Outgoing Greenfield Mayor Gave Big Raises to Police Officials

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GREENFIELD — Last year, one week before she lost a landslide election in which policing was a central issue, then-mayor of Greenfield Roxann Wedegartner signed agreements to give big pay raises to the city’s top police officials.

That’s according to new documents The Shoestring has obtained, showing that one of Wedegartner’s last acts before Election Day was to give raises of 20% and 25%, respectively, to the city’s police chief and deputy chief. Wedegartner signed those agreements on Oct. 31, just before a Nov. 7 election in which controversy over the Greenfield Police Department played a key role in her ouster.

At the center of that controversy was Police Chief Robert Haigh. In 2022, a jury found Haigh discriminated against a Black officer in the department. Following that decision, Wedegartner reinstated Haigh as police chief.

Wedegartner, who also faced backlash for attempting to cut funding from the School Committee’s budget last year, did not respond to several voicemails left on her phone Wednesday. Haigh and Deputy Chief William Gordon did not respond to emails requesting comment.

It is now up to the City Council and new Mayor Virginia “Ginny” Desorgher, who has promised reforms to the police department, to figure out how to fund those agreements. The memoranda of understanding that Wedegartner signed separately with Haigh and Gordon went into effect on Jan. 1 — one day before Desorgher was sworn in as mayor. Through a spokesperson, Desorgher declined to comment for this article.

The agreements give both officers educational incentives — which Greenfield’s patrol officers already receive as part of their union contract — that raise Haigh’s base pay by 20% for having a bachelor’s degree and Gordon’s 25% for having a master’s degree. Wedegartner also agreed to give both of them $750 yearly as part of a “physical fitness incentive program” for the city’s officers.

The agreement with Gordon also gives him greater protections against firing. The deal restricts the manner in which disciplinary proceedings can play out against him, and puts in place the principles of “progressive discipline” — the idea that penalties against an employee increase upon subsequent infractions rather than firing them for a first offense. It also grants him the right to appeal through arbitration any discipline, discharge or non-reappointment. 

The documents that The Shoestring obtained do not detail just how Wedegartner intended to fund those pay hikes. In a financial order that Desorgher has recommended to the City Council, she suggested drawing $54,904 from the city’s reserve fund — which has $75,000 in it — to pay for them.

It is also unclear from the documents just how much money those raises will cost the city. 

In her financial order, under the header “MOU financial summary,” Desorgher wrote that the increases for Haigh amount to $33,902 and $35,255 for Gordon. However, it’s unclear what period of time that summary refers to. 

Given that those raises are to both officers’ base pay, it is possible that they will then increase other pay categories that police officers sometimes receive based on a percentage of their base pay. In documents The Shoestring has reviewed, the city’s accounting seems to suggest that the $54,904 appropriation will only cover the total costs of the raises for half of this fiscal year, which ends on June 30, 2024.

Desorgher’s office did not respond to follow-up questions seeking clarification about the total costs of the pay hikes.

The raises seem to have surprised many in city government.

In a phone interview, Rachel Gordon, who was elected to the Precinct 2 seat on the City Council in November, said she was shocked by the news.

“I found it interesting that this was such a priority for the outgoing mayor,” she said.

Gordon recalled that last year, Wedegartner attempted to cut $1.5 million out of the School Committee’s proposed budget. The City Council, where Desorgher headed the Ways and Means Committee, restored nearly $1.2 million of those cuts, but the School Department still had to lay off two teachers. 

Now, as one of her last acts in office, Gordon said that Wedegartner directed funds toward two of the city’s highest paid employees — Chief Haigh and Deputy Chief Gordon — who run a department “at the center of a giant, ongoing legal mess.” Councilor Gordon, who is not related to the deputy chief, said that voters in November’s election handed Desorgher a 72% landslide victory over Wedegartner precisely to end that kind of management in the city.

“Constituents were really clear: they want accountability in the police, they want an end to corruption in city government,” Gordon said. She said that Wedegartner made the contrast between herself and Desorgher clear by granting “political favors for her friends and not managing the city in a fair, fiscally responsible way.”

Efforts to reach John Bottomley, the City Council president, were unsuccessful late Wednesday afternoon.

The City Council meets next on Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 6:30 p.m.

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Dusty Christensen is an independent investigative reporter based in western Massachusetts. He can be reached at dusty.christensen@protonmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @dustyc123 or on Instagram @dustycreports.

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