After a grueling vetting process that everyone hoped had resulted in a suitable candidate for the City’s police chief, former Mayor Bradley Wantz announced at his last City Council meeting that Jeffrey Partridge has resigned "due to a personal matter".
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. So once again, the City is faced with the task of identifying a suitable candidate to fill the office.
At its first meeting, the new 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.
City Manager Jim Wieprecht said that Major Robert Mitchell was directed to simply keep the Department running on a day-to-day basis. As such he can’t change policy or fill positions such as sergeant, which has been vacant since the last chief resigned in November. Those decisions need to be approved by the Council, McCarron said.
Commissioner Tillman suggested changing this directive and allowing Mitchell to do what he needs to do. Mayor Chris Miller concurred with Tillman’s suggestion, and recommended that Mitchell be given complete control of the Department until a new Chief was found. Miller questioned the Council if they knew anything about policing and what qualified to make police decisions. "Did we want to make the Council the Police Chief?"
Commissioner Judith Fuller pushed back on the idea that Mitchell didn’t have all the authority he needs right now. "He has the authority," she said, "all he needs to do is come before us and brief us and get our consent."
Commissioner Jim McCarron cautioned the Mayor and the Council, given the track record of past chiefs, that the 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 aware of everything that needs to be done before it is done 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 forcefully push back on Miller’s recommendation. Fuller 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."
Wieprecht said he would work closely with Mitchell to prepare a list of items that needed to be brought before the Council as well as promotions within the police department until a permanent Chief is selected.
The Council concluded its debate by reminding Miller that it was his responsibility to bring forth a name for the Council to consider. In a closed door session prior to the regular monthly meeting, Miller did just that by formally recommending Mitchell to be the City’s full time Police Chief.
The Council rejected Miller’s recommendation and instead directed him to put together a plan to seek outside applicants for the position. 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.
