Community Corner

Reimondo Accepts Early Retirement Offer

Longtime Chief Matthew Reimondo and Sgt. Garritt Kelly are leaving under an agreement reached with the Town Council.

 

Police Chief Matthew Reimondo and Sgt. Garritt Kelly have accepted a buyout offer from the town, a move that will end their more than 20-year careers here.

The Town Council met in a special session on Thursday and after “significant deliberation and conversations” Kelly and Reimondo accepted the town’s offer of an early retirement package.

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Under the agreement the chief’s and sergeant’s jobs here next week will end and the town will add three years’ worth of time to both of the officers’ taxpayer-provided pensions, according to a release the town issued today.

However, both men will remain in their current jobs, and will be paid on a per diem basis, through Jan. 31, while the town undertakes a search to replace them.

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“Both Chief Reimondo and Sergeant Kelly are wished well in their retirement and thanked for their combined 54 years of excellent service,” the town said in its release today. “The Town will open a national search in coordination with the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association to identify and recruit a talented individual for the position of Chief.  The decision to fill the sergeant’s position will be one of the first responsibilities of the new Police Chief. “

By Jan. 31 the town will hire an interim police chief and will begin working with the Connecticut Police Chief’s Association and will undertake a national search to find a replacement for Reimondo.

Town officials estimate they will save $103,000 annually by the early retirements.

Reimondo was hired in 1985 as a patrol officer and was promoted to sergeant four years later. In 1998 he was appointed chief at the age of 35. He is a graduate of Buffalo State College, the FBI National Academy and the FBI Executive Development Seminar.

His career, the town’s release says, is “full of major achievements and awards” including:

  • Responsible for East Hampton’s first drug assets forfeiture seizure and retention of $11,000 in cash which initiated a new town account in 1990 to fund Police Department operating expenses (previously the money would have gone to the State);
  •  A departmental citation for bravery for entering a burning structure and evacuating multiple families;
  • The Medal of Valor for involvement in a 1997 multi-town high speed pursuit with shots fired in an effort to apprehend an armed robber;
  • The Department Meritorious Award for involvement with DEA meth lab seizures;
  • Founded the East Hampton Explorer Program
  • DARE instructor for over 10 years
  • And received the Chief Michael Green award 2007.

More recently, Reimondo was at the center of a controversy involving efforts by some town officials to remove him as chief.

In 2010 he was abruptly laid off as police chief. In August of that year, Reimondo filed a civil suit against the town and that fall he was overwhelmingly returned to office by referendum his lawsuit was settled the following year. Reimondo had complained that his ouster was politically motivated by then-Town Manager Jeffrey O’Keefe after Reimondo assisted several female employees who complained that O’Keefe sexually harassed them. O’Keefe later left his job here.

Kelly joined the East Hampton police force in 1987 as a patrol officer and shortly after was recognized for his investigatory skills and became one of the department’s detectives.

In 1993, he was promoted to sergeant and the department's primary criminal investigator. By 1998, he was named the senior sergeant. He is a 2005 graduate of the FBI National Academy and has an extensive training record in criminal investigations.

 

 

 

 


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