St. Ignatius left with part-time police coverage
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ST. IGNATIUS – Town officials have decided to advertise for a police chief and keep a part-time police officer whose probationary period was set to expire in mid-January in the latest set of personnel hiccups to befall the St. Ignatius Police Department.
Officer Logan Martin was kept on as an officer after an intense round of questioning by the town council on Jan. 6. The town’s most recent police chief, Charles Kuczynski, died unexpectedly of cancer in mid-December.
“I haven’t really been pleased with the time you’ve been putting in the town,” Mayor Charley Gariepy told Martin. “When officer Ferguson quit I offered you 40 hours. I offered you 40 hours when our former chief passed away. I just haven’t seen where you care to put in any overtime.”
Council member Roger Lemon also worried that Martin wasn’t motivated to be a part of the town.
“I’m worried about a lack of availability and interest,” Lemon said. I’ve never had a job in my life where work just comes to you automatically. If you are really interested in being here, I’d like to see you show the initiative to volunteer and work the extra hours.”
Other council members complained that Martin was not personable in interactions with townsfolk.
“From what I’ve heard from some townspeople is that they don’t feel that they can just have a conversation (with Martin),” Council member Annie Morigeau said. “We’re a small community, everybody knows everybody … Be more of a part of the community.”
Martin explained that he would like to work more hours, but that he has another part-time job in Plains, where he and his wife live. The couple have tried to find affordable property in St. Ignatius that is also suitable for their horses, but have had little luck. The see-sawing back and forth between having a 40-hour work week and a 20-hour work week has made it difficult to set a rent budget, Martin said. Town council members were aware that Martin had a part-time job when he was originally hired.
Martin said he would prefer to work as a police officer.
“Surely, I would prefer steady employment,” Martin said.
As for interactions with townsfolk, Martin said his work schedule wasn’t conducive to getting to know people.
“You don’t have a lot of interactions when you are working on the weekends and at night,” Martin said. “You have a lot of interactions, but they aren’t always the positive, ‘let’s get to know you’ type. That takes working in the middle of the day, which our administrators have been doing.”
Martin said he was also disappointed that his evaluation centered mostly around his living situation, rather than his job performance.
“When you are talking about somebody’s probationary period, in my experience, it’s been whether or not the person has performed as expected for the job expectations and qualifications set forth when you hired them,” Martin said. “There hasn’t been any discussion on my work ability, which is essentially what probation is about.”
Council members said the untimely death of the former chief left them little to go on when conducting the evaluation.
City Attorney James Lapotka said the paperwork turned over to him by Martin has always been in order.
“I don’t think there have been any cases where things weren’t in order,” Lapotka said. “He’s done a more than adequate job … He’s just as good or better as any of the other Ronan officers or previous St. Ignatius officers.”
The council decided to keep Martin on board, with a work evaluation conducted every three months about his performance. The council has advertised for a full-time police chief. Council members said they would try to help Martin find property, as did member of the public Bernie Lovell.
Lovell said it is important to have a law enforcement presence in the town.
“If we lose (Martin), we might as well hang up the shield and say ‘Have at it. It’s open country,’” Lovell said.
