 2009

Three months short of the end of his three-year contract, former Tisbury police chief John Cashin lashed out publically at selectmen and members of his own department last month, and on May 20 he resigned. Tisbury officials this week made public the details of the severance agreement under which Mr. Cashin left.

The three-page agreement provides Mr. Cashin with payment for unused sick time and vacation time, as well as three months pay. The total value of the benefit is approximately $30,000.

In exchange, Mr. Cashin agreed not to sue town officials collectively or as individuals and to cooperate with the town in the future in connection with "any existing or future inquiries, complaints, administrative or court proceedings, including the provision of information and or testimony, related to his employment with Tisbury."

John Bugbee, town administrator, said a desire to eliminate the possibility of future legal action played a role in the effort to reach an agreement with Mr. Cashin. Mr. Bugbee said it was time for the men and women of the police department and the town to move forward and the agreement does that.

Mr. Cashin received $3,823 for 74 hours of accrued vacation time plus 12 hours of holiday time; $2,267 for sick leave buyback of 204 days at a rate of 25 percent of his pay in keeping with town policy for employees with less than ten years of service; and the equivalent of three months salary, $24,158 before taxes.

Mr. Cashin signed the agreement on June 17. Selectmen Tristan Israel, Jeffrey Kristal, and Geoghan Coogan signed the agreement on June 24.

Chief Cashin became Tisbury's chief of police on September 5, 2006. He had formerly served as the investigative services commander in the Norwalk (Conn.) Department of Police Services.

The chief's three-year contract with the town of Tisbury included a starting salary of $80,388 for the first year and subsequent step increases over the next two years. He was hired following a year-long process after the Tisbury selectmen voted not to renew former police Chief Ted Saulnier's contract in June 2005, due to a salary dispute.

Mr. Cashin's contract was to officially end on Sept. 5. But in May festering resentments within the small police department rose to the surface following published reports that the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination was investigating a complaint brought against the Tisbury Police Department and the selectmen's office by the only female officer on the force (MV Times, May 7, "Tisbury officer files MCAD charge").

In a telephone interview published on May 14 ("Tisbury chief assails officers and selectmen") Mr. Cashin blistered members of his own department and criticized selectmen for their lack of support and management interference. His departure was made official soon after.

Selectmen appointed Officer Daniel Hanavan, a 19-year veteran of the Tisbury Police Department, interim chief through October 12.

On May 21, the selectmen signed an agreement for $2,500 with Robert Wasserman, a West Tisbury resident and international security consultant, who will conduct an assessment of the Tisbury Police Department. He is the chairman of the Strategic Policy Partnership, a group of public safety and public policy experts who assist police and government agencies with performance improvement and policy development issues.

The Tisbury selectmen have tapped Mr. Wasserman before. In 2000, the Tisbury selectmen hired him to study problems in the town's police department. His 25-page Police Issue Assessment, commonly referred to as the "Wasserman report," was released in February 2001.

Mr. Wasserman has been involved in police work for 45 years. He recently finished a job working with police in London on a variety of policing strategies.

The selectmen set a target date of mid-July for a report from Mr. Wasserman, who is reviewing police operations and management, and a late-summer date for making a decision on a hiring process.