City of Ithaca
Chief of Police Search Process
How Ithaca's New Police Chief was Screened, Hired
City Police Chief Screening Committee / Guest Columnists
When Mayor Alan Cohen announced the hiring of Richard Basile to the Ithaca's new chief of police (he starts his job Monday), a chapter closed in the lives of those of us on the Police Chief Screening Committee. These past seven months, we have been meeting regularly, making group decisions about every phase of the process. Understandably, we had a huge stake in the outcome of this process.
To say that we are pleased with the results is an understatement, since our committee unanimously endorsed the hiring of Chief Basile, which is a reflection of our enormous regard for his skills and character. We are confident that he will lead our police department in a positive direction, and will help build bridges between our community and the IPD.
Our unanimity may come as a surprise to those who know just how diverse the perspectives are of those who sat on the Police Chief Screening Committee. We are from a broad spectrum of political beliefs, ages, cultures, and communities. Most people in this city can look at us and see someone with whom they can identify. We represented ourselves and many other people, and we received a great deal of feedback from those people, in the organized forums at the beginning of the search process, but also in our daily lives, from those who knew we served on the Screening Committee.
In our work, we found areas of agreement and area where we differed, but one thing was clear: We all care very much about our community, and we believe that having the right person as police chief is crucial in dealing with the tough problems we face as a city. We believe Richard Basile is that person.
In many ways, the selection process was a model of inclusiveness. Our committee met first to organize public input into specific criteria, then to sort through resumes and select those to interview. Later we organized focus groups, came up with interview questions, and held daylong interviews. Finally, we recommended our top candidates to the mayor and, with him, conducted site visits to their home communities.
The process itself was thorough; interviews lasted all day, with focus groups representing different facets of the community, each getting a chance to ask questions of the five candidates. The mayor and the screening committee received many compliments on this process from both the candidates and their community members during the site visits.
Two major areas of concern surfaced during the selection process. The first was about media access to candidates and their resumes prior to and during the interview process. From the start, the screening committee made it clear to the media that some parts of the process would be public and some would be confidential.
It was crucial to maintain the confidentiality of the identities of the candidates throughout the process, as a gesture of respect for the professional careers of the candidates and their current police departments (for whom cohesiveness and trust are paramount), and because we wanted the selection process to be as fair and as free from gossip and hearsay as possible.
There is a difference between an inclusive process, as ours was -- over 80 members of the public were involved in the interviews alone -- and a public process, which would have compromised both our candidates and the search process.
The second area of concern was the length of the process itself. Believe this: No one, except maybe the IPD, felt the length of time that passed more than we did! We agree that the process took much too long. After the search ended, we met to discuss how we could keep the process inclusive in the future but streamline it to three or four months.
We were learning as we went this time, and we learned a lot. We hope the next search will not occur for a long time, but when it does, we have recorded our suggestions for that occasion.
We have many thanks to convey to those involved with search. First of all, thank you to Alan Cohen for entrusting community members with such a large part of an important decision, and thanks to Bill and Mary Trochim for organizing the community visioning part of the process.
Thanks also to John Gutenberger, John Johnson, Sara Shenk, David Barnes, Roey Thorpe, and Diann Sams for their work in setting up and selecting the screening committee. Many community members went out of their way to give us input about what we should look for in a chief, and we are grateful. Valerie Saul, personnel administrator for the city, and Joshua Schuler, assistant to the mayor, did a wonderful job keeping us legal and organized, and in doing all the behind-the-scenes legwork that was so crucial. Thanks to the many people who volunteered their time, energy and insight on the interview focus groups. Their feedback was very important to our decisions.
Thanks to Acting Chief David Barnes, whose leadership held the police department together all these many months. And thanks, finally, to the many fine candidates who came to Ithaca and answered our questions so thoughtfully, especially to Richard Basile, to whom we wish the best of luck and offer our support.
Sivilay Somchangmavong, Joanne Farbman, Bill Finnerty, Marcia Fort, Diann Sams, Roey Thorpe, Bob Romanowski, Lou Withiam, Cecilia Vargas and Mike Yarrow were members of the Police Chief Screening Committee.
The Ithaca Journal
July 16, 1997
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