Working with leadership consulting firm Developmental Associates LLC, city of Statesboro staff members received 45 applicants for police chief this time around and have pared the list to about a third of that number.

Two consultants from Developmental Associates met with City Manager Randy Wetmore and other staff members in Statesboro Jan. 3.

“They did, and we’re down to somewhere around 15 to 17 applicants who made the list that we’ll be looking at more closely,” Wetmore said later last week.

Of the 45 applicants, 17 are from Georgia, while the rest hail from 19 different states, said city Human Resources Director Jeff Grant. The chosen applicant would head the Statesboro Police Department, which if fully staffed would have 74 sworn officers serving a city with about 31,000 residents.

The search consultants are slated to visit again Jan. 19, when Wetmore hopes to shorten the list to no more than six semifinalists.

“We’re looking at their backgrounds, we’re looking at their résumés, we’re looking at their work experience, the different positions that they’ve held throughout their careers, just kind of the overall profile of each of the candidates,” he said.

Assessment centers

Developmental Associates is slated to conduct “assessment centers” for the six or so semifinalists Feb. 9 and 10. They will be asked to respond to various scenarios, such as a simulated public emergency or a role-playing press conference. Scoring panels, which officials have said will include city staff, some council members and local community members as well as area law enforcement chiefs, will evaluate these.

Although some Statesboro citizens will meet candidates and take part in the scoring, the assessment centers will not be open to the public, Wetmore said.

As a department head, the police chief is hired by the city manager, and not directly by the council and mayor. But council members will be involved throughout the process, Wetmore said.

“This is one of the bigger decisions that we as an organization will make, and it seems appropriate that the elected officials would also have some input,” he said.

He indicated that no more than two council members will be present at any one time.

“It’s throughout the entire process so that there’s never a quorum at any of these,” Wetmore said. “It’s just to give all of them an opportunity to have some knowledge and input on who we’re looking to hire.”

City Council can hold closed sessions on hiring decisions but, under the Georgia Open Meetings Act, must first convene an announced public meeting and then vote to go into closed session. When an elected board names an agency head, such as when the council hired Wetmore last year, the law requires making information public on “as many as three” finalists at least 14 days before a final vote.

Hire-by-March goal

When a department head can be hired by a manager without a council vote, finalists’ information usually isn’t released. But Statesboro officials have said they are using a more public process in the police chief selection because of how police interact with citizens.  Many other cities introduce finalists for police chief to the public.

Wetmore said he intends to publish finalists’ names before announcing a hire, but isn’t sure how many. He mentioned two, three or four as possibilities.

At this point he doesn’t have a firm timeline for hiring, but he does have a goal.

“I think our outside goal is to be able to make an offer to someone in late February, early March,” Wetmore said. “We really do want to get someone on board as quick as we can, but we want to be pretty deliberate in our selection.”

Second time around

The previous search, by the city’s human resources office with input from the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police in 2016, drew 21 applicants. City officials announced three finalists at the end of July and introduced them to the public in a meet-and-greet Aug. 9.

But before the reception, news organizations and the public raised questions about one finalist’s retirement as chief of a police department in South Carolina while a lawsuit and investigations were pending into actions of former officers. Statesboro officials then continued background checks on the finalists through a private investigations agency.

This occurred during the transition from Deputy City Manager Robert Cheshire’s 26-month service as interim city manager to Wetmore’s official arrival on the job Sept. 1 after he was hired in July.

One of Wetmore’s first actions in September was to announce that the city would launch a new search, with all former applicants eligible to reapply. City Council in July heard presentations from search firms and contracted Developmental Associates, based in Durham, North Carolina, for fees not to exceed $30,000. Developmental Associates actually projected a cost of $23,000, while the other firm, Waters & Company, asked for about $1,500 more.

The SPD has been without a permanent head since former Public Safety Director Wendell Turner’s departure in October 2015 for a captaincy with the Canton Police Department. Turner had been administrator over Statesboro’s police and fire departments since 2010. But after his departure, City Council abolished the public safety director title and re-established the position of police chief.

Deputy Chief Robert W. “Rob” Bryan continues as interim chief. He was initially an applicant during the first search, but withdrew from consideration before finalists were announced.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.