The city of Columbus is closer to selecting the next police chief.
The citizen search committee met Wednesday to narrow the field of applicants to five.
The committee will present those recommendations on who should be heavily considered for the permanent police chief to the Columbus City Council.
“It went very well,” David Armstrong, chief operations officer for the city of Columbus, said after the meeting.
Armstrong is one of the 21 committee members chosen by the mayor and city council. Nineteen of the 21 members attended the meeting; two had scheduling conflicts but still submitted their five recommendations. All 21 members were provided resumes to review prior to the meeting.
“We had a good, diverse group,” Armstrong said. “Everyone participated and had their ideas expressed.”
Each committee member chose his or her top-five candidates; then, the group voted to finalize the list.
The committee also selected three alternates, Armstrong said.
“We decided — just in case one or two or three of the candidates are disqualified or are no longer interested — to have some alternates in their place,” he said. “These three alternates were the next three top vote-getters to the top five.”
There was not a ranking order for each member’s selections, Armstrong said, noting that system was “intentionally avoided.”
“We actually read off the names off each list and tabulated them,” said Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box, who also is on the committee.
According to Armstrong, the committee members had a “generic” discussion after the selections were submitted to a designated chairperson, though not about specific applicants.
“It was not about individual people,” Armstrong said. “It was generic and about what qualities (the committee members) thought the police chief selection should suggest and what is best for the city of Columbus.
“Myself and two other people took notes, and those notes will be compounded and given to the council.”
From here, the process is in Mayor Robert Smith and the city council’s hands.
Though Smith and the full council will receive the recommendations and notes from the meeting, they have the option to interview more applicants or reopen the application process.
“We’re shooting for this-coming Tuesday to make a presentation to the mayor and council on who the top five selections where,” Armstrong said. “They will decide from there how they want to proceed.”
Box said background checks will be conducted prior to any interviews.
“I understand that they will be doing background checks and checking resumes this week,” Box said. “I think the mayor hopes in the next three weeks or so to be making some progress on this thing.”
Along with city officials Armstrong, Smith, Box, Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem, Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor and Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell, committee members include Vicksburg Police Chief Walter Armstrong; Tupelo Police Chief Tony Carleton; Columbus-Lowndes Development Link Vice President Melissa Cook; Pastor Shawn Parker of First Baptist Church; Pastor James Boyd of Zion Gate Missionary Baptist Church; Pastor Joe Peoples of Stephens Chapel MB Church; Rep. Esther Harrison, D-Columbus, of Ward 1; Bobby Jordan of Ward 2; Irma Dickerson of Ward 4; Sarah Fowler from The Columbus Packet; The Commercial Dispatch Publisher Birney Imes; WCBI Assignments Editor Steve Rogers; retired Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office investigator from Ward 3 Robert “Uncle Bunky” Williams; Sandra Jackson of Ward 5; and CPI Group President Mark Smith of Ward 6.
A total of 82 people, mostly from outside the area, applied for the position, and the trio of Armstrong, Smith and Mitchell dwindled the number to 25 by eliminating unqualified candidates. The city requires applicants to have at least 10 years of law enforcement experience, including supervisory experience as a division commander, assistant police chief or police chief.
Lt. Selvain McQueen, former head of the Columbus Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division, has held the role of interim police chief since the city council fired Joseph St. John from the post in July. McQueen and Assistant Police Chief Joe Johnson both applied for the permanent position.
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