WILTON — The Wilton Board of Selectpersons elected not a make a motion on Tuesday, Feb. 6, to allow Wilton Chief of Police Ethan Kyes to utilize $36,666 in undesignated funds to buy out the contract for a blue pin police officer. The new officer will fill in Wilton’s current vacant position on the roster.

Kyes approached the Select Board with a request to utilize $36,666 of undesignated funds to buy out the contract for a blue pin police officer, whose identity was not disclosed. The undesignated funds would reimburse the agency, which Kyes later confirmed to be the Livermore Falls Police Department, for the officer’s training in exchange for the officer coming to Wilton.

According to Kyes, the officer graduated from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy [MCJA] in December of 2022 and has a five year buyout period. The department has extended at conditional offer and is awaiting the officer’s response.

“So, we have to pay prorated rates on a buyout of an individual that’s already a blue pin [and] that’s already trained,” Vice-Chair Mike Wells stated. “It advantageous for us to pay that money because we’ve got somebody trained and ready to hit street run, so to speak.”

Kyes confirmed Wells’ statement, and added the most recently hired officer will be spending the next 12 to 14 weeks on training, at the cost of $18,000 from the department’s budget.

A blue pin is defined as a police officer trained and certified by the MCJA who has successfully completed all required training and attained the required certifications needed to work as a full-time officer in Maine, or has been trained and certified as a full-time police officer in another state and that training has been reviewed by the MCJA and deemed “substantially similar” to Maine’s training/certification standards and that officer has been granted a training waiver and passed a Maine police officer certification exam.

Blue pins, along with Green pins, can come with hiring incentives and bonus for interested applicants.

Chairperson Tiffany Maiuri and Selectperson Keith Swett were unable to attend the meeting, leaving the decision to Wells, Phil Hilton and David Leavitt. All three selectpersons choose not to make a motion with Leavitt stating that he did not want to set a precedent for how undesignated funds should be utilized.

“I think it’s bad precedent to set up that undesignated fund as pot of gold we can just rob from when we want something else,” Leavitt stated, encouraging the department to go through the budget cycle and see how much is left at the end of the fiscal year.

Town Manager Maria Greeley stated they looked through the department’s budget and did not find sufficient funds for the buy out.

“We went to the police department’s budget and there is no room to make this type of a purchase out of his specific budget,” Greeley stated. “We would be over budget.”

“I would be more inclined to address at the end of the fiscal year budget deficiencies,” Leavitt stated. “Not at this time.”

Leavitt clarified his statement by saying he, along with the present Select Board, gave their blessing for the purchase using funds from the police department’s budget and have Kyes monitor his spending until the end of the fiscal year in June.

“You can write the check today, the town will cover the check,” Leavitt stated. “But when we close the books at the end of June, we’ve done it in the past, we ran over in a department, so then we cover it.

“It may end up being your undesignated funds,” he continued, “because we’ve been authorized by the taxpayers up to $50,000 for emergencies that arise. You don’t need to do it today. Maybe at the end of June, there is $20,000 left in the police department budget. Now you only need to take [$16,000] out of our emergency fund, not [$36,000].”

Kyes agreed with the Select Board’s decision and stated he would monitor the department’s spending and look into any additional funds to offset the buyout cost.

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