It was a bitterly cold February Saturday, with a light snow falling. But inside the Selectman’s Meeting Room of Town Hall the atmosphere was heated as the BadgeQuest consulting team of former Police Chiefs grilled the four final candidates for appointment as Truro’s top cop.

The assessment went on all day, with the Police Chief Search Committee and several Selectman watching as each candidate was run through a range of hypothetical scenarios. In one, candidates were challenged to report to a hostile board of tax payers. In another, the challenge was to uncover the truth from a hesitant witness to possible criminal activity by a member of the force.

By the end of the day one thing was clear: the Search Committee had done an exceptional job. Each of the candidates demonstrated the professionalism, integrity, and intellect that will be required of Truro’s next Chief. The process had taken 7 months to get to the assessment day, and would take another month to be completed. But that lengthy process would assure that the best possible candidate would get the job.

It was clear last summer, when John Thomas retired, that 2011 would bring significant change to Town leadership. Just how significant that change would be did not become clear until this January, however, when Town Administrator Pam Nolan announced that she would be leaving her post on June 30, at the end of her contract.

Town Administrator and Police Chief are the two most important positions in town government. Filling those positions is likely to be the most important decisions the Board of Selectman will make all year. So it was incumbent on the Board of Selectmen, who hold the hiring power through the Town Charter, to create the best possible selection process.

Last July, when Selectmen set up the Police Chief Search Committee, the charge was direct: find us the best candidate for the job. The search was to be nationwide. Internal and external candidates were to be evaluated by the same criteria, although the Selectman agreed they would prefer to promote from within, “all other things being equal. ” Meetings were to be open and posted, in accordance with the open meeting law, but deliberations would be held in confidence.

The Selectman aimed to put together a committee with multiple interests and points of view. Three organizations were asked to nominate from their membership: the town’s Finance Committee, who chose Lori Meads; the Police Department’s Union, who chose Craig Danziger; and the Truro NonResident Taxpayers Association, who chose Regan McCarthy. The Selectman added three representatives of the town at large: Buddy Perkel, Meg Royka, and John Snow. Chief Edward Kulhawick from the neighboring town of Eastham added the voice of a serving Outer Cape Chief to the group, while Assistant Town Administrator Charleen Greenhault served as the non-voting chair.

The actual search began late last summer with a nationwide ad campaign, with two ads placed in specialized police journals and one placed in the journal of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Those ads drew 69 different applications, of which 62 were considered complete. From that initial group, the committee cut the size of the field three times: first to 17, who were sent more detail applications and additional questions; then to 7, who were interviewed in person; then to the 4 who would get a chance to go through the assessment process.

“It’s been an extremely interesting and very worthwhile process,” chair Greenhault reports. “We were a very eclectic group of people, but we worked exceptionally well together.”

Now that work is almost finished. On March 4th the committee will meet to chose the candidates whom they will present for consideration to the Board of Selectman at their March 8th meeting. The BoS, in turn, will review all the gathered material and interview each finalist in open session. Then they will make their choice, picking a new chief who could be in place as early as the end of March.

March 8th will be a busy night for the Board of Selectmen. Besides our receiving the final candidate list for Police Chief, we will be choosing the town’s next search committee, this one charged with finding candidates for the post of Town Administrator.

The time frame for the TA Search requires a considerably more aggressive than that for the police chief. The BoS will ask the search committee to present the 3 to 5 final candidates to the Board by early in June, if possible, in hopes of having Ms. Nolan’s replacement in place when she departs.

In other ways, however, this second search will look much like the first. Once again the committee will include seven voting members, with representatives from FinCom and the TNRTA joining four members chosen from the town. The final member will be Bob Lawton, who served the town of Yarmouth with exceptional distinction as its town administrator for 32 years. Once again the committee will be charged to cast a wide net, advertising in both regional and national publications searching for the best possible candidate for the job.

Are you curious about how the public members of the search committee are chosen? You can see yourself: a video of the BoS meeting of March 8th will be posted online at the Truro Town website, www.truro-ma.gov, as are all the BoS meetings.

Are you interested in serving on the TA Search Committee? The four community representative seats are open to any Truro resident. Board of Selectmen will interview candidates and chose the committee at their Tuesday, March 8th meeting. If you wish to be considered you can get an application from Julie DuPree at the Selectman’s Office on the ground floor of Town Hall. Completed applications are due back to Julie on Friday, March 4th.

Sincerely,

Curtis Hartman
Chair, Board of Selectmen
eMail Curtis
(508) 349-7004