The search for the City’s police chief has officially begun again and as of the July 5th City Council meeting there have been two applications.
In their June meeting, the Council directed Mayor Miller to put together a plan to seek outside applicants for the position after declining his promotion of current acting Police Chief Mitchell to Police Chief.
The process previously utilized resulted in fifteen resumes being sent to the City, which included several police chiefs from surrounding communities, of which six were interviewed by representatives from the City Government.
Mayor Chris Miller came to the July meeting with a new plan for hiring the police chief that included questionnaires, scenario-based situations, background and reference checks as well as a final interview. The goal is to weed out unqualified applicants and Mayor Miller is hoping for four excellent candidates at the final interview. Depending on how many applications are received, the process is likely to take a few months.
The last suitable candidate, Jeffrey Partridge, was sworn in at the April 10th council meeting after a 3-month vetting process and unanimous approval by the last City Council just prior to the election in May. However, Partridge resigned almost immediately "due to a personal matter."
At its June meeting, the new City Council began deliberations on its options to select a permanent Chief, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the current acting Chief. Unfortunately the deliberations quickly degenerated into a debate between the Mayor and senior members of the Council on the roles and responsibilities of the Council in overseeing the police department.
Commissioner James McCarron cautioned the Mayor and the Council, given the track record of past chiefs, that the City Council not delegate full responsibility to Mitchell, saying, "I think we put ourselves in jeopardy if we give the powers of Chief to an acting Chief." The Council needs to be advised of the needs of the police department before action is taken so they can weigh in if necessary. McCarron said that the "Council needed to proceed with extreme caution and make sure the new Chief of Police is the right one for the Town."
Commissioner Fuller concurred with McCarron and said that we need to know what Mitchell is doing because, "if he fails, it will come back on us ... We don’t want to be police officers, we just need to make sure everything is operating properly, and we don’t end up like we have in the past with things going on at the police department we don’t know about."
