OXFORD — Town Manager Michael Chammings reiterated his support of the town’s police chief at Thursday’s selectmen’s meeting, saying a complaint by a former reserve officer was properly investigated.

Chammings previously told the Sun Journal that an investigation found no wrongdoing by Chief Jon Tibbetts of the Oxford Police Department. Chris Knight, a dispatcher with the Oxford County Regional Communications Center in Paris, has said he plans to file a lawsuit to appeal his termination as a reserve officer with the department earlier this month.

Knight previously said he was fired for recording a meeting with Tibbetts about a prior suspension with an audio recorder and for posting on his Facebook page that he thought members of the town government were corrupt. He also accused Tibbetts of various infractions, including creating a hostile workplace and misuse of the Regional Communications Center, and said the town inadequately followed up on his complaints.

According to a partial document presented by Chammings on Thursday, attorney Jonathan M. Goodman was hired by the town in August to conduct an independent investigation into allegations of policy and procedures violations by Tibbetts. The document also states that Chammings would conduct his own review.

Chammings said Friday he was offended by Knight’s claims that he lied about looking into an alleged misuse of the dispatch center by Tibbetts, that the investigation amounted to a defensive action by the town, and that only two to three of Knight’s approximately 25 complaints were investigated. Chammings said six complaints were looked into, including misuse of police telecommunications equipment. The other complaints on the document are redacted because they include other names.

“Did he have a longer list? He did, but on that list were a lot of things like ‘the chief smokes in his cruiser.’ ‘The chief smokes in view of the public,'” Chammings said.

Chammings said he did not feel such charges were serious enough for Goodman to look into. He said Goodman billed the town about $150 for each hour of investigation, which ultimately cost about $3,000. According to the document, Chammings instructed Goodman to investigate charges Chammings “deemed to be relatively serious in nature or, for other reasons, lent themselves to independent investigation rather than Mr. Chammings’ own review.”

Chammings said any complaints against the town are thoroughly investigated, and Goodman’s investigation was part of that process.

“It was not a defensive tactic for the town,” he said. “It was a discovery for the town.”

Jim Miclon, director of the Oxford County RCC, previously said FBI auditors found during a routine 2007 investigation that Tibbetts had run the name of a relative he was seeking to hire part time through the National Criminal Information Center.

Miclon said he was told that the FBI would follow up on the matter, but that he understood neither Tibbetts nor the Police Department would be seriously reprimanded for the error. He also said the department was not put on any sort of probation after the incident.

While Miclon said he did not recall any representative of the town asking him about the matter, Chammings said this was a result of Goodman talking to Miclon instead of a town employee or official. Caldwell Jackson, a county commissioner and former Oxford selectman, said he also looked into the matter on Oct. 6 at the request of Chairman Floyd Thayer of the Board of Selectmen.

“We certainly had that looked into by an unbiased investigator,” Chammings said of the RCC complaint. “For (Knight) to say we did not do that is absolutely false.”

Goodman’s investigation concluded that Knight’s credibility was in question due to the timing and “retaliatory nature” of the complaint.

“To the extent that (the) allegations are true, they involve minor issues that have previously been addressed or require minimal correction by Chief Tibbetts,” Goodman said. “In sum, I find no evidence that the chief intentionally engaged in any serious misconduct.”

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