HOT SPRINGS -- With 33 days until the retirement of Hot Springs Police Chief Jason Stachey, the timeline for finding the Police Department's next leader is short.
The job posting closes Friday, but City Manager Bill Burrough said last week that it will be extended if the applicant pool doesn't meet the city's expectations.
According to the posting, candidates should have seven years of direct law enforcement experience with management experience in a department similar in size to the Hot Springs Police Department and a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, business administration or related field.
Stachey and Assistant Chief Walt Everton, who have worked for the city for more than 20 years, informed Burrough of their retirements April 15.
"If I look at those next Friday, and if I don't see something that looks like it's a good applicant pool, then we'll certainly go back out and I'll hire an interim to come in," said Burrough, noting that an interim chief could be tapped from within or outside the department. "It's not a position I want to rush hiring, but it is a very important position."
Still, "the sooner we can get that filled with a qualified candidate the better off we are."
The city enlisted executive search firms to find Burrough's two predecessors, but he said the police chief search will be done in house. He said the six resumes received from out-of-state applicants within a few days of the job opening being advertised indicated to him that hiring a search firm would be unnecessary.
"You spend an awful lot of money for one thing," he said of hiring such a firm. "And you're reliant on the network of candidates they have to bring in. I think the city of Hot Springs is a place that people know about. Once they see a posting in the city of Hot Springs, and they research that this is a great place to work, they'll want to work here. I think we can handle our own search."
The new chief will take the reins of a department still feeling the loss of officer Brent Scrimshire, who was killed March 10 in the line of duty. The department hadn't lost an officer in the field since the February 1996 death of Chris Anderson.
"I don't know if we'll ever get over the loss of officer Scrimshire," Burrough said. "I still think about officer Anderson, who I knew personally. There's still quite a bit of a healing process for us locally. The next police chief is someone who's going to have very strong leadership skills."
Those skills will be needed to guide a department that has some employees in the ranks who have voiced dissatisfaction with the current leadership. The Hot Springs Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1 voted unanimously to issue a letter of no confidence against Stachey and Everton hours after they announced their retirements. Burrough said the department's input will be sought before he makes a final decision on a new chief.
"I'm sure I'll be meeting with them at some point and have some of those discussions, especially with my captains and maybe the lieutenants," he said. "I'm sure there'll be time for that."
He said he thinks the city has a good department. "Are there some issues? Sure there are. Anytime you have an organization the size of the Hot Springs Police Department, you're going to have some issues. I'm hoping the new chief will be able to come in and bring new ideas and make changes where they need to be made and not make changes where they're not needed."
In addition to the department, the selection committee that Burrough plans to form will inform his decision.
"I'm not doing something in a vacuum," he said. "For any selection committee it's very important it represents our community as a whole, members of different race, different gender. I'll try to put together a very solid committee that will be a recommending body to me as we sit through those interviews."
The Police Department's jurisdiction is limited to the roughly 30 square miles of the city, but it's responsible for more than the 37,000 people who live within that area. Burrough said candidates will have to appreciate that the job includes serving nonresidents who work in and visit the city.
"We really have a nucleus of 99,000 people," said Burrough, referring to a metropolitan area that includes all of unincorporated Garland County.
"The biggest thing that affects our crime statistics is that we're looked at as a population of 35,000 people," Burrough said. "They don't consider that we have 7 million visitors and 3 million overnight stays that come here every year."
Burrough said he's going to let the hiring process play out and not make a decision beforehand.
"I tell everyone who contacts me that I've never hired a position before it's closed," he said. "I'm going to follow the due process of hiring. We'll let the position close. We'll review applications and resumes. If we don't have what we think is the right fit in that group for the city of Hot Springs, then we'll go back out. At that point, I would be looking at hiring or promoting someone to an interim position while we do that."
Metro on 04/27/2020