Morristown police chief to fill town admin job

Luneau will keep his current police chief salary and will be paid an extra $500 a week as an interim stipend.

Judi Alberi, the town’s administrative assistant, will get an extra $6 hour during Luneau’s tenure as pay for the extra workload she’ll have to shoulder.

Although Luneau and Dodge have been in their respective positions only a short while — Dodge was appointed in June 2021 and Luneau six months later at the beginning of 2022 — each has worked for the town for significantly longer, both in the police department. Dodge was a Morristown cop for 23 years and Luneau has been with the force since 2007.

Luneau has filled in for Dodge previously when he was on vacation or otherwise out of the office, and Luneau’s predecessor did the same thing for Dodge’s predecessor.

This time is much different, though, since Dodge isn’t just going away for a week or so, but for good.

“It’ll definitely take a couple hours out of my day to be up here,” Luneau said. “But I will still be in town and able to respond to emergencies, which will take precedence.”

Jan Farris said Luneau, the board and others need to protect the police chief from burnout.

“Because if he gets burned out and decides to do ‘Resignation 2.0,’ then the trouble hasn’t even started yet,” Farris said.

“Because it all goes fine for a while, and then all of a sudden, it goes downhill before anybody even knows.”