Town Council schedules Executive Session on Monday
Please click HERE to read about the Town Council's choice for the new Charlestown Police Chief.
UPDATE: On Monday, August 27 at 5:30, the Charlestown Town Council will meet in Executive Session. The only item on the agenda is "Discussion of Finalist Candidates and Potential Selection of Police Chief."
After that, they may take a vote to hire a new town chief.
Angela Algier
reports in the Westerly Sun that the search committee to find a replacement for retired Charlestown Police Chief Jack Shippee has now focused on five
candidates.
Two are in-house, CPD’s two top officers, Acting Chief Michael Paliotta
and Lt. Patrick McMahon, who also serves as chief of the Charlestown Ambulance
and Rescue Service.
The three outside candidates are South Kingstown Police Capt. Jeffrey Allen, veteran State Trooper Richard Altimari
and Middletown’s deputy chief Maj. Terry W. Hazel.
My sources say that both of our in-house
candidates come with their own constituencies within the force and that a
choice of one over the other could cause some bad feelings among the rival’s
supporters. This has happened before, as in the case where Jack Shippee and
Patrick McMahon competed for the Chief’s job last time.
According to the Sun article, when asked to
comment, Town Council President Tom Gentz e-mailed to say “I cannot identify
any of the candidates due to confidentiality concerns, but the process is rock
solid. The good news is that the process is moving along according to plan.”
However, Algier wrote, “When
the process began in May, Gentz said he expected the process to take between
six weeks and two months.”
We’re now at the three month
mark. While I am not advocating the search team do their work in haste –
filling the Police Chief position is something you really don’t want to mess up
– Gentz once again made a promise he could not keep. His claim that “the process
is moving along according to plan” is belied by the calendar. Can he, for once,
admit to a mistake?
The search committee will
need to further whittle down the list. Plus the candidates will have to be
thoroughly vetted, although that may be a pretty simple process given that all
five are long-serving and seasoned officers serving with local area police
forces.
The final pick to emerge
will have to be approved by the Town Council which only has 74 days left in its
term.