The West Tisbury select board voted unanimously Wednesday evening to appoint Greg Pachico as the town’s next fire chief. Pachico, a deputy chief, beat out West Bridgewater Fire Lt. William Choate and West Tisbury Fire Capt. Marques Rivers.
“He certainly got a lot of support in the input that we received,” select board chair Cynthia Mitchell said, “and while I think we could not have gone wrong with any of the candidates, I do believe that Greg is best suited for the job.”
“I’ll be honored to serve the town of West Tisbury as the next fire chief,” Pachico said.
In other business, the board voted unanimously to reduce the quorum to 30 for the annual town meeting, and took up the subject of an insensitive written remark received during the chief candidate evaluation process.
Select board member Skipper Manter described longtime West Tisbury firefighter, rescue squad member, and town building and facilities manager Louis deGeofroy as an invaluable town servant, but he said he was nevertheless taken aback by deGeofroy’s recent choice of written words. As The Times reported in April, deGeofroy employed an indecorous metaphor in an email requesting more department input in the chief selection process: “Having a chief won’t do you much good if all the Indians leave the reservation,” he wrote.
Manter didn’t appear overly comfortable with the topic, but pressed forward nonetheless.
“Louis, I’m sorry to have to bring this up,” he said, “but I was disturbed and somewhat upset getting your letter recommending a fire chief candidate and including a certain phrase in there that I don’t think was appropriate and I don’t think it reflects well on you, the fire department, or the town as a whole. I just think the people should know that such phrases — I don’t know the right word — [aren’t] appropriate. And I don’t know if we want to take any further action, but I think you should at least know that I feel — I don’t know about the other two members — such phrasing is just inappropriate — out of line.”
Manter went on to say, “I guess it was accepted to some degree in the past, but we want that to be behind us.”
DeGeofroy was contrite. “I want to apologize again,” he said. He noted even though he’s given an apology in an interview with The Times, he was prepared to reiterate that apology to anyone.
“It was a very poor choice of words,” he said.
Manter suggested some type of sensitivity training might be appropriate, however Mitchell disagreed.
“I have to say Skipper, I think Louis has apologized not once, but twice, and today in a very public setting,” she said. “I have no doubt that he understands that it was inappropriate.”
Select board member Kent Healy had no comment on the subject. The board accepted deGeofroy’s apology and closed the subject.
This action by the firefighters is a logical one on TV. They need to be included in the selection of a new chief.That is just common sense and good management.
Employees don’t get to choose their boss. Their boss should manage them like a servant leader and win their hearts or it will kill their morale and they will be less productive. Social engineering for firefighters doesn’t work.