Buxton will form its own search panel to hire a new police chief, foregoing the option to use the Maine Chiefs of Police Association to aid in the search and saving the town nearly $1,000 in the process.
The town will ask Gorham Police Chief Ronald Shepard and Scarborough Police Chief Robert Moulton to sit on the panel, said Selectman Bob Libby.
Libby said Buxton hopes to establish the panel by early next week. The town last week sifted through 30 resumes and narrowed the search to 12 applicants, but will seek Shepard’s and Moulton’s input before narrowing the search further and bringing candidates in for interviews, Libby said.
The decision to ask Shepard and Moulton, which the board announced at the Sept. 3 board meeting, to sit on the panel was logical, Libby said.
“They both have mutual aid with us, and they help us constantly,” Libby said. “They know our town, and they work with our people, and I think it’s good for us.”
Buxton could’ve used the Maine Chiefs of Police Association to help it select police officers or chiefs to help it interview candidates. The association also would have handled the polygraph, psychological and physical tests the final candidate would need to pass before being hired. The total cost would have been $1,000, which Selectman Cliff Emery said was a small price to pay for having a smooth and seamless search for the new chief.
“I just think that they would help us from start to finish,” Emery said. “As far as I’m concerned, this is the most important job that this town has, and we should leave it to a group of professionals that has an organization that does this work on a regular basis. To me that was the way to go.”
Selectmen have not set a hiring date for the new chief, who will replace former Police Chief Jody Thomas after she resigned from the nine-person police department in July.
Cpl. Kim Emery and officer Michael Grovo have shared administrative chief duties in the interim.
“We don’t really have a goal for a final hiring because we’re going to take it as it comes,” Libby said. “Our police department is working very well right now, and we’re really in no hurry, and we want to do it right.”
Forming its own panel is nothing new to the board. In the spring, it formed its own eight-person interview committee and appointed Buxton firefighter Andy Townsend and Deputy Fire Chief Greg Jones, along with former Scarborough Fire Chief Bob Carson, to hire the new chief, Bruce Mullen.
As a part of Thomas’ July 2 resignation, the town paid her $46,000 in severance pay. When the town hires a new chief, it will need to convene a special town meeting to approve the new chief’s salary of around $60,000 because the money in the town’s budget was used to pay for Thomas’ severance package.
If voters approve the addition to the budget, the town would pull the money from the undesignated surplus, Buxton Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Jean Harmon has said previously. If residents do not approve it, then the board would need to discuss a contingency plan, Harmon said.
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