Winslow Director of Public Safety Leonard Macdaid, right, leads the annual awards ceremony on Jan. 16, 2024, at the Winslow Fire Department. The Town Council on Tuesday took the first vote toward repealing the department. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

WINSLOW — Councilors on Monday took the first steps to repealing the Public Safety Department.

Winslow created its Public Safety Department in 2023 by merging the administration of its police and fire department. Councilors voted 4-3 Monday to repeal that ordinance and split the departments up again.

The divide between Winslow’s old and new guard was highlighted again as Councilors Fran Hudson, Mike Joseph, Doris Labranche and Adam Lint voted to repeal the department while Dale Macklin, Jeff West and Lee Trahan voted against.

Only three of the seven councilors who formed the Public Safety Department remain on the council, and all voted to keep the department. The four new councilors voted to dismantle it.

The council must hold a public hearing and vote again to repeal the ordinance at its next meeting Feb. 10. If approved, the Public Safety Department will be dissolved 30 days after the second vote.

Councilors who moved to repeal the department said staffing at Winslow police and fire has remained low since the merger and that a “return to tradition” would encourage new applicants.

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“Simply just revert back to the tradition,” Hudson said. “If I’m a brand new police officer out of the academy, do I want to go work for a police department or a public safety department? You can say it is whatever it is, I’m going to the police department.”

Leonard Macdaid is Winslow’s public safety director and receives an annual salary of about $88,000. He was promoted to the role after serving as the town’s chief of police since 2020 despite concerns about his leadership style and the new department’s management of fire department training and budgets.

If the Public Safety Department is dissolved, Macdaid will become Winslow’s police chief again. The town would need to hire a new fire chief or hire someone to fill Deputy Fire Chief Mike Murphy’s role, which some councilors say would add another $150,000 to the budget.

“The plan to dismantle the Public Safety Department really won’t have any bearing on cost savings, and we may lose people going back to the way things were,” Trahan said. “I just feel we should leave it the way it is, because it’s saving the town money.”

While the Public Safety Department was created amid a period of turnover in the fire department and dissent in the police department, Macdaid said at the meeting that “the fighting has stopped” and that Winslow’s first responders are solidified under the Public Safety Department.

“I do think it’s working. The morale is good, everybody’s getting along,” Macdaid said. “Like I’ve told you multiple times in meetings, we work for the wishes of the council, so whatever way you guys decide to go, we’ll work with you.”

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Repealing an ordinance typically requires a public hearing, in which residents have time to speak their minds about business before the council. Hudson put the item on Monday’s agenda just days before the meeting, circumventing the 14-day notice required before a public hearing can be held and preventing public input at Monday night’s meeting.

One resident, Kyle Price, asked if the public could give input Monday. Hudson responded “We’re in the middle of a vote, you’ll have to wait.”

After councilors West and Macklin pushed back, Hudson let Price speak briefly from the podium.

“It just seems like this is an important issue for the public to have a chance to weigh in on, because we are the ones being served by this department,” Price said. “I think this current structure seems to have brought those two places, those two divisions together. There was dissension, there wasn’t all agreement with what was going on, so we’ve made some progress here.”

Hudson has been critical of Macdaid and the Public Safety Department since before her election to the council, saying in 2023 “I don’t think he can remove his police chief hat and be an administrator.”

“It’s not a secret I’ve been against this,” she said Monday. “I don’t think it’s been much more than four (cross-department) trainings. The staffing right now is critically low, has been critically low.”

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The Public Safety Department cannot apply for grants made specifically for police and fire departments, Hudson said, leaving less venues for the town to secure funding for the department.

Hudson said she, Macdaid and Town Manager Ella Bowman had previously discussed dismantling the departments months ago so that a dedicated fire chief could put more time to adopting interfacility ambulance transfers, a new practice Winslow Fire plans to take up in the coming months where ambulances transport more patients to and from health care facilities outside their standard coverage areas for more money.

“It was my recommendation to separate these and let the fire department handle that part of the equation,” Bowman said. “I think we should separate these two departments. That’s my personal opinion, only because of the expertise that’s going to be required to make it happen, and if it doesn’t happen correctly, then the public safety director is going to take a hit.”

Deputy Fire Chief Mike Murphy seconded Macdaid’s sentiments, saying “it was quite a show” when he took the job in 2023, though dissention within the ranks has been assuaged by steady leadership.

Asked if he’ll be able to begin undertaking interfacility transfers in the coming months under the Public Safety Department banner, Murphy said “I’ll be honest with you, I know I can.”

“I’ve done it, I’ve done a good job so far, and I don’t plan on failing any time soon,” he added.

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Part of the opposition to the Public Safety Department, Hudson said, stemmed from the fire and police departments’ reliance on using overtime pay to make up for short staffing.

Winslow’s annual budgets show the departments paid about $105,000 in overtime in the 2021 fiscal year. In 2023, that rose to over $320,000. Estimates in 2024 and proposals for 2025 anticipate it falling to around $300,000 a year.

“You’re not saving money with this department because you’re paying a lot in overtime,” Hudson said Monday. “You’re paying a lot for the benefit of the officers and firefighters who aren’t working with the staffing they should to be safe and give us the best that they can give.”

Former Town Manager Erica LaCroix and former council Chairman Peter Drapeau formally approved the merger in 2023 with the goal of saving money on administrative salaries.

Macdaid has faced scrutiny for his tough and at times threatening management style that some Winslow town employees said fostered a hostile work environment in the Public Safety Department and the town office.

At a 2023 public hearing, Macdaid told councilors he would wear a gun despite being in a primarily administrative role, saying, “If you think I’m going to be a chief that’s going to wear a white shirt and sit in the office, you’re hiring the wrong person.”

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Former town code enforcement officer Jim Flanders said he lodged a complaint against Macdaid after being threatened in his office during a meeting. Flanders recorded the exchange under Maine’s one-party consent law and provided a copy to the Morning Sentinel.

“Accusing someone of a hostile work environment is taking it to the next step. And I can tell you — in front of the town manager — you don’t want to accuse me of that unless you have a real hostile working environment,” Macdaid is heard saying during the 2023 meeting. “I’m just saying, whatever else we determine, I would walk very cautiously next time you accuse me of that.”

Flanders resigned shortly after the meeting. Seven other elected officials, town employees and current and former police officers noted a pattern of hostility in Macdaid’s department.

Macdaid declined to comment at the time on Flanders’ recordings and allegations of intimidation in the town office.

Hudson noted Monday that six Winslow police officers have left their jobs since the Public Safety Department first began its trial run in 2023. Four new officers have been hired.

Joseph said the push to dissolve the Public Safety Department did not come as a result of personnel disagreements, nor would it result in Macdaid or other administrators being fired.

“We don’t plan on cutting anybody, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he told Macdaid. “We want to be able to keep people, policemen as well.”

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