The council then directed a new search limited to TPD employees. This I have heard was precipitated after one of the out of state finalists told them that they had very qualified, excellent candidates within TPD, why look elsewhere? Also in the mix is the requirement that the new chief live in the city of Tucson or agrees to relocate within the cities boundaries. None of the 21 Captains and assistant chiefs that applied for round 2 lives in the city of Tucson. That speaks volumes about their confidence in those that govern our city. It is a shame that we would need to require people to live in Tucson to be employed by the city; shouldn’t you want to live in Tucson? That would be like requiring employees of a restaurant to have to eat the food after finding out that none of them eat it. Check please!
This also speaks to the difficulty that Tucson has had annexing the unincorporated areas of Tucson. You may know that 35% of Pima County is unincorporated; this reduces the return of dollars from the state and affects services. Yet the majority of people in the areas that aren’t incorporated don’t want to be a part of Tucson. Since the city likes using a stick instead of a carrot perhaps they will figure a way to punish the areas that aren’t incorporated. But I digress.
We now have 3 finalists. Assistant Chief Villasenor is an excellent candidate. I have spent time with him and consider him a friend. He is eminently qualified, a good leader and has a real heart for the community. I think he would also put a “face” on law enforcement that would build confidence within our community. John Leavitt is also a great candidate. He is very smart and capable. He is a strong leader and understands how to run things within budget. I don’t know Captain Klein, but he is also probably an excellent candidate. There are strong arguments for each of these men, I don’t think we could go wrong with either of them, we just need a decision. The agony that these candidates and the others have gone through during this process is unimaginable. Both Klein and Leavitt were in the first failed round (Villasenor did not apply at that time, he has since been encouraged to do so), and they were finalists. Now they are going through another agonizing round.
Perhaps with fewer choices they can make a decision.
2 comments:
The City Council can not make a decision about anything on their plate:
A new Arena, A new Hotel, A New Rio, Saving Baseball, Saving The Gem Show, attracting business, attracting tourists, attracting the sun's energy in the desert, anything!
Hopefully, now with their backs to the wall, they can pick one out of three good men to be our Police Chief (even though they couldn't make that decision the first time around). Then, I'm sure they'll be ready for summer vacation...and campaigning. Good luck to our next Chief and here's hoping the council will then fund the department so he can do his job of serving and protecting without council's second guessing and continuous intervention!
Kathy said: I think it would be a great idea for the city council to contact other cities with much of our same demographics with the outlying counties and see how they handle it. I think there is more professionalism needed by the council and more leadership directed by the mayor.
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