MDI officials feud over police chief post

MOUNT DESERT – If some residents get their wish, the town soon will have more than a new police chief – it might have a new town manager as well.

First, however, those residents, who are circulating a petition around town, will have to convince selectmen to fire Town Manager Michael MacDonald.

Some people are unhappy that Jason Lovejoy, who has been with the local police department for the past 12 years, seems to have been passed over for the police chief vacancy.

Lovejoy himself is unhappy about it and last Friday turned in his badge to MacDonald and walked away from his role as the department’s acting chief. Lovejoy had been serving as acting chief since former Police Chief John Doyle retired at the end of July.

The acting chief said he thinks he was discriminated against in the selection process and believes his dispute with MacDonald stems from a previous personnel issue.

The day after Lovejoy turned in his badge, residents started collecting signatures on a petition asking selectmen to fire MacDonald, hire Lovejoy as the town’s new chief and disband the town’s police chief search committee.

As of Monday, 18 Mount Desert residents had signed a copy of the petition at McGrath’s store on Main Street in Northeast Harbor.

MacDonald said Monday the petition refers to his position as town manager and to Lovejoy’s interest in the police chief vacancy, but that it does not explain how the two things relate to each other.

“I’d just like to know what I’ve done,” MacDonald said. “Until then, I’m not going to respond to what I don’t know.”

Employees at McGrath’s declined Monday to comment on the issue.Lovejoy, during a break from his part-time job in a restaurant across the street from the Mount Desert Town Office, said he has signed the petition but that the petition was not his idea. He said he has not drafted a resignation letter, nor has he signed anything indicating he is quitting the police force.

Lovejoy says he left the department because MacDonald discriminated against him during the police chief search process. “I’m not there at the moment,” Lovejoy said of his police job. “I told [MacDonald] he’s in control [of the department].”

Lovejoy said he objects to two issues MacDonald brought up during Lovejoy’s formal interview before the town’s police chief selection committee: Lovejoy’s restaurant job and his living situation in Pretty Marsh, where he takes care of another man’s property in exchange for rent.

Lovejoy said these issues are irrelevant to the police chief search and that it was unfair of MacDonald to bring them up. Similar questions were not asked of the other applicants, he said.

“I expected to be treated fairly in front of that board, and I wasn’t,” Lovejoy said. “It was tainted from the beginning.”

MacDonald has told Lovejoy he is not one of the final two candidates for the job, Lovejoy said.

Resident Harry Madeira said Tuesday the petition was his idea, but he declined further comment about the petition or the dispute.

Resident Katherine Graves said Tuesday she hadn’t signed the petition, because she doesn’t have an issue with the town manager. She would, however, like to start a petition requesting that Lovejoy be named police chief.

Graves said she supports appointing Lovejoy as police chief but does not have a position on MacDonald’s future as Mount Desert’s town manager. She said she believes MacDonald and Lovejoy, if Lovejoy is hired as police chief, will be able to work together.

Other attempts Tuesday to contact residents who have signed the petition were unsuccessful.

The dispute stems from a personnel grievance Lovejoy filed with selectman last fall and won, according to Lovejoy.

The police officer objected to a proposal from MacDonald that Lovejoy’s rank be changed from lieutenant to the lower rank of sergeant. “I won that, and he’s held it against me,” Lovejoy said.

Lovejoy said he will return to the department if he is offered the police chief position.

MacDonald, citing confidential personnel issues connected to the police chief search, declined Monday to comment on Lovejoy’s accusations. He said Lovejoy turned in his badge last Friday without explaining why he was doing so.

Kevin Edgecomb, who has been a patrolman with the department, is filling in as acting chief.