Ronan police chief selection faces criticism
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RONAN – The forward direction of the selection process for Ronan police chief was muddied last week as allegations of favoritism and possibly illegal questions on the application were thrown out by city council members, city staff, and applicants for the job.
The council decided to advertise the closing date for applications as Aug. 12, and scheduled a city council meeting on Aug. 13 to sort through the applicants.
“I feel like we took two steps forward and four steps back,” City Councilmember Cal Hardy said of the Aug. 4 meeting, where the city’s staff, council members and legal counsel bickered over the fairness, clarity, transparency, and legality of the hiring process.
Mayor Kim Aipperspach has been serving as interim chief of police since late April, when John Mitchell was demoted from the position after two months on the job.
After Mitchell’s demotion the city council immediately tried to select police chief candidates from a pool of people who had applied for a regular officer’s position. Criticism from police commissioners about the legality of the selection process triggered the city to re-advertise in June and revamp the hiring process.
A month’s time generated seven applications, all of which were deemed incomplete except two. One candidate dropped out because the $19 per hour position did not pay enough. In late July the council debated whether or not to accept late applications because the advertisement included an “until position filled” caveat. The council voted to add one late application to the list of finalists.
But how to handle the rejected applicants was unclear. The council told City Clerk Kaylene Melton that people with incomplete application packets could resubmit, but she was not told to contact people and let them know why their application was complete.
On Aug. 4, the council reversed its decision and said it would run background checks on all applicants, and give those people with incomplete packets a chance to resubmit.
Kaylene Melton was frustrated with the ambiguous directions. She said she was also concerned that one applicant may have received special treatment in the selection process.
Kaylene Melton said the applicant’s application ended up on the doorsteps of some, but not all members of the city council and police commission. It was never submitted through the proper channels to the city clerk, she said. Then, someone let the applicant know his application wasn’t complete, and the applicant was allowed to fix his application while none of the other eliminated applicants were allowed the same opportunity.
“We have someone helping this guy finish his application,” she said.
Officer Tim Case said he was the one who organized and sent the applications to council members after the application arrived at the police department.
“I’m not advocating for him,” Case said. “This guy is qualified. When we went through the first round I let the mayor know he was qualified.”
This drew the ire of Councilwoman Marlene Melton, who did not receive a packet.
“You could have looked in the phone book,” Marlene Melton said. “My address is just as plain as day in the phone book.”
The applicant sent Kaylene Melton a scathing email, complete with a four-page list of things he believes is illegal in the city’s application process.
Attorney Kathleen O’Rourke Mullins did not offer guidance on whether or not she thought the applicant in question received special treatment or if the application process is legal, but she did say that she thought the council was overthinking and overcomplicating the hiring.
“The only goal here is to be as fair as possible to find the most qualified person as possible,” O’Rourke Mullins said.
