Ellsworth’s city council voted 6-0 Monday night to fire the city’s police chief, Glenn Moshier.
Moshier had been on paid administrative leave as police chief since late December. The reason for his being placed on leave as chief, and then for his firing on Monday, have not been disclosed.
Since early 2021, Moshier also has been serving as Ellsworth’s city manager, but he was placed on paid leave from that job after the council met in executive session last week. The reason for that separate decision also has not been released, but it is believed to mirror the decision surrounding the police chief position.
City officials had been criticized for splitting Moshier between two jobs — one of which normally supervises the other — even though in late 2020 and early 2021, the council had difficulty finding a new city manager to replace David Cole, who retired in August 2020. Critics of the arrangement with Moshier said that the two positions should each be considered a full-time job and that having one person fill both can raise questions about how complaints about the chief should be handled.
An example of this is when Moshier was involved in an accident while driving a police cruiser in Ellsworth in October 2022. Members of the council say they did not learn about the accident — which did not result in injuries but did require $8,600 in repairs for the cruiser — until it was reported in local newspapers.
Since Moshier’s dual appointment in the two positions in 2021, the entire membership of the seven-seat City Council has changed. Councilor Tammy Mote, whose husband works for the city’s police department, was not at Monday’s meeting.
Moshier had been planning to leave the city manager post since last summer. A new city manager, Charles Pearce of Castine, is expected to start in the job on April 1, but his contract has to be approved by the council before he begins.
Pearce’s contract as city manager is expected to be signed when the council meets for its regular monthly meeting on Monday, March 18.
City Planner Matthew Williams is serving as interim city manager until Pearce starts.
The council also voted 6-0 on Monday to appoint Deputy Chief Troy Bires as interim chief of the police department. Bires, who has worked as an Ellsworth police officer for decades, has been running the department without supervision by Moshier since Moshier was placed on leave from that job in December.
Moshier first started working for the city as a patrol officer in 2004 and rose through the ranks to become chief in 2017, after the abrupt resignation of previous chief Harold Bickmore.