New London Mayor Places Police Chief on Leave

This comes a day after the police chief asked a judge to issue an injunction against the mayor.

New London's mayor has placed the city's police chief on administrative leave and ordered an investigation of her conduct, a day after she asked a judge to make him "cease ignoring, bypassing, isolating, and marginalizing" her.

The exchange is just the latest in a more than year-long struggle between Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio and Police Chief Margaret Ackley, who sued Finizio about a year ago, accusing him of interfering with her ability to do her job.

Ackley has been placed on paid leave, and the probe will be conducted externally, the mayor's office said. Deputy Chief Peter Reichard has been named interim chief.

In placing Ackley on leave Thursday, Finizio accused her of undermining contract negotiations, jeopardizing public safety and deliberately withholding information critical to public safety during the city’s annual Sailfest event. Ackley, for her part, has blamed the mayor for problems with Sailfest.

Finizio also said city administrators and police union leaders agreed that Ackley had singled out certain members of the department for "selective discipline based upon their political positions" and that she had been accused of misrepresenting the police department's finances to city council and the finance board. 

Ackley had asked a judge Wednesday to bar the mayor from interfering with her police duties while her lawsuit, filed in June 2013 in a dispute over her contract and compensation, is pending. She said in her motion for the injunction that Finizio has usurped her authority and thus endangered the public. 

Ackley alleged, among other things, that Finizio has been running the department by giving orders to her subordinates without consulting her. She also said she has been barred from speaking to members of the media and of city council, as well as to other city officials, without the mayor's permission.

Ackley said in her motion for an injunction that Finizio told her she must report directly to him, but that he has "cut off communication" with her and the rest of the police department and refused to involve her in the planning process for Sailfest.

A police captain attended the meetings in her stead, and allegedly told Ackley "he feared for the safety both of police officers and the public" at the event.

Sailfest turned out to be a "near disaster," Ackley's lawyer, Leon M. Rosenblatt, wrote in the motion.

The mayor, on the other hand, claims Ackley deliberately withheld information about the city’s ability to provide for public safety at Sailfest and might have reassigned officers during the Fourth of July weekend because of political differences with the mayor’s administration.

He said he "in no way barred" Ackley from the Sailfest planning process and does not involve himself in the day-to-day operations of the police department.

Ackley also said in her motion that she had been dismissed from police union contract negotiations and was asked to sign a contract that would "cost the taxpayers more than just an extra million dollars."

But Finizio said Ackley "may be working to deliberately undermine progress that had been made with the union in contract negotiations and that she may be making false statements to City officials in an attempt to further undermine the collective bargaining process."

Rosenblatt did not respond directly to the mayor's decision Thursday but did share Wednesday's filing that laid out Ackley's case for an injunction.

According to Ackley's motion for the injunction, an initial hearing will be held at New London Superior Court at 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 18.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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