KEYPORT — After months of discussion about the future of police administration in the borough, the Borough Council voted on July 19 to appoint Acting Police Chief George Casaletto as chief of the Keyport Police Department.
The appointment passed by a vote of 4- 2, with council President Joseph Sheridan, Councilwoman Evelyn Ambrose, and Councilmen Warren Chamberlain and Clemente Toglia voting to approve, and Councilwomen Susie Sefcik and Christian Bolte voting against.
The appointment was the subject of minimal discussion at the meeting.
Casaletto has served as the borough’s acting chief of police since November 2009 when Chief Thomas Mitchell resigned.
Sheridan — who also serves as borough Police Commissioner — said in a July 21 email that the decision to appoint Casaletto was the result of a “lengthy interview process given by the bipartisan police committee.
“George Casaletto has proven himself as an extremely capable police officer in his 30 years of service to Keyport,” he said.
“His deep respect for resident safety, management of personnel, attention to detail, thoughtful ideas and his focus on operating within his budget made him stand out from his peers.”
Bolte suggested in an email on July 20 that the borough placed too much emphasis on the fact that Casaletto had already been in the position for almost two years.
“Governing based on costly, failed past practices and providing the only reasoning as ‘He already does the job’ is not an acceptable explanation to the taxpayers,” she said .
The appointment comes as the borough mulls an ordinance that Casaletto has openly spoken against at previous council meetings.
On July 5, the council introduced an ordinance that would eliminate the position of captain and detective sergeant. The borough would be left with 16 active police officers in anticipation of merging the police department with that of a neighboring township or borough.
In his email, Sheridan said the borough had held three police shared-service meetings with the borough of Union Beach and one “very positive” meeting with Hazlet.
Sefcik, the other dissenting vote, said at the meeting that leaving the position of chief open would help in such negotiations.
“As we’ve had talks to consolidate the police department, I want to keep our attractiveness to other towns as open as possible,” she said.
“I want to keep our options open so we can explore as many opportunities as we can,” she said. “By having a chief, it limits us.”
Bolte said in the email, “We are in desperate need of an outside director or shared chief from another town that can get things back on track with the department and reeducate them that they work for the taxpayers in Keyport.
“What we have done now is keep the negative cycle of the Band-Aid approach purely at taxpayer expense for years to come.”
Sheridan said that shared-service discussions hinge more on collaboration between municipalities.
“In my experience thus far, any sharedservice endeavor will start off in small increments and build slowly,” he said.
“Cooperation between each town’s Police Benevolent Association and municipal officials will dictate success or failure far more than a lieutenant being promoted to a chief will.”
Although Casaletto’s appointment is effective immediately, he will be sworn in at the next Borough Council meeting on Aug. 2.