October 5th came and went. October 5th was the deadline for applications for Police Chief. 25 individuals expressed interest in the position. 17 filed both a resume and the City’s application form. It reminds me of the birthday boy sitting in the horse barn sifting straw saying “there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!” In the list of 17 there is a new Police Chief. I do not know his/her name yet but I am confident the result will be positive.
The group included 8 from Kansas, Colorado (2), Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania (2). Some of the out of state candidates have worked in Kansas before. The qualifications are impressive.
The next step in the selection process is to review the resumes and applications in detail and develop a “short list.” For this step, I asked several people to help me. I have two police chiefs and two from the community reviewing the documents. I found the last time I selected a chief when I was employed in Baldwin City, having a law enforcement executive at the table was priceless. Being able to get a community perspective is just as valuable.
Once the “short list” is developed, we will be conducting interviews here in Concordia. I have tentatively set October 21st or October 24th for the interviews. Getting all the schedules coordinated will be the final factor there.
Following the interview will be the selection and negotiation phase. I am hoping to be finished by the end of the month. As usual, there will probably be something to change the schedule. The key point is to find an exceptional individual that is the perfect fit for Concordia. I am confident in the outcome.
In the last posting C. Morrison wrote “Larry, what do you mean we have places we do not want to acknowledge? I would think the city police chief would only be concerned with places that are a source of criminal activity. Of Course, the Chief of Police is really interested in the entire community. However, there are places that we are not proud to take visitors but I did anyway. A chief needs to see the good, the bad, and the ugly. The point was being made by my back seat driver that I shouldn’t be showing this part of the town as a means of impressing the spouse. A new Chief has to see all of it (and we didn’t show all of it due to the lack of time).
Over the weekend, I will be making a presentation to the League of Kansas Municipalities about Blogs. If you have any impressions, add them to the comments area for other Kansas community leaders to see.
