More than half of the staff of the Rochester Police Accountability Board have signed a letter calling for the firing of the acting manager, Duwaine Bascoe.
The letter, dated Tuesday, followed a tumultuous week for the fledgling city agency in which two high-ranking officers lost their jobs.
Mike Higgins, the agency’s head of policy and oversight, was abruptly suspended from his position on Oct. 5. His employment was subsequently terminated, according to staffing documents obtained by CITY through a Freedom of Information Law request. Higgins had been employed by the PAB since May.
Then, on Oct. 7, Deputy Chief of Community Engagement Mozart Guerrier, who also joined the board in May, was fired as well.
The letter urging the firing of Bascoe was signed by 18 members of the agency — roughly three-fifths of the staff — and was submitted to the nine-person board. The document reads that the signing employees sought to “voice serious concerns about the management of the agency.”
The letter also requested that Associate Counsel Anthony Durwin fill Bascoe’s role and that agency employees have a say in future decisions related to the executive director position. The staff asked that anyone fired or who had resigned under Bascoe’s leadership be offered reinstatement.
In a previous letter to the board, dated Oct. 6, employees alleged that Bascoe had fostered a hostile work environment and noted that staff had intentions to form a labor union.
“Since Deputy Chief of Investigation Duwaine Bascoe was named acting manager of the PAB, he has stoked and enabled an atmosphere of harassment, intimidation, retaliation, and confusion,” that letter read.
Rochester voters overwhelmingly supported the creation of the Police Accountability Board in a 2019 referendum. The agency got off to a sluggish start before being bolstered by the allotment of a $5 million annual budget.
Since then, however, the agency has been beset by internal turmoil.
The executive director, Conor Dwyer Reynolds, was suspended in May, and the board chair, Shani Wilson, subsequently stepped down amid allegations of sexual harassment from Reynolds. In the ensuing months, eight employees have left, either because they were fired or resigned.
Wilson was later replaced by labor organizer Larry Knox.
An investigation initiated by City Council and being carried out by attorney Taren Greenidge is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.
The Oct. 11 letter alleges that employees who have left were fired “unjustly” or “subjected to unreasonable working conditions.”
Meanwhile, the City Council imposed a hiring freeze on the Police Accountability Board after the agency failed to reach any of its performance goals for the last fiscal year. In June, Council President Miguel Melendez split the board’s $5 million budget in half, giving the agency six months to show progress before being granted the other half.
In the Oct. 11 letter, the employees argue that getting rid of Bascoe is crucial to the board meeting its objectives.
“The undersigned remain committed to the mission of the PAB and will continue to discharge the important duties entrusted to us,” the letter reads.
Gino Fanelli is a CITY staff writer.
