Sheriff to hire new chief
Mayor recuses himself from task
To avoid an ethics conflict, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch has turned the selection of a new police chief over to Norfolk County Sheriff Michael G. Bellotti, who will announce as early as today people he is tapping for a search committee.
Bellotti did confirm two names on the committee: Police Chief James Hussey of Cohasset and Police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr. of Milton. He said the group might also include a community activist or someone who works with children, a businessman, and someone with an education or human resources background. The panel will have up to five members.
Bellotti was picked by Koch to conduct the search because Koch's brother-in-law - Police Captain Paul Keenan - is one of three Civil Service candidates for the job. Koch is married to Keenan's sister.
Koch's office consulted the State Ethics Comission, which said the mayor could not be involved. So Koch called Bellotti and asked him to put together a committee and select the new chief. Bellotti will not be paid for his work.
"They have left it totally up to me," Bellotti said. "The conversation was about 60 seconds long." He has also spoken about the process with the city attorney.
Bellotti said the committee would devise a method for rating the candidates, interview them, and seek the views of police officers. The new chief will be picked from within the department.
Bellotti said that he had no self-imposed deadline for picking a chief, but that one would be named by June 30, when Chief Robert F. Crowley retires. The 61-year-old has been on the Quincy force since 1972 and chief for four years.
Crowley said: "I feel the mayor made the right decision . . . and made an excellent choice in appointing Michael Bellotti to head the selection process. There is no question we have the talent within the department to run the department."
Koch is in the unusual position of being cut out of one of the most important personnel decisions a mayor can make, but said, "It is what it is." Koch and Bellotti described themselves as acquaintences, but not close friends.
Koch expressed confidence that whoever is the new chief will be an asset to the city. "We have three excellent candidates."
The three candidates, all police captains, are:
Allan Gillan, 48. He has 22 years on the force, and earned the highest score on the exam. He is in charge of night patrols and the motorcycle unit, and is responsible for what happens between 4 p.m. through 8 a.m. Gillan has spent most of his career in the patrolman's unit, but was also a motorcycle officer.
Keenan, 49. He has 25 years on the force, and is in charge of the daytime patrol unit. He coordinates events such as the Flag Day and Christmas parades. Keenan is the chairman of the committee that reorganized the department's geographic sectors, so that officer workloads are shared more equally.
Michael Miller, 44. He has been on the force for 22 years - he started the same day Gillan did - and tied with Keenan on the test score. He has worked on patrols and in the detective bureau, and is in charge of the prosecutor's office and assigned to Quincy District Court and Norfolk Superior.
Matt Carroll can be reached at mcarroll@globe.com.
