COURTESY OF THE BREWSTER POLICE DEPARTMENT
Brewster Police Chief Richard J. Koch Jr.
By JEFF BLANCHARD
This is what they call dipping your toes in political waters. For about 24 hours last month, Brewster Police Chief Richard J. Koch, Jr., was resigning his job to run for selectmen, but upon further review, he decided to delay the process by a year.
“Those have been shredded,” Chief Koch said of his nomination papers, which were available for residents’ signatures at local convenience stores for a day, and then disappeared.
For the Town Election on May 19, Brewster’s five-member board of selectmen will have two incumbents whose terms are expiring, Peter Norton and James Foley. Both have returned papers for reelection and there are no challengers.
Of his decision to delay his possible selectmen’s candidacy for a year, Chief Koch explained that a department rule prevents simultaneous collection of two public salaries, and so even though the selectmen collect only $1,500 each per year, “I didn’t want to be a hypocrite and break the rule.”
The salary he’s keeping is just about 100 times the selectman’s stipend. “It wasn’t just that. There were too many landmines, too many downsides to doing it now,” he said.
So next year it is. Koch’s resignation is tentatively slated for February, 2016, although his contract runs until 2017 and his exact departure is not yet set.
He said he told selectmen when he took the job that he’d give them eight to 10 years, and next February will mark his 10th year as chief, and his 28th year with the Brewster Police Department.
“I need to give them six months notice. I’ll be turning 60 next month, and I’m just maxed out,” Chief Koch said.
Chief Koch said his successor is likely to be Brewster Police Captain Health Eldredge, who has been with Brewster for a dozen years after beginning his career in Harwich.
While Chief Koch said it’s time to do something else with his life while he’s still relatively young and healthy, as a self-described “crazed, Type A personality,” he knows he wants to be involved in local governance.
Koch has experience with policy-setting bodies. Before coming to Cape Cod in 1988, he served as a city councilor in Quincy where he was also a police officer. He graduated from Northeastern with a degree in criminal justice. He also served on the Nauset School Committee about 15 years ago.
A Brewster family man with grown children, Koch used to enjoy an occasional game of pick-up basketball, “back in the good old days when I could get up and down the court.”
He remains a regular presence in local (read: short) road races such as the Brew Run, and looks forward to running again next spring, for the Brewster Board of Selectmen.
Jeff Blanchard is a resident of Brewster and a reporter on Cape Cod since 1987.
