Cottonwood Shores prepping to pick new police chief
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula
Cottonwood Shores officials hope to make an offer to one of three final candidates to fill the position of police chief by next week, an administrator said Monday, Nov. 3.
Officer Chris Bieze has been acting as interim chief since former police chief Harold Piatt’s last day on the job at the end of October. Bieze is one of the three finalists.
“We’re not going to go long without a permanent police chief,” said Mayor Donald Orr. “We’re down to the final review process.”
After whittling down almost 40 applications with Piatt’s help, five candidates were interviewed by phone, followed by in-person interviews of the final three candidates by Orr and Sheila Moore, city administrator and secretary.
“As a courtesy,” the city council, possibly in executive session, will discuss the candidates at its meeting Thursday, Nov. 6. “It’s important for the council to be part of the process, but it’s a staff hire,” Orr said.
Orr added the hiring process has been “interesting and complex” because of “significant differences in experience and capabilities from their various backgrounds.” Candidates with federal, state, county as well as large to small municipal law enforcement backgrounds expressed interest in the small town’s police chief job. Orr said almost all three finalists have small-town experience.
“We’ll find what works best for Cottonwood Shores,” he said.
The city council will vote on amending ordinance 9002 and repealing ordinances 9008, 091996 and 081194, all of which are related to the police chief position.
“The last council decided they wanted to be involved in the process of hiring a police chief,” Orr said, leading to ordinance 9008 in Sept. 2012.
Ordinance 9002, passed in January, 2011, also stated the council appoints the police chief, which is why Orr thinks it should be amended.
He said the ordinances are “in opposition to a city manager form of government, which was passed in an ordinance in 2007.
In addition to a new police chief, Cottonwood Shores is seeing Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) work and economic ventures moving into the city.
For the full story, see Tuesday's Highlander.
