Police chief hiring process debated: The councilmen-elect, commission officials disagree on hiring process

MOORESVILLE — Tuesday’s Mooresville Police Commission meeting featured a tense 20-minute discussion between commission members, a town council member and two councilmen-elect.

The debate concerned the commission’s progress on hiring a new police chief, following the departure of former chief Richard Allen in early August. Following his departure, Mooresville Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Kevin Julian was named interim chief, and the town council approved $12,000 for the police commission to use for an HR firm to assist in finding a permanent chief. The commission conducted interviews for the position on Nov. 22.

“The applicants we interviewed are highly qualified, highly experienced, and I was pretty impressed anyway, but we have a hard decision ahead of us,” said commission member Danny Lundy.

He said the background checks had yet to be completed and were taking longer than expected, but once they were finished, the commission would deliberate and make a recommendation to the town council for the official hire. He said this during the old business portion during the meeting, and it wasn’t until they allowed for public comment that dissension surfaced.

Councilman-elect Jeff Cook, who is returning to the council after serving two previous terms from 2008-2016, said he was concerned that the hiring process was being rushed and that they should wait to express their recommendation until the new board members — he and councilman-elect Shane Williams — took office on Jan. 1.

“This hiring of the chief process, I feel has been put on fast forward, and as a matter of fact, I know it has been put on fast forward,” he said. “I’ve got a problem with that.”

Lundy said he saw Cook’s concern but also stressed the process wasn’t being rushed. He said, however, that he also wouldn’t want to purposefully delay the decision.

“Our goal is to do what’s best for this department, and I don’t know if that will necessarily change just because you guys take office, but …” Lundy said before Cook cut in.

“Oh, I think it will,” Cook said.

Lundy said the process may appear to be going fast because the contacted HR firm expected 100 applicants, but they only received a handful and may not need to do two rounds of interviews.

Cook also expressed concern that they were performing interviews without completed background checks. When Lundy said they would deliberate at their next executive session, Cook asked if that’s also when they would schedule second interviews to which Lundy replied “maybe.”

“Maybe?” Cook asked. “You’re going to hire somebody looking at a background and not question their background. You’ve got a due diligence, Danny.”

Lundy said if they have concerns about an applicant’s background that they will address them as needed.

The brunt of the argument, however, was not about the background check but instead was focused on the councilman-elect repeatedly asking the commission members to hold off on their recommendation until after Jan. 1.

Cook posed the question to commission member Fred Settle, asking him if he had a problem putting it off until then.

“No,” Settle said. “I’ll put it off.”

When Cook asked commission member Ernie Wilson the same question, he said he did have a problem with it.

“Because we were given a job to do,” Wilson said. “And what we do, we turn it over to the council, and the council, if they want to hold that, then that’s up to them, not us. We work for them.”

“Well, understand, whoever you guys hire, make sure they’re perfectly clear that they could be a regular patrolman January 1, versus a police chief,” Cook responded.

Councilman-elect Shane Williams also jumped in, concurring with Cook’s argument. He said he was coming from the standpoint of what the public wants and that it seems unfair for a police chief to take over from a decision from the outgoing council.

“I’d just like to echo Jeff’s sentiments, though,” Williams said. “I think this was a pretty big change election, and I think the public would rather the new council make a big decision. I really believe that from the feedback I’m getting.”

Lundy repeatedly argued that he did not want to purposefully delay informing the public about their decision and that they only recommend to the council a hire and that, at that point, it’s up to them to fight that out.

Cook said he also disagreed with the choice to hire an HR firm for the process, saying that he would have rather used the money on other things. He said they could have done this process without “an outfit in Muncie” telling them who to hire. He told them change is coming not just to this board but others as well and the town as a whole.

Wilson informed Cook that he never felt pressured by the HR firm to make a specific hire and that this is all standard procedure.

“Yeah?” Cook said. “Good. Good. There’s a lot of stuff you don’t know, Ernie.”

“Well,” Wilson responded, “I’m learning.”

Lundy said his point is that the processes will be done when it’s done and that he doesn’t want to wait to inform the public, whereas Cook argued that there shouldn’t be a problem with waiting.

“It’s all about working together, I thought,” Cook said. “And clearly, it’s not happening.”

“I really don’t want to get in the middle of whatever you guys got going on with the current town council,” Lundy said. “I just want to do our job and be done.”

Current Mooresville Town Council member Jessica Hester also sided with Cook and Williams and addressed Lundy.

“But you know the current town council is going to vote on it (the new police chief) if they can,” she said.

Lundy said he doesn’t know when the process will be finished and if the outgoing council members will have a chance to vote on this. She said they will try to vote before they leave and that it makes more sense for the new council to make the decision.

Lundy said Hester is on the current town council, so why doesn’t she address these concerns with them.

“Right,” she said. “Yeah, ‘cause that gets real far. We all know my word has no say.”

Lundy said they will take this all into consideration when they meet for their next executive session.

“Is that fair?” Lundy asked.

“I don’t think so, no,” Cook responded.

Hester mentioned that everyone seemed pleased with interim chief Kevin Julian’s performance and didn’t understand why they couldn’t let him continue a while longer while they wait to make the recommendation to the council later.

“I guess I just don’t see the big deal,” Lundy said. “I mean, if it’s that big a deal to you guys, I’m sure we can work something out.”

Other business

• The commission heard from Julian on the department’s new hires’ progress as well as staffing changes.

• Julian offered department statistics for the month of October: 196 incident reports, 47 arrest reports, 84 citations. 193 warnings, 1,644 computer-assisted dispatch calls, 37 accident reports (34 property damage, 1 personal injury, one hit and run and one fatality), overtime was 105 hours, comp time 152 hours, mileage was 19,845.

• Julian also informed them of several upcoming holiday events and told them they received positive feedback for their participation in No Shave November.

• The commission unanimously approved the renewal of legal services by commission attorney Charles Braun for 2020. He said he was proud to have offered his services to the organization for the past 17 years.

The next regularly-scheduled meeting is at 6 p.m. on Dec. 19 at the Mooresville Police Station at 445 S. Indiana St.

~ By Cody Thompson | Reporter | Published November 29, 2019 in The Mooresville Times