Police Chief Screening Committee - 2025

Select "Police Chief Screening Committee - 2025" on the Volunteer Opportunities page to express interest in serving on this committee.

Members: 7 Members 

Appointed by: Select Board

Length of Term: 4 months

Charge Approved: 10/06/2025

Purpose: 

The Police Chief Screening Committee (PCSC) is a temporary committee charged with participating in the screening and interview process for the next Chief of Police of the Belmont Police Department. The PCSC will work with the Town’s search consultant to interview and recommend highly qualified candidates to the Select Board for the position of Police Chief.

Membership:

• Roy Epstein, Former Belmont Select Board member (1 member)

• Thomas Browne, Retired or current police chief from another Massachusetts municipality (1 member)

• Didier Moise, Representative from the Human Rights Commission and/or Belmont Against Racism (BAR)  Designee (1 member)

• Mark Paolillo, Representative from the Council on Aging (1 member)

• Mauro Lance, Town resident (1 member)

• Patrice Garvin, Town Administrator, or designee (voting)

• Dr. Jill Geiser, Superintendent of Schools, or designee (voting)

Description: 

The PCSC will meet over the fall and winter of 2025/2026. Members must commit to have availability and time for the screening committee work.

The PCSC will meet in open session, unless the specific requirements for an executive session are met and the chair so declares. Screening committees are likely to encounter MGL C. 30A § 21(a)(8)

To consider or interview applicants for employment or appointment by a preliminary screening committee if the chair declares that an open meeting will have a detrimental effect in obtaining qualified applicants; provided, however, that this clause shall not apply to any meeting, including meetings of a preliminary screening committee, to consider and interview applicants who have passed a prior preliminary screening;

The contents of executive session are confidential until the justification of the open session is concluded. None-finalist candidates may have additional privacy protections.

The process will include:

1. Applications are to be submitted to the search consultant

2. The consultant will review the applications and resumes, removing applicants that are not qualified

3. With the consultant, the PCSC will developing a screening rubric to evaluate applicants

4. The consultant will select 5 or more applicants to be screened by the PCSC

5. The PCSC will receive resumes in advance of the interview day.  This information is confidential and is not public.  Names of the candidates are not made public and should not be discussed outside of the meetings.

6. After the consultant has independently scored each candidate’s performance during the assessment, the PCSC will meet with the consultant and the Town Administrator to discuss their observations of the applicants’ performance.

7. The Committee will recommend 2-4 candidates as finalists to forward to the Select Board.  At this point, the names of the finalists will be made public. The Select Board strongly prefers 3 finalists if the PCSC deems at least that many candidates are strongly qualified. The PCSC may not recommend more than 4 finalists.

8. The finalists will be interviewed by the Select Board in Open Session. The public may attend.

9. Once the Selectboard has identified their choice for Police Chief, the selected candidate will be given a “Conditional Offer of Employment.” Conditions will likely include background screening and pre-employment psych screening.  Contractual terms will be reviewed by the Town’s legal counsel before finalization.

Deliverable to the Select Board: 

Present suitable finalist candidates to the Select Board for consideration.