City of Ithaca
Chief of Police Search Process
Process to choose IPD head moves on
Journal Staff
ITHACA-The city of Ithaca is at the next stage in appointing a police chief – selecting a screening committee that will evaluate and present final candidates to the mayor.
In a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Mayor Alan Cohen said he would release the names of the 12-person committee when all of the members have been confirmed – possibly by the end of the week.
That committee will be made up of two Common Council members and representatives of various interests throughout the city.
At the center of the screening process are three public forums – the first of which is scheduled for 7:30p.m. Monday at the Beverly J. Martin School – to gather and organize public input on the job criteria.
“We designed this process to be a very inclusive process and a very public one,” said William Trochim, co-owner of Concept Systems Inc. and associate professor at Cornell University.
Trochim’s company and his Cornell students have joined forces with the city to map out and facilitate the process.
During Monday’s meeting, the screening committee will collect public opinion about the specific qualities the next chief will need.
The job announcements will be posted statewide by late November. The next forum, planned for Dec. 10, will allow city residents to organized and rate in order of importance the criteria presented at the earlier meeting.
The final meeting, set for mid-January, will allow the screening committee to interpret and discuss the implication of the guidelines set by the community.
After the meetings, the screening committee will review candidates, invite some for interviews, and make final recommendations.
The home communities of the finalists will then be visited by the mayor and other officials in early to mid-March. Cohen could make a decision by the end of March.
But the timeline is flexible.
“When you’re trying to get input from a community as big and as diverse as Ithaca, you have to leave time to do it well,” Trochim said.
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This project is sponsored in part by:
Concept Systems Incorporated |
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