City of Ithaca
Chief of Police Search Process
More Chief Candidates Might Be Considered
With the loss of one of the two top contenders for a new police chief, the city's selection committee might move back a step in the process and consider other candidates.
Michael Berkow, 41, police chief in Coachella, Calif., 30 miles southeast of Palm Springs, told Ithaca Mayor Alan Cohen Thursday he was no longer a candidate here. He accepted the chief's post in South Pasadena, Calif., on Wednesday, after the city council voted unanimously to ratify a two-year contract.
Berkow, who has an extensive record of police, legal and other law enforcement work in New York, California and Washington state, and Richard Basile, the Ellenville, N.Y., police chief, were the leading candidates for Ithaca's job.
"We did not have a deal until Wednesday night. It was very possible until last night (Wednesday) that it was not going to happen," Berkow said. "I told everyone repeatedly that I was in other processes and that I was a finalist in other processes. I've been very clear about that."
Berkow, who visited Ithaca in May for three days, including a day full of interviews, said the job here was a "tremendous opportunity."
He also said the Ithaca was "one of the most unusual" and the "most comprehensive" he experienced.
Berkow's signing with South Pasadena prompted an emergency meeting Thursday of the selection committee.
As a result, members are considering bringing in applicants who were not among the initial pool of six candidates, Cohen said.
Cohen also said he had an extensive conversation Thursday with Basile and told him about Berkow's withdrawal as a candidate.
"There is no guarantee that if offered the job, Chief Basile would accept it," Cohen said.
Along with Berkow's withdrawal from the selection process, Cohen also said a report about the two finalists printed Thursday in The Journal alarmed committee members.
"The committee was extremely concerned about how Chief Basile was misportrayed in today's paper," Cohen said.
In interviews, people in Ellenville, a village in Ulster County, credited Basile with cracking down on drugs, expanding drug-abuse prevention efforts, stressing good community relations among officers, increasing the police force's minority staffing and with being a strong investigator.
However, the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter, had nearly 15 harassment complaints filed against the police, including one of police brutality at the village jail -- though the department was cleared of wrongdoing after an FBI probe. A downtown businessman said Basile started well but became ineffective.
After a visit to Ellenville earlier this week, three committee members and Cohen did not agree with the image given in the story.
Committee members had reserved comment about their visit Wednesday night pending their next meeting.
On Thursday, Marcia Fort, one of the committee members who visited Ellenville, said they spoke with a merchant who criticized Basile's performance as chief, but "we spoke to a lot of other people" who had many positive things to say about him. "The overall impression that we got was not what was portrayed in the article," she explained.
Alderwoman Diann Sams, (D-2nd Ward), also a screening committee member, said the negative comments from the one quoted store owner contributed to "the inaccuracy of the portrayal."
"We spent a whole day there, walking up and down the streets ... talking to people," she said. The story was "disrespectful to the 80 to 90 people involved in the screening committee, disrespectful to the process, disrespectful to the community," she said.
The committee will meet again in two weeks to discuss its next steps and establishing a timeline, Cohen said.
Staff Reporter Joe Wilensky contributed to this article.
The Ithaca Journal
June 6, 1997
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