BOSTON — Methuen Mayor William Manzi has compiled a new list of reserve police officer candidates, and it no longer includes some of the relatives of police officials and politicians.
Manzi has been under scrutiny from the state Civil Service Commission since July for choosing relatives of police Chief Katherine Lavigne, a police captain and politicians instead of higher-ranked candidates as reserve officers.
Civil service ordered the "band" in which several relatives were ranked to be rescinded, thus ending their candidacies for employment for the time being. Civil service said the city could select up to 10 candidates from higher-ranking bands.
City Solicitor Peter McQuillan and Human Resources Director Colleen McCarthy attended a civil service hearing in Boston yesterday and told commission Chairman Christopher Bowman that Methuen has a new list of reserve candidates.
Once all 10 candidates have passed the physical abilities test, the city will submit the list to the state Human Resources Division for approval, McCarthy and McQuillan said, adding they expect to do that by April 1.
"I greatly appreciate the cooperation," Bowman told them. "Sounds like we've collectively turned the corner here."
Any applicant who is not on the new list can appeal to civil service, Bowman said.
To become a full-time police officer, you must first become a reserve.
The new reserve list includes six people who were on the original list and the four men who were originally bypassed and appealed to civil service to overturn their non-selections. The original list included 12 reserves.
Six people who were included on the original list are no longer slated to become reserves. They are Katie D'Agata, the police chief's niece; Luis Felix, D'Agata's husband; Kristopher Haggar, police Capt. Randy Haggar's nephew; Ronald Bonanno, a relative of City Councilor Larry Giordano; Brian Henrick, a relative of School Committee member and former City Councilor Kenneth Henrick; and Neftali Quinones, a Methuen police dispatcher and intermittent officer. All of those people are in band 8, which was the band that civil service ordered rescinded.
"The candidates that were in band 8 that were chosen were a lot of very good candidates that would have done well," Lavigne said during an interview. "But I fully understand that they were not eligible."
Lavigne said she went over the new list of reserve candidates with Manzi and McCarthy, "and I thought it's the right choice."
Two sons of well-known local leaders remain on the list: Matthew Jajuga, son of former state senator and current Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce President James Jajuga, and William Kannan, son of City Councilor Jennifer Kannan.
Matthew Jajuga is a police officer in Manchester, N.H., and he holds a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. William Kannan scored high enough on the civil service exam to be eligible for the job, according to public records.
The men who were at first bypassed and are now on the list are Merrimac police Officer Charles Sciacca, Iraq war veteran Nicholas Milone, corrections officer Patrick Waldron and David Dumont, who reached an agreement with the city and previously dropped his civil service appeal.
Last fall, Manzi released a document explaining why he didn't select Sciacca, Milone and Waldron. Among the reasons listed were that Sciacca only wanted to use Methuen as a "steppingstone" to get hired as an Amesbury officer, Waldron called himself "a sucker for a lady" during his job interview and winked at McCarthy, and Milone didn't take his interview seriously and said his weakness is that he "waits too long to get a haircut."
At the time, Sciacca disputed Manzi's claims, Waldron said his comments were taken out of context and his "eye twitches when I'm nervous," and Milone declined comment.
Sciacca attended yesterday's hearing and told Bowman that he received a letter from the city informing him of his selection, and that he went for the required medical exam on Monday.
Waldron said during an interview that despite everything he has been through with this, he still wants to become a reserve and then a full-time officer.
Milone didn't return a call seeking comment, and Dumont couldn't be reached — the phone number for his home is unlisted.
Lavigne said she would have no problems working with the candidates who appealed to civil service.
Now slated to become reserve police officers
Richard Crimmins
David Dumont
Eric Ferreira
Matthew Jajuga
William Kannan
Nicholas Milone
Ryan Norcross
Sean Prindle
Charles Sciacca
Patrick Waldron
