Boxborough board seeks FBI investigation

By CommonWealth Staff Municipal Government 0 Comments Oct 21, 2021

The Boxborough Select Board did something earlier this week you don’t see happen very often. It voted 3-2 to have the acting town manager ask the FBI’s public corruption unit to investigate payroll improprieties in the town’s police department.

The unusual request followed months of turmoil in the tiny town west of Concord prompted by allegations that employees of the police department were improperly receiving stipends for advanced degrees they had not earned as well as comp and holiday time to which they were not entitled.

Wes Fowlks, the Select Board member who made the motion to call in the FBI, said he believed Police Chief Warren Ryder when he said no wrongdoing had been committed. But he said the town was so divided over the controversy that an outside investigation was required.

“While it does seem fairly extreme, I think it’s reasonable,” he said Monday at the Select Board meeting. “I don’t know of any better way to restore public trust in the police department.”

Town officials declined comment on whether the FBI had been contacted yet.

In a presentation to the Select Board prior to the vote, Ryder said he discovered an employee was improperly receiving an educational stipend in December 2020, long before anyone was raising concerns about payroll issues at the department. He said the employee came to him with proof he had just obtained his master’s degree. After approving the educational stipend, Ryder said he discovered the employee was already receiving the extra money in his paycheck. A check of records revealed that a total of four employees were receiving education stipends inappropriately.

Ryder said he immediately instituted changes to prevent such mistakes from happening again and to collect the money paid out over the previous year.

“The cause of the error is not known but indications point to human administrative error,” the police department said in a statement. “As a result of this, Chief Ryder, in consultation with other police chiefs in Middlesex County, has modified the department’s payroll system. All adjustments to pay rate and entitlements will now require the signature of the chief of police, the employee, and a senior official in the town of Boxborough before it can be entered into the system. The Boxborough Police Department deeply regrets the matter and the overpayment of public employees.”

As for the comp and holiday time issues, Ryder said there was either nothing to them or they were caused by software glitches that have been fixed.

Ryder blames the furor over the payroll issues on a former administrative assistant who handled bookkeeping for the police department. Ryder said the woman, who he called the complainant in his presentation to the Select Board, was disciplined and ultimately dismissed from her job for “racially insensitive social media postings.”

“This employee who willingly accepted discipline and ultimately dismissal now appears to be dissatisfied with the outcome of this and turned this into a very personal and public battle with the help of a social media poster,” he said. He indicated documents were stolen from the police department and an email was forged.

“I stand by my actions as both police chief and municipal department head,” he said.

Select Board members Les Fox and Jennifer Campbell opposed the motion. Fox said he would support an investigation of the town’s overall payroll procedures. Campbell said Ryder stepped forward and supplied the board and the district attorney’s office with his explanations and the documentation to back them up. “I just feel like we need to support him,” she said.

The other two board members, John Markiewicz and Diana Lipari, sided with Fowlks. Lipari said one officer improperly receiving an education stipend could be written off as a mistake, but four seemed like a bigger problem.

Markiewicz criticized Ryder’s handling of the situation. “I would have thought the chief would have taken some responsibility for the actions that occurred on his watch,” he said.

BRUCE MOHL

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Paper shortage: Add paper to the list of things in short supply. William Galvin, the secretary of the CommonWealth, said he planned to send out another letter on mail-in voting prior to the preliminary mayoral election but canceled that idea when there wasn’t enough paper available to do it. Read more.

Fare free plan: Boston mayoral candidate Michaelle Wu has taken heat for misleading voters that she can deliver a fare-free MBTA without support from Beacon Hill, but she said she is open to asking Bostonians to help foot the bill. She says her first priority would be fare free buses. Read more.

Hybrid work: Commuting data gathered by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation indicates the new work week is Tuesday through Thursday. Read more.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

MassLive examines the issue of who qualifies for a religious exemption under Massachusetts’ state worker vaccine mandate.

Just three State Police officers have quit so far rather than submit to the state COVID-19 vaccine mandate. (Boston Herald)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

A candidate for Gloucester City Council will not be allowed to take office if she wins, since re-precincting will change the map and move her home out of the ward she is running for at the end of the year. (Gloucester Daily Times)

A tent caught fire in the homeless encampment in Boston’s Mass. and Cass area, at least the third such episode in the last month (Boston Herald)

Federal investigators subpoena personnel records of two Agawam town hall employees, who are placed on leave. (MassLive)

ELECTIONS

Joan Vennochi points out why Michelle Wu is smartly name-dropping Tom Menino, for whom she worked before winning a City Council seat, a lot more than her law school professor and supporter Elizabeth Warren. (Boston Globe)

Globe editorial writer Alan Wirzbicki has a well-considered, nuanced take on the Everett mayor’s race and why voters might want to dump — or keep — longtime incumbent Carlo DeMaria.

The state’s Republicans are pushing to require voter identification at the polls. (Salem News)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

The former Days Inn in Pittsfield is getting a $10 million makeover. (Berkshire Eagle)

USA Today looks at what exactly is organic marijuana and why it’s popular in New England.

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

Sales of Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm have fallen way short of Wall Street projections. (Boston Globe) CommonWealth recently explored the controversy of the drug’s approval and the calls for reform that it has prompted.

EDUCATION

The North Brookfield school committee votes to keep the district’s Indian mascot, less than a year after voting to eliminate it. (Telegram & Gazette)

Amherst College will no longer give a “legacy” advantage to the children of its graduates in admission decisions. (Boston Globe)

Nearly 3,000 students – or 12.6 percent – of Worcester’s students opt out of a new sex ed curriculum. (Telegram & Gazette)

TRANSPORTATION

MassDOT begins a pilot program letting buses travel in the breakdown lane along I-93. (MassLive)

Pittsfield’s first roundabout is opening. (Berkshire Eagle)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

The Cape Cod Times takes an in-depth look at the jobs created by the offshore wind industry in other states, and the potential for job creation in Massachusetts. Massachusetts is already leading the way in job training for the offshore wind industry.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

New Bedford police will now notify anyone being entered in the department’s gang-member database and give them 14 days to respond and meet with police to challenge the designation. (New Bedford Light)

Meet the Author