Ruling Released for Vilchock v. Nottingham Board of Selectmen

Court rules in favor of the board.

In a 13-page decision, Rockingham Superior Court Judge Lisa M. English ruled that the Nottingham Board of Selectmen had acted rightly in its decision to fire Jaye Vilchock from his role as Nottingham’s Fire Chief. Vilchock brought the case to court, claiming that the board had decided wrongly and that the process the board used in making its decision was unfair. In New Hampshire, Fire Chiefs and Police Chiefs have a statutory right to have their firings reviewed and potentially overturned by a court. 

The conclusion of the ruling was:

The Court finds that the plaintiff ‘lost the confidence … of those who served under him’ … and his ‘course of conduct in this entire matter rendered him unfit for the position’ of NFRD Chief…. This compels a finding of substantial cause for his dismissal.

I observed the three days of testimony. I also concluded, “I think the judge will decide in the town’s favor, on the grounds that Vilchock had lost the respect and confidence of his staff.”

Most of the document details the various grounds the board gave for its decision and why the judge found merit in them. About these, the judge commented:

While each of the above instances of conduct in isolation may not have amounted to sufficient cause, Court finds that, taken together, they support the Board’s decision. The Court acknowledges that many of these issues arose as the result of the advent of full-time NFRD staff, where the department had historically been composed of volunteer or on-call employees. Multiple witnesses testified that this transition was generally difficult. 

Vilchock’s attorney had argued that the process the board used for firing the Chief was so poorly conducted and so biased against the Chief that the court should overturn the board’s decision on the basis of the injustice of the process. Nowhere in the judge’s ruling was this argument addressed.

The Town Attorney had argued that because the Board of Selectmen did not formally re-appoint the Chief in early 2023, the Chief’s legal status was that of a holdover appointee. As holdover appointees do not have the legal right to contest their terminations, the judge should dismiss Vilchock’s case. The judge rejected the Town Attorney’s argument, saying:

…it is undisputed that the Board dismissed the plaintiff from his position as Chief for cause. By all accounts, the Board followed the procedure listed under RSA 154:5 and cited to such in its termination letter. Multiple witnesses testified that the plaintiff’s holdover status did not factor into the board’s decision to terminate him, and that he was undisputedly terminated for cause.

Photo byDoug Bates