West Stockbridge — Following Police Chief Marc Portieri’s March 3 retirement announcement, the town’s Select Board has a plan to find his replacement.
Portieri’s last day will be July 7.
According to Town Administrator Marie Ryan at the March 31 West Stockbridge Select Board meeting, Town Moderator Joe Roy Jr. will appoint a committee to review position applications.
Caitlin Graham, Mary Stodden, Ryan Beattie, Great Barrington Police Chief Paul Storti, and retired Great Barrington Police Chief William “Bill” Walsh Jr. have been suggested as potential Screening Committee members. As of April 1, Ryan confirmed acceptances by Graham, Stodden, and Storti.
Ryan said she will post advertisements for the job locally and, as Select Board Chair Andrew Potter suggested, outside of the area as well “just in case somebody wants a better lifestyle.”
The committee will review submittals and whittle those down to three or four applicants for the Select Board to consider and interview before the group makes a hiring decision. Three applicants have already sent in resumes, Ryan said, but she will advise those applicants of the job posting so they can add reference letters and other details to their packets. “They’ve already been on it as soon as Marc [Portieri] made his declaration,” she said of the resumes submitted.
The application deadline is anticipated to be mid-May, with interviews to begin in June.
With an almost 30-year career in law enforcement, Portieri headed up the West Stockbridge Police Department for the past eight and a half years after serving with the Becket Police Department for two decades.
