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The search for a new police chief was given the official green light Thursday when the Medford City Council voted to spend $35,000 for MGT Consultants to help fill the position that will be left vacant when Police Chief Jack Buckley retires on Dec. 19.
Nina Nazarian, chief of staff for Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, said MGT is assisting the mayor and Buckley, who are taking the lead on the search that is already underway by screening candidates and doing background checks.
Nazarian said DEI Director Frances N. Nwajei has done a second round of interviews and expects 3-5 candidates will move forward in the process by the end of the week. A panel will then take up the issue at a meeting on Nov. 18.
City Councilor Anna Callahan, however, seemed to be caught a bit off guard by the plan.
“I was actually hoping to get a little bit of an update,” she said. “I know that the City Council had requested that we have a Committee of the Whole [meeting] where we could discuss with the recruiting firm what concerns we had and the way forward and how this recruitment for the police chief would actually happen.”
She acknowledged the administration asked the meetings be held individually, but Callahan said she preferred to meet as a group so the public could hear their questions and concerns as well.
Nazarian said they requested the meetings be held in small groups versus a public meeting because much of what is often discussed in that setting is not up for public scrutiny.
Callahan argued they’re not talking about personnel type details and said she believes they are at the precise point of the process where a public meeting should happen. She called it “deeply important” that members of the public be allowed to have their say regarding the vision of the city’s next police chief.
“I think that’s crucially important,” she said. She later added, “I continue to request that we have a Committee of the Whole, where we can have a meeting with this recruitment firm and the public and talk about our next police chief.”
City Council President Zac Bears said he, too, would like them to have a public meeting regarding the hiring process, despite the consultant’s hesitancy.
No decision was made and no date was set before the council approved the $35,000 request unanimously, with one councilor absent.
