In order to promote more applications, St. Paul’s mayor has extended the deadline for police chief applicants by two weeks.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the city has received applications from 15 suitable applicants. Six senior officers from the St. Paul Police Department are among the candidates.
The police chief examining committee’s co-chair, Kathy Lantry, explained that because they don’t know who submitted, the committee’s proposal to extend the deadline wasn’t based on the quality of applicants.
There were nine applications when the committee got an update last week. Are we of the opinion that the pool has to be larger? stated Lantry. “In my perspective, the response to it is always “Yes.” You want to be able to choose.
As St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter discusses a “public safety vision that revolves not simply around reacting when someone phones 911,” the hunt for St. Paul’s next police chief is taking place at a time when concerns about gun violence are being raised both locally and nationally.
The city’s Office of Neighborhood Safety was established this year, and the mayor has stated that it’s about “making the strategic investments that may proactively assist us decrease and reduce the amount of instances that someone needs to call 911 in the first place.”
Having held the position of police chief for six years, Todd Axtell retired in June. The acting chief is presently Jeremy Ellison.
With 38 members and viewpoints from the community, business, labor, public safety, social services, and schools, the police chief reviewing committee will assess applications, conduct interviews, coordinate community outreach, and suggest five candidates to Carter. Carter will conduct interviews with the contenders before selecting the chief, who will serve a six-year tenure.
The application deadline has been extended until August 5 from Friday. When Lantry was the director of St. Paul’s public works, she said that extending job deadlines to allow for more hiring wasn’t unusual.
Early in May, Carter declared his intention to appoint the next police chief in the late summer or early fall. According to Kamal Baker, Carter’s press secretary, the city’s human resources division is trying to create an updated timetable with the deadline extension.
This week, Baker stated that the mayor’s top priority was still choosing the best individual to head our agency. He “remains convinced that the women and men of our police department, as well as our interim chief, are well serving our community as we strive to choose the next person to head our agency,” he said.
According to the job ad, the beginning pay for the next chief would range from $132,000 to $180,000, based on education and experience.
There were initially four qualifying applicants in the 2016 St. Paul police chief search. The city got 10 applicants after extending the application deadline.
