Police Chief Search Committee Present: Joseph Pane
January 9, 2006 Jodi Ross
Kimberly Denaro
Eric Schartner
Robert Minardi
Brian Lynch
Cathy Giunta
The Police Chief Search Committee met at 6:30 p.m. in the Private Dining Room of the International Golf Course at 159 Ballville Road. Mr. Steven Unsworth of BadgeQuest was present for this meeting.
Mr. Unsworth provided a summary of the recommended qualities for the next Police Chief in Bolton. These recommended qualities were based on comments received as a result of meetings Mr. Unsworth conducted with various community leaders and employees of the town that included the Town Administrator Jodi Ross, three dispatchers including the union president, three patrol officers including the union president, Lieutenant, Board of Selectmen, Fire Chief, Ambulance Director, Supt. of Schools and the DPW Director.
The Committee also discussed qualities they would like to see in the new Police Chief. Important qualities included leadership, community oriented, elimination of favoritism, role model, fairness, productivity, visibility and accessibility. It was agreed that it was important for the Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator to give clear guidance with key objectives to the new Police Chief.
The committee spent some time talking about the issue of retaining officers in the Town of Bolton which appears to be a major problem and has been costly to the Town of Bolton.
The committee received twelve responses to the questionnaire packets sent out to the eighteen applicants invited to participate in the next phase of the Chief of Police Search. One candidate withdrew from the process and responses were not received from five of the applicants.
The committee discussed their ratings of the twelve responses received and narrowed the list of candidates to seven candidates who will be invited to participate in an interview with the Police Chief Search Committee. The committee requested that Mr. Unsworth contact one of the seven candidates for clarification regarding his expectations related to the police chief salary. The committee delegated the decision of determining whether the candidate will be included in the interview round to Chairman Pane and Town Administrator Ross based on Mr. Unsworth’s findings. Mr. Unsworth provided the committee with his knowledge of the seven candidates.
Town Secretary Linda Day will schedule the candidates for interviews on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 and Saturday, January, 21, 2006. Two interviews will be scheduled for January 18, 2006 and the remaining will be scheduled for Saturday, January 21, 2006. Interviews will be 50 minutes each with 10 minutes between each interview.
Mr. Unsworth will check references after the Police Chief Search Committee has conducted interviews and before the finalists are interviewed by the Board of Selectmen.
Chairman Pane will provide the committee with a list of questions that they will each choose four questions from and return to Mr. Pane. Mr. Pane will prepare a document of questions and designate questions to each committee member.
The evaluation process form will be provided to committee members for the interviews.
ASSESSMENT CENTER
Town Administrator Jodi Ross stated that she contacted various towns regarding the assessment center and the consensus was that the assessment center did not necessarily transform into getting the right person for the job. The feeling was it was more important to spend the time on the interview and reference checking.
The committee agreed to make final decision regarding the assessment center at a later date.
Meeting adjourned.
Police Chief Search Committee minutes taken by Linda Day
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