Taxpayers left in the dark

By Michael Donoghue, Vermont News First

RICHMOND — The town of Richmond announced Monday night that it will not be going forward with the appointment of Anthony Cambridge as the new police chief.

Town Manager Josh Arneson had announced in January that he had picked Cambridge, the Hinesburg police chief, to be the new fulltime leader of the Richmond department.

Cambridge, who lives in Richmond, has been serving as police chief for both towns for more than a year. He said he wanted to focus his career in Richmond.

The town of Richmond initially told Cambridge to report on Feb. 18 and then bumped it to Feb. 24.

His third report date was supposed to be tomorrow on Town Meeting Day, but after a half hour closed door meeting Monday evening with the Selectboard, Arneson announced the town was headed in a different direction.

“I have an update regarding the police chief position,” Arneson said as he and the board re-entered the public meeting room.

“The update is that we will not be going forward with Anthony Cambridge’s employment with the town,” he said reading from a script.

“I’m not going to comment on any details based on it being a personnel matter,” the manager said.

The five selectboard sat in silence and offered no comment to the taxpayers.

“Thank you, Josh,” Chair David Sander said.

Arneson and the Selectboard gave no indication how much the town of Richmond would need to pay Cambridge for breaking the two-page signed contract.

Attempts to reach Cambridge and his lawyer, Pietro Lynn, after the meeting were unsuccessful. Neither responded to phone and text messages.

The signed contract called for Richmond to pay Cambridge as chief $99,958 a year and added a $3,000 bonus because he lived in town. He also got the standard benefits for health insurance, sick days, vacation and holidays.

Richmond also agreed to provide Cambridge a take-home police cruiser with related costs.

Cambridge told Vermont News First last week that the delays in starting his new job were all due to the town of Richmond. He did not elaborate, but the chief said he has been ready to start work since January.

Cambridge said he knew of no local, state or federal investigation into him that would delay his start.

“I passed a 2-month long background check in connection with my application for the job in Richmond. My personnel file does not contain any documents showing concerns …. No charges were ever brought against me,” he said.

Arneson gave no explanation for the delays when asked.

Richmond has only one officer and he reports to Hinesburg’s Interim Police Chief Frank Bryan, one of three officers left in that town.

The move by Arneson also means Richmond will be among five communities in Chittenden County seeking a permanent police chief. Richmond joins Hinesburg, South Burlington, Burlington and Milton.

Vermont News First also noted last week that Cambridge had been reported by Front Porch Forum in May 2023 to the town managers in both Hinesburg and Richmond for unusual activity on the email system.

In its complaint to Hinesburg and Richmond, Front Porch Forum had flagged 13 questionable accounts, including at least eight that had emails or addresses used by Anthony Cambridge or his wife, Amy.

Michael Wood-Lewis of FPF said multiple accounts had been created by a “shared IP address, device identity and browser cookie data.”

The FPF complaint said several of the accounts submitted postings weighing in on local political issues in Hinesburg.

“The accounts were particularly vocal around policing and racial equity issues,” Wood-Lewis said.

He said some messages were supportive of the Hinesburg Police chief “on heated local issues.”

It was unclear how many actual residents may have seen the messages on FPF because there is no way to accurately track users on the system. One person can have multiple accounts and some accounts remain in effect after people have died or moved out of town.

Front Porch Forum has been plagued with false accounts in some towns and had to shut them down.

The news story, which was printed in the Citizen newspaper in Hinesburg and Charlotte, also reported Cambridge thought he had been a victim of a “smear campaign” in Hinesburg.

He said he thought he was a “highly effective Chief of Police.”

Hinesburg Town Manager Todd Odit said last week he did receive word from at least two people that were concerned that Cambridge had shredded some papers before he finished his job.

Cambridge told Vermont News First that he did shred some that were from his desk as he was leaving Hinesburg.

“I shredded the documents on the department shredder in the middle of the common room with other officers present. I discussed the kinds of documents that I was shredding with the officers. I shredded the documents because they contained personal information about members of our community,” he said in his email.

It was unknown if the shredding was in compliance with Vermont’s Public Records Law, which has strict retention provisions.