Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box didn’t hold back any punches Tuesday afternoon during a special-called council meeting when the topic of the police chief search came up.
Box expressed his concerns and said he is “not happy” with the quality of candidates the council has to select from. He suggested the 21-person committee go back to the search and find more candidates to recommend.
“I’d really like to get some more names in the hat before we make a decision,” Box said.
However, the council voted 4-2 to go ahead with the five names and a five-person subcommittee to conduct background searches and set a Monday deadline for the candidates to turn in their release forms allowing the searches.
Box and Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin opposed the motion.
Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem brought up the police chief search in the meeting and asked for an update regarding the subcommittee and when the interviews will take place.
Chief Operating Officer David Armstrong said the subcommittee — which includes Dispatch Publisher Birney Imes; Rep. Esther Harrison, R-Columbus, of Ward 1; Bobby Jordan of Ward 2; WCBI Assignment Editor Steve Rogers; and Columbus-Lowndes Development Link Vice President Melissa Cook — met Tuesday before the council meeting and discussed guidelines on what areas the committee members could look into. Armstrong mentioned medical history, sexual orientation, age, race and ethnicity as some areas off limits.
“If they want to volunteer that information, that’s fine,” Armstrong said, noting the subcommittee’s duty is to “discover as much information as possible that’s not prohibited by these guidelines.”
Armstrong said the subcommittee will report back to the council with its findings within a couple weeks.
Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell told the council she asked for the release forms Thursday and only received two in return. The forms would allow the city and subcommittee to conduct the background checks on the finalists.
The five finalists are: Curtis Brame, of North Chicago, Ill.; Nathaniel Clark, of Albany, Ga.; Sam Lathrop, of Beloit, Wis.; Selvain McQueen, of Columbus; and Robert Spinks, of Sequim, Wash. The names were made public at the Oct. 18 council meeting.
Once the names were reported, residents began cursory Internet searches into the candidates’ backgrounds. A Commercial Dispatch story from Oct. 19 included information from newspaper articles about some of the candidates regarding past controversies and allegations. The newspaper since has started a series of profile stories about each candidate, offering the candidates a chance to give residents more information into their law enforcement career, qualifications and backgrounds.
After Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor motioned to proceed with the five recommended candidates and the subcommittee’s background checks, Box asked the council if the city was “doing this by a process of default” and said a number of the recommendations already should be disqualified.
Mayor Robert Smith asked Box who should be eliminated, and Box responded, “A man is accused of having an affair with a subordinate. Would you consider that qualified?”
Smith responded that the committee could pick out “15 to 20 more and find something (negative) back.”
Box said he hopes some of them do not send in the forms so the two unnamed alternate recommendations can move into the top five.
“We’ve got some losers on there already that we won’t consider, so maybe they’ll go ahead and not turn their form in,” Box said.
Ward 4 Councilman Fred Stewart said he wants to wait on the information the subcommittee brings to the council before making decisions.
Armstrong said the council members also can do background checks similar to what the subcommittee is doing. However, Karriem said he will wait until the formal interview with the council.
“Me personally, I would have no reason to call any one of them before they come in front of the mayor and council,” Karriem said.
Gavin also expressed concerns about some of the candidates and said he received “several phone calls” regarding the articles and the information reported about the police chief recommendations.
“This is a very important decision to make,” Gavin said, noting he thinks it would be wise to find the best applicants.
Gavin followed up his comments in a phone interview and said the public should have faith in whomever the council chooses, and he feels some citizens may have lost faith in some of the candidates.
“For a councilman, I want to make sure we make a choice that is best for the city of Columbus and a choice that people can have faith in,” Gavin said.
Box, who was one of the members on the 21-person committee, said in a phone interview he stands by the comments he made in the council meeting, and he’s sure there are some applicants that don’t have any red flags from their past.
“Here’s my feeling. We had 25 applications, and I looked at every one of them,” he said. “We were told to study only the applications. And I know from looking at those applications, there’s a lot of real good guys in there.
“I don’t want this to come down to an elimination contest … We owe it to the citizens to try and get the best person we can. I don’t think we’ve got the best five in there right now.”
Box said he wasn’t referring to all five finalists as unqualified, wanted to hold judgement on some and said McQueen’s filing of EEOC lawsuits is “his right.”
Armstrong told the council that interviews have not been set for any candidates.
Smith said he wants the entire interview process completed by the second December council meeting.
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