The Town of Pine Ridge could soon find itself without a police department – again.

Its only full-time employee turned in his 2-week notice at the town council meeting last week.

Lt. Vincent Silano had been serving as the interim chief.

He publicly cited the mayor’s meddling in the department’s daily operations as one of the reasons he resigned.

According to a police consultant, unless Pine Ridge appoints an interim chief quickly, they will cease to have a police department once again.

Silano is not the first police chief to accuse the mayor of micromanaging the department.

In the 3 years since Robert Wells was elected mayor and immediately appointed himself police commissioner, the town has lost at least 5 interim or full-time police chiefs.

Several former employees have filed lawsuits against the town alleging a hostile work environment or unfair practices.

Most of them blamed the mayor’s constant meddling in police department operations.

Several have accused the mayor of crossing a legal line by accessing areas where sensitive evidence and records are stored. Although the mayor has denied this, several former chiefs have confirmed it happened.

One said in a phone interview that if Wells said he didn’t have access to the evidence room that it was “a lie.”

“I would come to work and find the door open to the evidence room and ask what was going on,” he said

“He would tell me they had been in there doing maintenance or give some other excuse as to why our evidence area was unsecured.

“This is illegal and jeopardizes every case that has evidence for its prosecution stored in that room.”

That former chief went on to say that Mayor Wells had keys to everything at the town hall and the police department.

“He had keys to my office and access to everything. I would come to work, and our unmarked car would be missing.

“When I asked where it was, I was told it was being used by the mayor or the town clerk to run errands.

“It was hard for me to understand how it was okay for the police chief not to know where all of the department’s assets were at any given time. That vehicle was equipped with the full police package including lights, siren and radar.

“I’d like to believe that they were just running errands, but how do you really know what was going on?”

Lt. Silano said that a major factor in his decision stems from a memo dated Sept. 22, 2020, concerning his work and patrol schedule. That memo was penned by Mayor Robert Wells in his capacity as Pine Ridge’s police commissioner.

In it, Wells dictated a rigid work schedule that Silano says doesn’t take into account the needs of all the citizens of the town.