I was surprised this week when I read an article posted on The Chronicle Facebook page that detailed the announcement of the new chief of the Centralia Police Department.
Now, let me be clear: I don’t have any qualms with the new chief. My surprise here was based rather in what felt like a lack of process and citizen involvement in the selection process.
So, out of curiosity, I wanted to learn more about the process of hiring a police chief — was the city council involved in the decision? How did it all come about? Those questions led to an exchange via email with City of Centralia City Manager, Rob Hill, that I really appreciated and felt like illuminated the whole process and logic behind it a little more — and provided some additional really interesting info that I thought Centralia citizens would also appreciate.
In my initial email to the city, I noted: “Traditionally, the hiring of a new police chief is usually one of the few times that the community really gets to engage with a public hiring process and provide meaningful feedback — typically, residents get some chance to sort of evaluate final candidates and, like I said, be a part of the process. Even locally, that’s been pretty commonplace, even when internal candidates ended up being ultimately selected.”
I continued: “And, just given that we’re in the middle of one of the largest national conversations surrounding law enforcement of the last 20+ years, I’m just surprised at the decision and curious to know what factors led to the decision. … If I’m wearing my citizen hat, I just think I’m feeling a little removed from what is typically a really public process.”
City Manager Rob Hill’s response via email:
“I certainly appreciate your inquiry, as Police Chief is one of the most important and visible positions in the community. No one is more concerned than I in selecting the right person, as I will ultimately be held accountable for their performance. With that said, the issue at hand concerns process. I have been at or near the top of the management ladder for 35 years now. One thing that I have learned beyond any doubt, is that nurturing and promoting from within the organization works. When done correctly, individuals are groomed over time to step in for their departing boss and succeed. They get to see if they really want the responsibility, and I get to see if they are truly up for it. It is a common misconception that public employees are lined up hoping to get into management. I have found the exact opposite to be true. The vast majority do not want to leave the relative safety and security of the union to become an at-will employee with no bargaining power behind them.”
“I have recently used an in-house succession plan to fill the positions of Public Works Director, City Engineer and Human Resources Director. None of these positions were filled through open recruitment because I was confident the best person for the job was in the ranks,” he continued. “To do an open recruitment would have sent the message that ‘I’m not sure of your capabilities so I think I will shop around a bit and see if I can find someone better.’ I believe that when an employee spends years preparing themselves through training and education to fill a role that I am encouraging them to strive for, that they deserve the chance to prove themselves. However, I have no reservations at all about ‘going shopping’ if I am not convinced that person is ready to move up. Because in the end, as stated earlier, I will be held accountable for a poor choice.”
“Since coming to Centralia I have filled five department head level positions through open recruitment and four by promoting from within. All four of those within the last couple of years. Previous City Manager’s either didn’t believe in promoting from within or were doing a poor job of executing because the conduit was not in place when I arrived.”
“Stacy has spent the last 5-6 years fulfilling the education requirements and doing everything asked of him. To not reward that effort at this time would send a poor message to him and every other city employee with management aspirations. However, I do agree with you in part. I realize that the Police Chief is different from other department heads because of the higher profile and complexity of issues handled. I also agree that community interaction is important. I started pondering what to do as soon as Chief Neilsen informed us of his retirement. I was considering some sort of a community meet/greet/interview hybrid sort of thing with Stacy. I hadn’t perfected the idea and admittedly stalled for months hoping the COVID requirements would be lifted. Seeing no end in sight and knowing we would be judged harshly for doing anything other than a virtual or very odd socially distanced event I scrapped the idea.”
“Regarding my comment on resources. It wasn’t actually as much in reference to budget as it was staff time. COVID has stretched all of the City managers not only thin, but to the point of breaking. It has been by far the most difficult challenge any of us has faced as municipal managers. In particular, myself, the HR Director and Police Chief (Interim) have had it the hardest. Those incidentally would be the three involved in any recruitment process or event.”
“It’s a weird time, and in the end I just had to take everything into consideration and make a call on what I thought was the best path forward. I hope this helps to shed some light on the topic.”
•••
Brittany Voie is a columnist for The Chronicle. She lives south of Chehalis with her husband and two young sons. She welcomes correspondence from the community at voiedevelopment@comcast.net.
