Update from Mayor Nicholson 6-17-22: Mayor Nicholson responded to our email with the following: “I’m actually away this week but he was not terminated and there’s nothing official on that at this time. I will look into who said this at the meeting so I can reach out to them to correct this.” Mayor Nicholson followed up again with “I do expect the public announcement on the conclusion of the police situation to be announced mid next week.”
Chief Braks had been on Administrative Leave since February after a No-Confidence vote by 40 out of 41 officers in the Gardner Police Department.
Gardner MA Hits Brakes on Chief Braks – no longer employed by City?, apparently we’ll find out next week…
Update: Mayor Nicholson has informed us that Dr. Hemman made a poor word choice. The Mayor stated, “The confusion came that since Chief Braks had a voting appointment on the School Building Committee, that position was not represented since the Chief was placed on Administrative leave.To fill that structural vacancy, I appointed Officer Lawrence, the School Resource Officer, to the position so that the Police Department could have a say in the decisions of the Committee. The not employed by the City was a misnomer and word choice error in reference to the administrative leave. That said, I do expect the public announcement on the conclusion of the police situation to be announced mid next week.”
At a School Building Committee Meeting on June 15, 2022, Steve Hemman stated, “As a matter of public record, Richard Braks is not employed by the City any more, therefore he does not serve on the Building Committee, he’s a non-voting member and the Mayor has appointed John Lawrence to take that spot to be on the building committee, and we have filed that paperwork with MSBA which we are required to do. There’s no action required by this committee, but just to have it in our minutes that that change took place.” Gardner Magazine will provide more information as we receive it. Watch Meeting
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