Franklin Etheridge
The move will effectively split the public safety department into the individual police and fire departments that were standard in the city until the mid-1990s.
City manager Frank Etheridge said that by splitting the departments and eliminating the public safety director position formerly held by Tommy Freeman, the city can save money in salaries over the long run.
“The separation would permit us to reduce the pay rate classifications slightly for the police chief position and increase it slightly for a fire chief position (above the fire captain position),” said Etheridge in a memo to the council detailing the proposed change.
“I think from a practical standpoint,” council member Ben Bradford said, “it’d be better for morale to have the people that are involved in fire control and the firemen to be answering to a fireman. And I think that’ll be better for all departments, police and fire.”
After the council’s agreement, Etheridge immediately moved forward to create and display job postings both within the current departments as well as outside the city.
No final decisions as to the new police chief and fire chief appointments have yet been made, and Etheridge is open to any qualified candidate who wishes to apply.
It was well known that Clift would replace Freeman and Robert Busby would be promoted from Captain to Chief in the Fire Department.
The requirements in the posting for Police Chief were crafted to meet Clift's qualifications. Compare them to the requiremenst when Dino died.
The deadline for submitting applications was noon on Friday and by 4:30 p.m. Clift was informed the position was his (As if he didn't already know this. Had city personnel policy not required the three day posting, he would have been named at the last oouncil meeting).
Captain Busby was instructed to be at the last council meeting in anticipation that he would be appointed Fire Chief.
Why bother with posting the positions and then not conducting even one interview with an applicant?
This paper should request copies of the resumes submitted and post them so that the citzens can judge for themselves whether or not the best candidates were selected.