“Embarrassing:” Councilors Haxhiaj, King say scrutiny warranted after police chief’s exit

WORCESTER — Two city councilors on Thursday said recent reporting surrounding the retirement of Police Chief Steven M. Sargent bears further scrutiny.

Councilor-at-Large Khrystian King and District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj said reporting on multiple previously undisclosed investigations regarding the chief warrants further examination at City Hall.

“I’m just concerned [that] whatever internal practices HR, the city manager and others follow, clearly aren’t accountable and transparent to the public,” said Haxhiaj.

More: Batista pledges police transparency, says reporting hastened chief’s retirement

The T&G has, beginning Aug. 18, published information on three investigations into Sargent’s conduct, including a report Wednesday on a probe former City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. dismissed that found the chief was untruthful regarding a resident’s road rage complaint.

The investigator – who formerly worked for nearly three decades as the top labor and personnel official for the city of Cambridge – found police broke policy in their response to the complaint, “potentially undermining citizen confidence in the integrity and thoroughness of investigations, particularly those at the highest levels.”

Augustus discarded the investigator’s findings against Sargent and two others as unsupported for reasons he has yet to specify.

Read: Report on allegations against Worcester Police Chief Steven Sargent

King said Thursday he plans to file a written request with City Manager Eric D. Batista for a “verified review” of the matter.

“I want to verify, from the administration’s perspective, what actually happened,” he said, including whether police, as the investigator found, failed to follow policies.

King and Haxhiaj both said they believe the Council’s Public Safety subcommittee would be the proper forum to explore systemic concerns regarding police transparency and accountability.

The chairwoman of the committee, Kate Toomey, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The T&G sent emails to all 11 councilors Thursday morning requesting interviews by 3 p.m. Only King, Haxhiaj and District 3 Councilor George Russell could be reached.

All three councilors said they were unaware of the 2020 investigation that Augustus dismissed prior to Wednesday.

Russell said he was not familiar enough with the specifics of Augustus’ decision to comment on its merits. He noted that city councilors are barred by city charter from having a hand in nearly all personnel matters.

While councilors cannot involve themselves in such decisions, there is nothing preventing the city manager from informing councilors of actions already taken, a city spokesman confirmed Thursday.

Haxhiaj said Batista has never mentioned anything to her regarding personnel matters involving the chief, and said she plans to speak with him about the topic soon.

“I am really looking forward to hearing from the city manager how he will handle the most recent reports, and what kind of internal review processes he will reevaluate and change.”

Haxhiaj said with the city’s Police Department already under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice, it is “even more important that we reevaluate and reexamine whatever broken systems are there that allow this pattern, and culture of silence, to be honest with you, to be perpetuated.”

Two of the three probes involving Sargent happened under Augustus, while the third is ongoing. Batista, who took over for Augustus in June 2022, told the T&G last month that he first learned of a 2021 investigation Augustus sustained against Sargent earlier this year.

Batista has not said the date he learned of the 2020 investigation Augustus scuttled, with a spokesman writing Wednesday that the city’s Human Resources department “located it” while searching for records pertaining to the sustained 2021 complaint.

The city’s current human resources director, William Bagley, was interviewed as part of the 2020 investigation.

King said Thursday that he does not believe Augustus effected a thorough enough transition between administrations.

“What’s becoming very apparent to me is that Ed Augustus’ transition plan was significantly lacking,” said King.

Augustus sent Batista a four-line statement memorializing his actions regarding the 2020 complaint on Sept. 1, 2023, more than a year after he left the city, and the same day Sargent announced his retirement.

“City Manager Batista and the City of Worcester deserved to know all of the pending matters, all of the pertinent things that were addressed,” King said. "It was extremely disappointing to me that it took until the last week that he [Augustus] completed his job responsibilities as it relates to this matter.

“Being the city manager is a challenging job, and we all know that, but these sorts of things should have been passed from one administration to the next,” he said.

Asked how he thought Batista has handled the matters, King replied, “It appears as though our city manager has responded the best way he could, given the position the prior administration has left him in.”

Augustus, now the state’s housing secretary, declined to be interviewed at the Statehouse on Tuesday, telling the T&G he would not be adding anything beyond his Sept. 1 statement.

Report on allegations again... by Michael Elfland

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester city councilors want more scrutiny after police chief's exit