CONWAY -- Mayor Tab Townsell is weighing whether to appoint Conway's next police chief or to choose a long-term interim chief instead.
"I haven't come to a final decision yet on how I'm going to handle" the situation, Townsell said.
He said the reason for his quandary is that he does not plan to seek re-election in 2016 and knows a search process would likely take several months.
He also said he tends to think the next mayor should have a say in who the new chief is.
"I was given a police chief who was named a day or two days after I was elected" in 1998, Townsell recalled. "I want to be sensitive to who the next mayor is going to have to work with. ... I've got to contemplate what comes after me."
The police chief's job will be vacant come November, when current Chief A.J. Gary's resignation takes effect.
Gary is leaving the position, which pays $87,846 annually, to take a job as the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery's security director. He will make $100,479 a year in the lottery job.
Gary has been Conway's police chief since 2007, when Townsell chose him for the job.
"I'm going to make a decision before he [Gary] leaves, so we'll have a seamless transition into an interim" chief, whether the person is on the job for the short- or long-term, Townsell said.
The mayor said the city's last police-chief search, which ended with Gary's hiring, was nationwide and took more than seven months. That means a similar national search starting now would likely not end until sometime next year, his last as mayor, Townsell said.
"Yet, I'm still the one making the decision for a new mayor who's going to be stepping into office possibly as little as six months later" under that scenario, he said.
"At this point, I have to really question whether I have to be the one to" hire the next chief, Townsell said. "The person who would work for me the best might not be the best person for the next mayor."
Still, Townsell said, he might face another problem if he appoints a long-term interim chief.
Townsell said a change in state law regulating civil-service jobs such as police and firefighters appears to restrict what cities can pay a long-term interim chief. He and Conway City Attorney Chuck Clawson are looking into that issue.
Clawson said he needed to review the matter before discussing it.
Mark Hayes, director of legal services for the Arkansas Municipal League, said he hadn't researched the issue yet but plans to do so.
Hayes did not have details on the civil-service statute at issue but said, "We may have to get case law" if such a statute exists.
As for an interim chief, Townsell said he believes "there are good internal candidates" within the Conway Police Department.
"I would pick somebody from those I've come to know, and I would probably listen to the chief's recommendations, too," Townsell said.
State Desk on 10/05/2015