Guilderland’s town board voted along party lines to choose Carol Lawlor as its new police chief to a standing-room crowd that filled Town Hall Tuesday, June 2.
Three days later on Friday, June 6, she took the oath to officially become Chief Lawlor.
A 29-year veteran who was the town’s deputy chief, Lawlor had the support of the roaring crowd as the final vote of 3-to-2 secured her place as New York’s 10th female police chief. She had just as much support, if not more, when she was sworn in during a full ceremonial procession, complete with bagpipes.
At age 50, she is the department’s third police chief since 1977 and its first female chief.
Republican councilmen Warren Redlich and Mark Grimm voted against Lawlor’s nomination. Supervisor Kenneth Runion, along with Councilwoman Patricia Slavick and Councilman Paul Pastore all Democrats voted to give Lawlor the job.
Lawlor has been the town’s acting police chief for the past year after longtime chief, James Murley, retired amid scandal.
`The goal is to have the best candidate possible,` Runion said at the meeting. `Tonight it gives me great pleasure to say … the best candidate for the job is Carol Lawlor.`
Runion also took a moment after the final vote to admonish his Republican counterparts on the board for not supporting his candidate for police chief.
`I have to say this is probably one moment when I feel the most embarrassed for this board as a whole,` Runion said. `This is a day when we should all be cherishing an individual who has moved through the ranks and moved through great achievements for the Guilderland Police Department.`
Continuing, Runion said, `But unfortunately, two of our town board members started this process in what I believe to be a prejudicial view of the acting chief who’s here this evening.`
Grimm took issue with Runion’s statements following the Lawlor vote.
`I thought that was unbelievable. He’s embarrassed because people disagree with him? We have nothing to apologize for; we did our jobs,` he said. `This [appointment] was a predetermined outcome and another example of old-style insider politics, which is Ken Runion’s calling card.`
The Republican councilmen said they did not feel Lawlor was the strongest candidate out of a final pool of three applicants. They both put their support behind a Troy city assistant police chief, John Tedesco, citing that he had more education, a better background, and was better suited for the job.
`It’s important to all Guilderland residents that we have the best candidate for the job. With events like Columbine and the Porco case, we need the best,` Redlich said. `It’s a clichE, but when that call comes in at 3 a.m., we want the most qualified person we can have to take that call.`
Redlich said that Lawlor was not the best based on the rEsumE presented on a `side-by-side comparison.`
He said the public had heard plenty about Lawlor during the search process, but that they had not heard about the other candidates.
He pointed out that the only negative comment made by Runion during the meeting against his candidate was that Tedesco said he would not live in Guilderland if hired.
Redlich said Lawlor’s appointment represented the status quo in Guilderland Town Hall politics.
`The previous chief left under a cloud, we all know that,` Redlich said at the meeting. `One of the things that came out during the interview process was Acting Chief Lawlor presented a memo that had come from the previous chief that was essentially a secrecy order, and the department has a culture of secrecy.`
Grimm agreed with Redlich and said hiring outside of the department would prevent any insider secrecy that may occur in a department that was rocked by the sudden resignation of its former police chief amid allegations of sexual misconduct and other inappropriate behavior.
`I have to agree with Councilman Redlich’s evaluation. The evaluation took the personalities out of the equation and really did speak directly to the merits,` Grimm said. `On the merits, Acting Chief Carol Lawlor is not the strongest candidate in my view.`
The rest of the board, and seemingly most of the residents in attendance, disagreed.
Dozens of residents filled the room June 2, many of whom held signs in favor of Lawlor, and they applauded loudly when each board member voted for Lawlor.
The room was quiet when Redlich and Grimm cast their votes against her.
Both councilmen said they would work with Lawlor now that she is chief, however, neither Grimm nor Redlich appeared at Town Hall during Lawlor’s swearing-in ceremony four days later.
Runion acknowledged their absence during the ceremony and introduced his Democratic colleagues, Slavick and Pastore, to roaring applause. He told Lawlor that she deserved a unanimous vote on her appointment and apologized for the partisan vote that took place a few days prior.
`I think the minority turned it into a partisan appointment,` Runion said during a telephone interview after Lawlor’s appointment. `It was almost like they had a grudge on day one against her. It was just disgraceful.`
The supervisor added that a new deputy chief would not be named because there are already three senior officers ` two lieutenants and now a chief ` and that hiring from within the department has saved the town over $100,000 a year because a fourth administrative officer will not be hired.
Grimm again disagreed with Runion’s assessment, saying he voted for the best candidate for the good of the town as whole and not just Lawlor’s supporters and that if Runion was trying to save money, he should have said so in the beginning of the selection process.
`Runion was playing to the crowd; that’s what politicians do,` Grimm said. `I think it’s great that people came out to support their candidate but I have voted on behalf on the entire town.`
Both Slavick and Pastore fully supported Lawlor’s appointment.
`I’m voting yes it’s my responsibility here as a board member to pick who I think will do the best job for Guilderland, and I think that’s Carol Lawlor,` Slavick said. `She’s been acting chief now for the past year, and the department hasn’t missed a beat and she’s done a good job in that capacity.`
Slavick, the town board’s only female member, said she respected Lawlor from one working mother to another and said that joining the ranks of a handful of female police chiefs nationwide was a `stellar accomplishment.`
`It is in my opinion that this vote this evening is one of the most important votes and considerations that we must make,` Pastore said. `I’m in favor of Carol, not because she’s a women, but because I believe she’s the most qualified candidate for the position.`
He said it would be `unfortunate` if the vote came down to a partisan vote, which it ultimately did.
Both Slavick and Pastore said they believed the selection process was a fair and open process.
After the final vote was taken, Lawlor said she was glad the selection process was over and is proud to lead what she described as a professional and hard-working department. She said it was time to move forward and put politics aside.
`I’m very proud to be police chief I want to thank the town board members who supported me,` Lawlor said after being nominated. `And to those who didn’t support me, I hope we can put public safety first.`
She also thanked the crowd for its support.
`I’d like to thank everyone who’s here tonight thank you so much. It means the world to me,` Lawlor said, to which a voice in the crowd answered, `You mean the world to us, Carol.`
Lawlor will be paid $90,000 a year as chief.“