Canby Herald Online

Police Chief search on course

• By: John Baker  
• Published: 9/9/2009 2:58:38 PM

Should the city delay selecting a police chief while they search for a new city administrator?
That was the question asked during a lengthy discussion by the Canby City Council.

In the end, the answer to that was "no."

Councilor John Henri offered that idea at the outset of the discussion, saying, "We really shouldn't select a chief until we have a city administrator. I think we should postpone the deadline for applications for the police chief and dovetail it in with the city administrator."

Councilor Robert Bitter disagreed.

"We don't actually need to postpone," he said. "We are approaching a year without a permanent police chief and the department desperately needs a permanent chief. My worry is that it will take a long time to get a city administrator. I think it would be poor service from us to postpone."

Bitter pointed out that the city did have an interim city administrator in Amanda Klock. "And I think we can trust her and offer our services to help her in this process. I don't think we're without guidance in this situation. I would like to really not delay this process."

Henri and Bitter exchanged points of view on the process, discussing the pros and cons of delaying or not delaying.

Council President Walt Daniels then offered his take on the situation. "I think it's important we get the police chief in there right away," said Daniels.
 
Councilor Jason Padden agreed, saying "I don't think we can wait any longer. They (the candidates) have submitted their information and are expecting an answer. People come and people go and the new manager comes in and picks up where the other manager left off. If everyone has done their job right, they (city administrator and police chief) should work together just fine."

Padden also expressed a concern that the city administrator's position receive the same type of process that the police chief search is having. He cited plenty of community and staff input as a priority in the process.

In the end, the council decided to stay the course with the police chief search.

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