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Committee recommends reappointments to Somerville Housing Authority police and confirms hires after executive-session reviews
Summary
The committee recommended approval for reappointments and confirmations for Somerville Housing Authority police officers after executive-session background reviews; members emphasized transparency and accountability in the process.
The Somerville City Council'Committee on Confirmation of Appointments and Personnel Matters recommended approval of several Somerville Housing Authority (SHA) police appointments after the committee moved into executive session to review personnel and reputational matters.
Item 4 on the agenda was the reappointment of Sean Brown to the Somerville Housing Authority police. The committee described consultations with the city solicitor and a former police chief to confirm the appropriate process for reviewing candidate employment histories. After an executive-session review under Massachusetts General Law referencing personnel matters, the committee returned to open session and moved to recommend approval. The roll call showed four votes in favor of the recommendation.
The committee proceeded with the reappointment of Michael de Bethancourt (item 5) and the appointment of Alfred William Bridal III (item 6). Each of those candidates was handled individually, with the committee entering executive session to review personnel matters as allowed under state law before resuming open session and taking a recorded recommendation vote. All three candidates were recommended by the committee by recorded roll-call votes; the clerk recorded the outcome as votes in favor for each item.
Chief Benford and former Chief Charles Feminaud spoke in support of the process and thanked the committee for its "due diligence" in reviewing the candidates. Several councilors praised the increased transparency of the appointment-review process and said publicly available documents now explain how complaints to the SHA police are handled and how the force is organized. Councilor McLaughlin and others described specific positive interactions with officers named in the process and noted the importance of accountability for a professional housing police force.
The committee noted no votes were taken during executive sessions; each executive session was described as a personnel-review discussion permitted under state law. The committee recorded recommendations to be forwarded to the full council for formal confirmation.
No disciplinary decisions against applicants were reported to the committee during the public session.
Votes at a glance: the committee recorded favorable recommendations for Sean Brown, Michael de Bethancourt and Alfred William Bridal III; each recommendation will be forwarded to the full City Council for final confirmation.
