Sag Harbor Police Chief, Village, at Odds Over Contract

Sag Harbor Police Chief Austin J. McGuire, who joined the village on June 23, 2017, has been quietly working without a contract since June 1, 2021, when his original four-year deal came to an end.

McGuire said that, at that time, then-Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy, who had successfully negotiated a new four-year contract with the village’s Police Benevolent Association, wanted to focus on her reelection bid before sitting down with him.

Mulcahy lost the election to Trustee Jim Larocca.

“I figured I’d let him get through the summer, because he probably had other priorities he wanted to take care of first,” McGuire said.

The police chief said he presented his own offer to the village sometime later in the year, acknowledging that the terms he proposed were on the generous side. “If you want to sell your house for $1 million, you ask for more than that,” he said.

But he added that Larocca seemed to have been “taken aback” by his proposal, and when the mayor made a counter-offer, his proposal, while resulting in a pay hike for McGuire, would have resulted in a reduction in total compensation, which he rejected.

“I’ve been waiting for an offer since last April,” McGuire said. “This is not like splitting atoms. There’s a going rate.”

McGuire’s initial contract paid him an annual salary of $185,194 for the first year, with a raise of 2.5 percent for the second year, and 2.25 percent for each of the remaining years.

The pact also provided him with a slew of benefits, including 22 sick days a year that, if unused, would accumulate and be paid out at half pay upon his retirement.

The contract included 28 days of vacation time annually, 13 holidays, four personal days, and three to 11 days for bereavement, with the longer period granted if there was a death in his immediate family.

The contract includes fully paid health insurance coverage that would be covered at 75 percent after his retirement, as well as a pension, and a variety of miscellaneous benefits, from a bonus paid for working night shifts and a clothing and dry cleaning allowance.

He is continuing to work under the terms of that contract.

Larocca, citing the confidentiality of negotiations, said he could not get into details, but he said McGuire’s claim that he had been waiting for the village to make an offer since April was not accurate. He said the village had responded to McGuire’s initial offer in April and that it was McGuire who did not respond in a timely manner, waiting until October to do so.

Trustee Tom Gardella, who serves as the liaison to the police department, said the board had reached a consensus on what it wanted to offer McGuire and hoped to be able to extend an updated offer soon.

“We want to keep A.J.,” he said.

That has become a concern as Southampton Village is also looking for a new chief following the decision of Anthony Carter, the deputy police commissioner for the Suffolk County Police Department, to turn down that village’s job offer.

One board member, who requested anonymity, said his colleagues were concerned they could lose McGuire to Southampton Village, noting that eligible chief candidates “are in short supply.”

For his part, McGuire said he believed he had proven himself as a capable leader for the village force. In his five and a half years as the department’s chief, he said helped save the village about $500,000 in payroll by encouraging older officers to retire and replacing them with younger officers; had diversified the department by hiring the village’s first Latino officer, two female officers, and a Black part-time officer; and had led a number of other initiatives such the New York State-mandated police reform community discussions and regular policy updates.