by KC Myers
PROVINCETOWN — Former Police Chief Jeff Jaran says he will fight his termination last year by the town at an arbitration hearing Oct. 30.
The selectmen fired Jaran, Provincetown’s police chief for about five years, in December after months of controversy related to his alleged angry outburst at The Squealing Pig pub after an N.W.A. rap song containing anti-police lyrics played on the sound system.
Some members of the public complained that Jaran intimidated customers and employees at the pub. Also, the police union accused him of campaigning inside the police station and using his authority to get officers to vote for Selectman Austin Knight in the May election.
The selectmen hired an independent investigator, Frank Rudewicz of Marcum LLP, to look into the union’s complaints as well as the incident at The Squealing Pig.
Rudewicz’s report found that Jaran violated local and state laws when he held staff meetings to discuss the need to support Knight.
Rudewicz also found that Jaran did not behave violently at the Squealing Pig, but patrons were intimidated. Afterward, he “unnecessarily” directed officers to collect names of the people in the bar that night, the report found.
The selectmen voted Dec. 11 to fire Jaran with three years left on his five-year contract. He was paid about $127,000 in 2013, according to the contract.
The night of the termination, Jaran’s attorney, Andrew Gambaccini, said Jaran would dispute it at an arbitration hearing, where he expected “full vindication.”
The arbitration process allows the town and Jaran to each select one arbitrator, while the third is mutually agreed upon by both parties. The hearing is closed to the public.
Neither the town attorney, John Giorgio, nor Gambaccini returned calls for comment.
