PBA Local 39 President Mike Zadlock at a council meeting in December. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s police union is “confident” in borough and department leadership after its allegations of mismanagement by Chief Darren McConnell were “sustained” by the New Jersey Attorney General, the local’s president told redbankgreen this week.
Meantime, McConnell’s fate as a borough employee remains shrouded in the secrecy of personnel confidentiality.
Chief Darren McConnell, left, then serving as interim borough manager, with borough Attorney Greg Cannon at a council meeting last July. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
A statement sent Monday to redbankgreen by Local 39 of the Policemen’s Benevolent Association said:
After a long investigation which began in April of 2023, the NJ Attorney General’s Office sustained allegations brought against Chief McConnell which led to him being suspended. As difficult as it was for PBA Local 39 to have the leader of our Police Department investigated for undermining the public’s trust which was ignored by many who did not seem to have the Borough’s best interest at heart, our PBA had the courage to speak up and report the Chief’s alleged wrong doings.
PBA Local 39 is confident the lack of transparency we have encountered will no longer exist now with Borough Manger Gant and Captain Frazee in charge as this began far before their tenures. PBA Local 39 is highly anticipating the release of the Attorney General’s report with the findings against Chief McConnell. For further comment please contact the New Jersey State PBA Office.
The statement was issued a week after borough Manager Jim Gant placed McConnell on “administrative leave, effective immediately and until further notice,” following his receipt of an investigative report from the NJAG.
The report, however, and the specifics of a PBA complaint that triggered the investigation, have never been released, and may never be. On March 4, Gant told redbankgreen by email that the borough “is handling a confidential personnel matter regarding the Chief” and that “any reports associated are a part of the chiefs [sic] personnel file and will not be released by the Borough.”
“Due to the confidential nature of the matter, we will not provide further comment,” he added separately.
An NJAG spokesman has not responded to redbankgreen requests for additional information.
Neither McConnell nor his attorney, Armen McOmber, have responded to inquiries in recent days.
McConnell had announced his plan to retire last summer when union president Mike Zadlock, a patrolman, went public with bombshell allegations, accusing McConnell of mismanagement and nepotism, among other issues. Zadlock also said of McConnell had engaged in “numerous inappropriate and questionable sexual relationships with the significant others” of department personnel.
McConnell disputed the allegations.
McConnell has worked in the police department since joining right out of high school in 1988, and has served as chief for the past decade. The pending complaint put his plans to retire on hold under New Jersey public pension rules.
On Monday, Zadlock told redbankgreen that he has not seen the AG’s report. The union received a letter from the NJAG saying the investigation “was concluded, and that there were sustained charges,” but he’s in the dark as to which complaints in particular were sustained, Zadlock said.
He said the executive committee wanted the community to know that the union “respects Chief McConnell’s due process.”
“We never wanted to go into a publicity battle with Chief McConnell,” Zadlock said. “He’s been a friend of mine for many years. Just, unfortunately, some things transpired where we have an obligation, not only to our membership, but also to the community, to report what we saw.”
“All we’ve been asking for is for someone to listen to us and take us seriously, and no one ever did,” Zadlock added, noting that the conflicts have been brewing since September of 2022, and did not start last summer.
Zadlock also said the union, which had endorsed a “no confidence” vote on McConnell’s leadership, is working with Gant, who became manager in December, and police Captain Mike Frazee to repair relations within borough hall.
Gant, Zadlock said, “has been very transparent with us, a breath of fresh air” after McConnell’s two-year stint as interim borough manager.
In addition, the union “has confidence” in Frazee, who he said has been “working very hard” along with Captain Robert Clayton “to try to fix the imperfections in our department that have been neglected for a very long period of time,” Zadlock said.
Frazee now leads he 39-officer police department and has been designated by the council to become the next chief upon McConnell’s retirement.
Meanwhile, elected officials appear to be moving toward non-public deliberation of McConnell’s situation.
The council is scheduled to meet in executive session behind closed doors Thursday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss “an employee disciplinary matter,” borough Attorney Greg Cannon told redbankgreen. He declined to offer further information.
Then, at its semimonthly public session scheduled for 6:30 p.m., the council is expected to authorize retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Deborah Gramiccioni, of the law firm of Kingston Coventry, to serve as the hearing officer in a matter regarding an unnamed “police officer,” according to a resolution on the agenda.
The officer has been advised borough’s “intention to discipline the employee,” it says, and “the employee has invoked the provisions of N.J.S.A. 40A:1-147, which requires an internal hearing before discipline is imposed against a police officer.”
There is no official indication, however, of whether Grammicioni’s appointment or the executive session concern McConnell’s status.
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