WOODLAND — Woodland City Council members interviewed four finalists for the police chief’s job Monday, but the mayor says an announcement of a new hire may still be a few weeks away.
Mayor Grover Laseke hopes the third time’s the charm in the city’s search for a new police chief.
Laseke said he would hold private interviews with the candidates before making his pick, but he plans to withhold his announcement for perhaps a few weeks, until the results of a background check are available.
The city began looking for a new police department head about a year ago, after former chief Rob Stephenson decided to retire. Laseke scrapped the first search in February after the councilors took issue with the selection process, and he started over once again in May when council members rejected his pick after ethics violations surfaced on the candidate’s record.
Laseke said he’s hopeful the councilors will support his choice this time. In any case, he likes the latest crop of finalists that emerged from a pool of 16 applicants.
Susan Shultz, from Bremerton, has more than 25 years of law enforcement experience. She began as a corrections officer with the Kitsap County Jail.
“That was probably one of the best experiences I could have ever had,” Shultz said, “because it gave me an opportunity to get to know the criminal element and actually begin to understand how to communicate with some of those folks.”
Over the years, Shultz has filled a number of roles with the Bremerton Police and the Bainbridge Island Police. Today, she works on a missing persons task force with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in North Central Washington.
Mark Daniel, a captain with the Sherwood, Ore., Police Department, brings more than 30 years of law enforcement experience to the table. That includes stints with the Salem Police Department, Port of Portland Police and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.
Daniel, from St. Paul, Ore., said he has about 25 years of experience in K-9 unit training and he teaches at the Oregon Police Academy. In 2012, he almost became the next chief of the Lebanon, Ore., police force before turning down a job offer.
Lt. Jeffrey Powell, from Grapeland, Texas, is a patrol commander with the Palestine Police Department. He joined the department, located about 107 miles southeast of Dallas, 20 years ago.
In his current position, Powell said he handles budgeting, scheduling and daily management duties for 24 officers. In previous years, he’s had stints as a detective and a patrol officer. At one point, he led the department’s criminal investigations division.
Also from Texas is Phillip Crochet, a longtime recruiting and training commander with the Austin Police Department. Crochet, from Cedar Park, Texas, began his law enforcement career in the mid-1980s. He has been with the Austin department since 1991.
During the interview session, the four candidates sat side-by-side at a table. The councilors took turns asking one candidate a question and then one of the other three candidates had a chance to jump in and respond.
Councilors Marilee McCall and Scott Perry criticized the process. McCall was displeased with the fact that only two candidates had a chance to answer each question. And Perry said he wished the city would have given the councilors background information on the candidates a few days in advance, instead of passing it along that afternoon.
Questions ranged from how the candidates feel about the controversial issue of militarized police forces to whether police should patrol inside schools. The latter issue is a particularly interesting one for Crochet, who said he began his career in a real life “21 Jump Street” scenario as an undercover narcotics agent posing as a student in two Texas high schools.
“I was honored to make an appearance on the ‘Oprah Winfrey Show,’ ” Crochet said. “At the time, I was the only narcotics agent to have done two undercover stints in high schools.”
The next chief will join the department at an awkward time, as the city remains tangled in legal battles with Woodland Detective David Plaza. In June, Plaza filed a tort claim making numerous misconduct accusations against former interim chief Brad Gillaspie and announcing plans to sue the city for $2 million or more.
The allegations include invasions of privacy and sexual harassment toward young females and using racial slurs against Plaza, who is of Filipino, Italian and Mexican descent. Plaza, who is on paid administrative leave, argues he was taken off the job in retaliation for reporting Gillaspie to Laseke.
In the claim, Plaza’s Vancouver attorneys Greg Ferguson and Jack Green note that the city kept their client on leave after accusing him of stealing a camera from the department. Late this summer, the Washington State Patrol wrapped up an investigation clearing Plaza of any criminal actions.
Soon after learning about the claim, the city hired retired Cowlitz County Sheriff Bill Mahoney to replace Gillaspie, who stayed on the force in a lesser role. Then, in August, Plaza’s attorneys filed a public records lawsuit against the police department, demanding the release of misconduct records and complaints against Gillaspie.
Depositions in the public records case were scheduled for September, but Ferguson said they have been pushed back to Oct. 10.
