The Columbus City Council named Selvain McQueen the new police chief of The Friendly City on Monday with fewer than 100 words.
By a vote of 4-2, the council selected McQueen as the new police chief during the special-called meeting, which lasted no more than five minutes.
“This is a proud and crowning moment in my career,” McQueen said after the meeting. “I am thankful for the ones who supported me. And for the ones who didn’t, we are going to work together.
“As it relates to the citizens, I’m asking that we all work together and make our city a safer place to live.”
The police chief appointment was the only item on the budget, and there was no discussion before the vote.
The votes went along racial lines. Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem, Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens, Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor and Ward 4 Councilman Fred Stewart – all of whom are black – voted in favor of appointing McQueen, who also is black. Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box and Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin – who are white – voted against the motion.
“After viewing all the applications and going through the interviews … looking through the candidates and carefully studying Chief McQueen and looking at his record, I think he is the perfect fit,” Taylor said. “I believe that he is going to do an excellent job.”
The council interviewed three finalists Thursday. Curtis Brame of North Chicago, Ill., and Robert Spinks of Sequim, Wash., were the other two finalists.
“I think that voting was enough in this sense,” Taylor said when asked about the lack of discussion. “When the motion was made and seconded, there was time for questions. No one raised their hand for questions.”
Difference of opinion
Gavin, who used an interview evaluation sheet to determine his personal selection, said before the meeting began that Spinks was his choice. “Spinks won the interview process, and he had the ‘it’ factor.”
Karriem made the motion to appoint McQueen immediately after Mayor Robert Smith introduced the item. Mickens made the second.
Gavin said he wanted discussion and it seemed Karriem’s motion came quickly after Smith introduced the item.
“That’s the question I want to ask this morning,” Gavin said. “Usually, there is a motion and a second made and some sort of discussion.”
Gavin said the council has not been having discussions on nominations for city positions but he believes it is something the council should be doing.
“This was like whoever gets it out first. That’s what happened last night,” Gavin said.
Open and shut
Box said this morning there was a chance for discussion but he does not feel there was anything left to be said.
“The guys presented their case and they all did a good job in presenting themselves. What could you have said? You weren’t going to change anybody’s mind,” Box said. “(The council’s) mind was already made up. In fact, they were made up for quite some time for some (council members).”
Box said after the meeting that his vote against appointing McQueen was not a vote against him as much as it was a vote in favor of Spinks.
“I just had my thoughts about supporting Spinks,” Box said.
Columbus resident Berry Hinds, who attended both the interviews and the appointment, said he “would like (the council) to make the best decision for the city and residents.”
“But I don’t disagree with it,” he said about the decision to name McQueen.
The Rev. James A. Richardson Sr. of Columbus called it “a great decision.”
“He was my choice because he worked his way through the department and has been here,” he said.
The decision to appoint McQueen ends a search process that began earlier this year after the council voted to fire former chief Joseph St. John in July. McQueen has been the interim police chief since and has served in the Columbus Police Department for almost 24 years. McQueen was former head of the department’s Criminal Investigations Division.
Other finalists
Spinks and Brame have 55 years of law enforcement experience between them. Spinks previously worked as Sequim police chief from February 2005 to June 2010. Brame started his career with the North Chicago Police Department in 1985, served as the department’s deputy chief from 2001 to 2005 and is Support Services Division commander.
Some within the community said the process was flawed by being public and too focused on community involvement and would not result in the selection of the best candidate, while other said the process favored McQueen — the local candidate — to get the position and the decision was already made before the application period ended.
Others argued the media’s involvement in the process was a conflict of interest. Dispatch Publisher Birney Imes, WCBI Assignment Editor Steve Rogers and Packet Associate Editor Sarah Fowler were members of the 21-person committee that selected five finalists. Imes and Rogers also served on the five-person subcommittee that evaluated the finalists.
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