More 911 Dispatchers Speak Out Publicly On Contract Dispute, Alleging Misconduct

Current and former Nantucket police dispatchers accused the police department and Chief Jody Kasper during Wednesday’s Select Board meeting of creating a hostile work environment and putting island residents at risk by organizing trainings for road traffic details that failed to comply with state standards.

The accusations come amid an ongoing dispute between the island’s dispatchers and Kasper over whether the collective bargaining agreement signed by the dispatchers entitles them to work paid third-party details that have historically gone to police officers and seasonal community service officers.

Former assistant dispatch supervisor Pat Considine, who was fired one day after leveling a series of allegations against Kasper at a previous Select Board meeting, alleged that Kasper’s leadership has now cost the town four dispatchers.

“Due to the hostile work environment you have created, two tenured dispatchers retired as a means of escape, and, as you all know, I was terminated, and just hours later, another dispatcher resigned,” Considine said. “This is not okay.”

Considine claimed that he was served his termination papers in the public first-floor lobby of the police department “in front of coworkers and community members,” rather than in private. He also said that the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, an independent state agency that enforces anti-discrimination laws, has started a formal investigation into the Nantucket Police Department. The Current could not immediately verify this claim.

Considine has previously claimed he and other town of Nantucket dispatchers were wrongfully suspended and faced retaliation, discrimination, and unlawful surveillance.

The dispatchers believe that their most recent contract with the town entitles them to work paid third-party details, such as directing traffic around road construction, but they have so far been precluded from earning additional income through those assignments.

At the beginning of Wednesday’s Select Board meeting, chair Dawn Hill read a statement from Chief Jody Kasper previously published by the Current.

“While I would like to share more information, I am not able to do so at this time,” Kasper wrote in the statement. “More broadly, as Chief of Police, I have a responsibility to address concerning behavior within our work environment. I hold myself and members of this department to the high standards that our community expects and deserves. When those standards are not met, it is my duty to ensure that the matter is addressed appropriately. I remain committed to maintaining a department grounded in professionalism, integrity and service.”

A number of island residents sat behind the dispatchers while they spoke, many wearing t-shirts that read “I Stand With dispatch.”

Dispatcher Chris Tollman, who said he was evicted from town-owned housing, claimed that the detail training the police department has provided is “fraudulent” and doesn’t meet state standards, “putting every pedestrian, motorist, child and [officer] at great liability due to this department's inability to make things right.”

“It's a shame on this town and the Select Board for not righting these wrongs, and I just hope I don't get fired tomorrow in the lobby of the police department,” he said.

Chris Reynolds, who has served as a police dispatcher for 18 years, also spoke out against the department’s actions.

“What's happening here is wrong,” he said. “This is America. We fight for what's right here. No one should feel the way that I and my fellow dispatchers feel right now.”

A clause in the dispatchers’ contract reads: “Employees of the Police Department are eligible to enroll in third-party detail training and sign up for third-party detail assignments. Employees will be limited to third-party detail work that is not conducted by the Town of Nantucket and will be compensated pursuant to the fee structure paid by the third-party to the Town of Nantucket. Third-party detail work may not be performed during regularly scheduled hours of work and accrued leave may not be utilized to perform such detail work.”

Considine has previously delivered a formal complaint to Hill demanding that Kasper be placed on immediate administrative suspension pending an independent investigation conducted by an outside private investigator, and that the issue be placed on a public Select Board agenda for discussion. He stated that following the filing of the grievance over the third-party detail work, he faced an illegal suspension, threats, verbal assaults, and public humiliation. The allegations include the claim that the police department installed a new surveillance camera to monitor the dispatch area and its staff.

The Select Board is scheduled to discuss the formal grievance during a closed-door executive session next week.

At the end of his remarks, Considine made further allegations, claiming that an investigator hired by the police department continued to interrogate a dispatcher after she asked for a union attorney multiple times and that Lieutenant Brendan Coakley told Considine he would “never do details no matter what your contract states.”

The dispute has drawn considerable community attention. During last week’s Annual Town Meeting, Considine and Kasper clashed again, with Considine advocating against an article seeking $5.4 million for additional repairs at the LORAN barracks used as a seasonal housing for the community service officers who have been getting many of the details the dispatchers want to work. The article was defeated. It was the only funding article that voters did not support at Town Meeting.