Police Chief Lawless Appointment and Confirmation


Mayor Michael Nelson announces his appointment of Police Chief Lawless subject to the confirmation of the City Council. 

 The City Council in making this most important decision should follow the policies and procedures as codified in City Code. The Police Chief is an appointive officer. Prior to confirmation, the City Council is required to interview the top three candidates. This requirement may be waived by motion adopted by a majority plus one vote of the full council to interview only two candidates, not one candidate. 

Besides the fact, the Mayor's made the decision to contract with a recruitment firm for a national search of candidates for this position without council approval. Also the City has already spent our hard earned tax dollars in this endeavor. 

Why doesn't the City follow the policies and procedures in the City Code? 

ECC 2.10.005.A:  Appointive Officer. For the purposes of this chapter, “appointive officer” means the following city officers that are appointed by the mayor and subject to city council confirmation: all director-level positions in the city’s adopted budget, including the police chief.

ECC 2.10.010.D: The mayor shall appoint, subject to council confirmation, the appointive officers. The city council shall interview the top three candidates for each position prior to the mayor’s appointment; provided, that the city council may waive the three-interview requirement by motion adopted by a majority plus one of the full council and may opt to interview as few as two candidates for any vacant appointive office; and further provided, that when an appointive office becomes vacant, or is about to become vacant, again within nine months of the city council’s confirmation of the last mayoral appointment to that office, the city council may waive an additional round of interviews, by motion adopted by a majority plus one of the full council, and proceed immediately to confirming the appointment of a candidate interviewed by the city council during the most recent recruitment for that appointive office. The mayor’s appointments to all other employee positions shall not be subject to city council confirmation.

Last time I checked, the word shall is mandatory and not discretionary. Mayor Nelson's years on the City Council didn't provide him enough opportunity to read nor to comprehend our city code. 

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