Montville ― The Town Council on Monday night unanimously approved new policies for the town’s future independent police department.

The job description for the Chief of Police headlined the four agenda items related to the department. The other items included a new policy for the town’s web Emergency Operations Center (EOC), the creation of a transition committee and allocated money to buy a new cruiser for the future chief.

Currently, the town operates under the Resident State Trooper Program and Mayor Ron McDaniel is the police chief, a position he previously said he’s not qualified for.

Lt. Dave Radford oversees the department’s day-to-day administration and scheduling of personnel while Resident State Trooper Sgt. Chris Vaillancourt supervises the operation of the department.

Councilor Robert Yuchniuk said the Town Administration/Rules and Procedures Standing Committee held a special meeting on Oct. 27 to review the police chief job description and the EOC policy.

Yuchniuk said that the EOC policy dictates who has access to the emergency operations system and how the local emergency response services communicate with each other.

Councilor Lenny Bunnell Sr. said the job description for the chief of police will have to posted before the town can accept applications. He said he expects interviews to happen in the coming months while other job descriptions, such as emergency dispatchers, are created and posted as well.

Bunnell confirmed that the town is still on track to have the independent department in place for July 2023. Residents had 20 days to petition to referendum the ordinance that created the independent department, which was approved on Sept. 19, but no one did.

The council approved similar ordinances in 2002 and 2016, but each were successfully petitioned to a referendum and overturned due to resident’s concerns about leaving the resident state trooper program too soon and the costs associated with the transition.

Between the town’s increased population and the $6.5 million police station that the town built in 2012 and Bunnell said is not being used to its potential, residents and the Town Council this time agreed to leave the resident trooper program. Because the town uses state police facilities at Troop E as part of the resident trooper program, holding cells, evidence rooms, evidence processing rooms and the dispatch center in the new police station were untouched.

Council Chairman Tom McNally, who also chairs the Board of Finance, previously said after removing the $240,000 cost of the resident state trooper, but adding the cost of a chief of police ($120,000 plus benefits), a secretary ($50,000) and four full-time dispatchers ($275,000), having an independent department will costs the town an additional $150,000 to $160,000 a year. He said that’s comparable to a $10 yearly tax increase on a $250,000 house, or less than a dollar a month.

The council also opted to approve $44,000 for the purchase of a new police cruiser for the incoming chief. They chose to make the purchase now instead of waiting for the new chief’s input.

McDaniel said, “If you don’t order it now, you’ll never get it.”

The council also approved a “Police Transition Committee” to plan the celebration of the town’s transition to its own department. The committee will also be responsible for the badge pinning ceremony for the new chief.

The five-person committee will consist of two members from the council, two members from the public and one Montville police officer, who will be appointed at a later date.

Bunnell said he attended the ceremony in Ledyard when its department gained independence. He recalled the “pomp and circumstance” of the event, seeing the officer’s in their “dress blues”, which are worn for celebratory occasions, and listening to musicians playing music on bag pipes.

k.arnold@theday.com