HIGHFILL — Rather than hiring a full-time chief, Highfill’s mayor, Stacy Digby, along with Councilman Chris Holland, suggested at Highfill’s Nov. 12 council meeting, hiring an experienced part-time chief who would assist in hiring and training a full-time sergeant who could then be promoted to chief. Following the meeting, Gentry’s police chief, Keith Smith, was officially hired as part-time chief for the city.
The issue, according to Digby, is that many of the applicants for the chief’s position do not have experience as a chief and are not necessarily familiar with all the paperwork and requirements to run a police department. While some applicants may be qualified or even overqualifi ed,Digby said it was diffi cult to determine with any certainty whether the applicants would be familiar with all they needed to do as chief. For that reason, he suggested hiring a parttime chief to assist the city by helping in the hiring and training of a sergeant to possibly take over the duties of full-time chief within a few months or a year.
Digby indicated a number of things had fallen through the cracks under the previous two chiefs.
Instead of hiring a fulltime chief and two fulltime officers as the council had discussed at a special meeting last month when it reviewed and set salaries for the positions, Digby proposed hiring a parttime chief and a full-time sergeant, with another regular officer to be hired and a third officer to be hired when a full-time chief is hired. While it doesn’t change the city’s intent of hiring three full-time offi - cers, it delays the hiring of a full-time chief and would require the council to set a salary for a sergeant.
The city had set the salary for a starting regular officer at $28,000 per year if uncertified and $29,000 if certifi ed. The mayorsuggested a full-time sergeant’s salary might be in the range of $32,000 to $34,000 per year. According to the proposed budget, the chief’s salary, including benefi ts, would be $41,000 per year.
The additional salary cost for a full-time sergeant would be offset initially by the reduced cost of hiring a part-time chief.
Digby had already hired Gentry’s police chief, Keith Smith, to assist the city of Highfill as a consultant to get the police department in compliance with state requirements and to assist in reviewing applicants for the position of chief and patrol officer for the city.
“Hiring Smith as a parttime paid consultant has already paid off,” Digby said, “because Smith was able to get the PD a $4,300 JAG grant which it was late in applying for.”
Smith has worked for the city as a consultant for approximately three weeks. Smith said he was offi cially hired by Digby as Highfi ll’s part-time chief on Tuesday night, following the meeting.
While saying he had nothing against Chief Smith, personally, Councilman Toby Lester asked if it wouldn’t be a confl ict of interest to hire Smith as part-time chief since he was already full-time chief in Gentry and Highfi ll’s needs would come in second place to Gentry’s. He wondered if Smith would get called away from his Highfill duties when needs arose in Gentry. Lester also voiced concern that the hiring of a part-time chief was open ended and the time period before hiring a full-time chief could be extended.
Digby said Highfi ll officers already back up Gentry officers, and Gentry backs up Highfi ll, because of an inter-agency agreement between the two departments. Smith also pointed out that his sergeants in Gentry could handle most of Gentry’s needs when he was offduty in Gentry and working in Highfi ll.
Digby said he had spoken to the mayor of Gentry and he had no objection to Smith working in Highfi ll when he was not on duty in Gentry.
Steve Miller, Highfi ll’s attorney, said the council could end the part-time arrangement through the budgeting process if it is continuing longer than the council desires.
The part-time chief’s position will be approximately 25 hours per week.
Smith, according to his written report to the council, has already been at work inventorying equipment at the police department, revamping the fi ling system and bringing the department in compliancewith state requirements. The officer application period closed on Nov. 8 and Smith is at work reviewing applications and conducting background checks and interviews with applicants.
The matter of setting pay for a sergeant’s position was left for the council to discuss in a special budget meeting set for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 20.
“I promoted Keith to chief of police. He will work part-time,” Digby wrote in an electronic communication on Friday. “This is meant to be a temporary role, so that we can get our PD restaffed and get paperwork caught back up. We still will be working toward a full-time chief. This will allow us time to find someone who is a good fit for our city. Highfill is unique in its needs. I need someone who can relate to the farmers as well as fit in at a formal meeting. We cover a large land area with a small staff, so this job can be quite demanding on a person and take up a lot of personal time being on call.”
News, Pages 1 on 11/20/2013