PLATTSBURGH — Jarrod Trombley is the City of Plattsburgh’s newest police chief.
Trombley’s appointment by Mayor Wendell Hughes Thursday night sailed through in a 5-1 vote with little opposition or discussion from the Common Council, despite them hearing from several residents, both in support and not in support of him as police chief, ahead of the vote.
Councilor Jennifer Tallon (D-Ward 4) was the only dissenting vote.
“I feel the appointment should have come at a later date after, perhaps, maybe a press conference had been called to clear up some of the questions that are hanging over everybody’s heads right now,” Tallon said after the meeting.
“The public, really, they want some answers. I think they deserve it.”
Residents who spoke out against Trombley were especially concerned about his past in the department under former Mayor Chris Rosenquest.
HISTORY
As previously reported by the Press-Republican here tinyurl.com/48ucfse4, Trombley was suspended and placed on administrative leave in September of 2024 by former Mayor Chris Rosenquest for two charges relating to misconduct, incompetence, insubordination and falsifying the numbers of hours worked, according to city documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request.
Disciplinary documents also showed Trombley had 16 open cases assigned to him with an incomplete investigation, the oldest case being a burglary from November of 2013 with the last work done on it in December of 2013, according to case records.
Other cases that had been assigned to Trombley, without having been completed, included five of which were characterized as sex crimes, including cases involving a minor.
Trombley eventually opted to sign a disciplinary settlement agreement with the city before retiring from the department Sept. 20, 2024.
After taking office in January, Mayor Hughes reinstated Trombley as a lieutenant that same month and he has effectively been leading it since then because there was no police chief.
The previous chief, Peter Mitchell, retired suddenly in September of 2024 after less than a year in the position.
“Part of his settlement with the city was he could come back as a lieutenant. He didn’t like his retirement. He wanted to come back,” Hughes said when asked about Trombley’s reinstatement in February.
“He was eligible to come back, and I brought him back.”
In February, the city hired an outside agency to lead an investigation into its police department and last fall’s allegations against Trombley. The agency’s findings have not yet been made available.
OPPOSITION
As suspected, Thursday’s meeting caused some fireworks between the public and council.
Joan Jansen, of Plattsburgh, drew issue with the fact the outside agency’s findings of its investigation have not been made available yet, and still, the vote for police chief was taking place.
“You people are not going to take into account whatever the findings are from this study, which means … you have spent taxpayer money without any consideration for the results. and speaking as a taxpayer that does not make me happy,” Jansen said.
“What I’d like to know was why candidates were considered for the chief of police, which, this is police, that should be an impeccable position, and why you would want to consider a candidate that may not have broken the law, but certainly showed bad judgment from an unethical and moral perspective.”
City resident April Wood, who was the most vocal about her disapproval of Trombley as police chief Thursday, highlighted the cases he was accused of not investigating during his previous tenure as the most troubling.
“The victims in these cases are listed as ‘society,’ OK? Society are the victims,” Wood said.
“It’s telling of how deeply the public trust was harmed.”
After directly mentioning Trombley by name once, Hughes warned Wood not to continue doing so and to “Direct your comments to the council. Personal remarks are out.” During public comment, it was not allowed to address a city employee by name, he said.
Wood was warned two more times before Hughes directed her to leave the podium. When she refused and made accusations about other city employees, including some of the councilors, a city police officer escorted her out of the building while a member of the audience told her to “get out.”
Asked about the incident after, Hughes said “The last thing I ever want to do is have anybody removed from a public meeting, but you have to be respectful in the same token.”
“And I don’t think I was ever disrespectful to anybody here tonight,” the mayor said.
“It’s got to be mutual respect … we’ve had some really heated meetings in this room through the years, and this one, hopefully in a year from now, we go, ‘wow, that was the best decision we ever made.’”
MAYOR RESPONSE
Trombley’s appointment did have plenty of support as well.
Former city Mayor Jack Stewart commended Hughes for quickly solving the police chief problem that has plagued the city over the last several years.
“You can’t run a department the size of that police department, but (have) no chief. You have it. and I gotta give the mayor credit, because he did it, and he stepped forward and bit the bullet,” Stewart said.
“Glad we’re gonna get a chief and we got a good city, let’s keep it (that way).”
Hughes also told the media following Thursday’s meeting that he had about 30 to 40 people reach out to him about his appointments and all of it was “positive.”
“I didn’t have one negative response, personally, last night,” he said.
“A lot of people want to see a chief in the City of Plattsburgh. It’s so important in community policing, and we’ve got a police chief and a captain. So tomorrow is going to be a new day.”
In addition to Trombley’s appointment, Hughes appointed Joel Vassar as captain. Tallon dissented to this appointment as well, and it still passed 5-1.
Now, with one of his biggest priorities as mayor completed just a few months into his term, Hughes said he feels really good, and that he wants Trombley to focus on improving community policing now.
“That’s what it’s about in the City of Plattsburgh, that’s what we need. We need community policing. We have opioid issues … when I go underneath the bridge and I find 250 needles, we have a problem, and we have to address these issues,” he said.
“There’s no fix for it overnight, but it’s stuff we need to be working on.”