Police chief hiring process moves forward
By PAT FRIDGEN Echo Pilot

Eberly

Best case scenario, Greencastle will have a new police chief by mid-November. Worst case, in four to five months, said Mayor Robert Eberly.

The Greencastle Borough Council met in a special session Sept. 19 to review the status of the police department and lay strategy for hiring the replacement.

With an Oct. 19 deadline for receiving applications, borough manager Ken Myers reported that 20 requests had been handled, and three already returned. He said the requests came from interested applicants in Greencastle, Waynesboro, Chambersburg, Shippensburg, outstate Pennsylvania, Hagerstown, New York, Arizona and Florida.

He credited advertising on the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police website with creating the draw.

The chief's spot came open Sept. 5 with the resignation of twoyear chief Peter Mozurkevich. The council had voted 6-0 to fire him at the Sept. 4 meeting. Eberly stated at the time that each member had different reason for the termination, that there was no one particular cause.

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Paul Schemel, chair of the Public Safety Committee, recognized Eberly, who is in charge of the department for the interim. The mayor handles administrative duties, including scheduling.

"Bob is doing a significant amount of work on a day-to-day basis," Schemel said.

Since Eberly will be out of town for a week in October, he requested a fulltime officer be appointed Officer-in-Charge for that time.

Council member Don Coldsmith had reservations about the idea.

"Where we fouled up last time (leading to Mozurkevich's hiring) was this Officer-in-Charge bit. He works with a friend and has to make management decisions. The former Officer-in-Charge didn't get chief and had to go back to working side by side with the others. We lost him for that reason," said Coldsmith.

Eberly agreed that if one received authority, it could create rivalry between the two fulltimers. He said the schedule would already be set and wondered what other decisions would have to be made in such a short timeframe.

The council decided not to create the position.

Schemel also asked permission for the Committee to begin screening the applications and interviewing candidates, rather than wait until Oct. 19. He hoped the council could hire a chief at the November meeting or at a special meeting. In 2005 Greencastle took 41 application requests and 11 were returned. At that time the committee turned over the top three candidates to the council, who hired Mozurkevich.

"How can you eliminate some until you've read them all?" asked Harold Duffey. "How much longer would it take? We're making a very important decision here."

He preferred that each council member see every application, with data organized on a spreadsheet.

"I'm a little bit gun-shy," he continued. "I was on council to hire the last chief and thought it was the right decision. Now we decide it wasn't."

Schemel wanted a headstart. He responded, "I'm not comfortable where we are. I think we could get caught with our pants down. I feel more immediacy than some of my brethren here on the council. I don't want the chief to have a hurdle to overcome."

He said all information on the 17-page applications and resumes would be available to each council member, and the committee wouldn't meet again until Sept. 26. Dufffey said he was then OK with the committee's recommendation.

The committee was authorized to begin screening and to conduct preliminary interviews, and give a status report to council on Oct.1. Public Safety Committee members are Schemel, Harry Foley and Jerry Pool. Eberly and council president Charles Eckstine sit in.

Eckstine remarked that by the November meeting the council should know who the new chief would be, but that background and credit checks could take until January.

The council members also discussed whether to require the applicant have a criminal justice degree, as stated in the ads, and whether they needed prior experience as a chief.

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Greencastle currently has two fulltime officers, each with less than a year of service locally, and five parttime officers, including one who just started and another pending. Eberly said the fulltime officers are working about 47 hours per week. The parttime officer hours of availability range from 36 hours per week to one shift over two weeks.

He and Eckstine met with Waynesboro Police Chief Ray Shultz the previous week, and Shultz agreed that he and Sgt. Mike Bock would be available to give legal and procedural advice to Greencastle officers until a chief was hired. Their direct phone numbers have been posted in the office and cruisers. Waynesboro will provide backup for mutual aid if needed, although the request has to come through central headquarters in Chambersburg.

Eberly said he has instructed the officers to continue foot patrols in the downtown area and to monitor the parking meters. He also sent some of them to a domestic violence seminar.

Eberly said five people took the Civil Service exam Sept. 12. The Civil Service Commission is now conducting interviews and will rank the police officer candidates for the council.