The seven remaining candidates are presumably still in line.
And once again, City Manager Dale Shaddox is in charge of
selecting one candidate to bring before the Hollister City Council
for consideration to fill the police chief vacancy.
The city has one strike against it already. The first candidate,
Jeff Miller, withdrew his name at the 11th hour before final
consideration by the Council after information surfaced about his
past when he was police chief of Rohnert Park.
The seven remaining candidates are presumably still in line.
And once again, City Manager Dale Shaddox is in charge of selecting one candidate to bring before the Hollister City Council for consideration to fill the police chief vacancy.
The city has one strike against it already. The first candidate, Jeff Miller, withdrew his name at the 11th hour before final consideration by the Council after information surfaced about his past when he was police chief of Rohnert Park.
So that turned out to be an exercise in futility, a waste of valuable time all the way around. But now we’re hoping the city won’t be facing a strike-two situation.
Shaddox said he plans to have a candidate in place by late August, and, if approved by the City Council, the new chief would most likely take office by late September.
But the energetic city manager is in a tough spot. The city must not drag its feet to find the right person to fill the void at the police department, especially with Interim Chief Larry Todd anxious to retire.
But Shaddox and the Council can’t make too hurried of a decision, either, or the city could end up with another questionable candidate.
Let’s give Shaddox credit for dusting himself off and stepping back up the plate to search for another strong final candidate after getting knocked down by the selection of Miller.
And the Council should get its collective head into the game during the final interview process so as not to be caught off-guard by anything questionable from the finalist’s past job performance.
Then the entire search and selection process that has taken place to find a new police chief for Hollister – before and after Shaddox’s arrival – should be impartially and carefully re-evaluated so that it won’t come close to striking out again.
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