7 people to be interviewed for SLT police chief
By Kathryn Reed
South Lake Tahoe expects to have a police chief on the force in October. Interviews for the seven candidates vying for the top cop job in the city are Sept. 13.
One of the seven is local, with the rest from outside the basin. Martin Hewlett, captain and acting chief of the department, is not the local candidate. He took over when Terry Daniels retired at the end of 2009.
“Hopefully, I will have the challenge of picking between a couple really good people,” City Manager Tony O’Rourke said.
Although the decision is ultimately O’Rourke’s, he is convening a slew of panels on that day to interview the people. Sworn and non-sworn officers, and department heads are a couple of the panels.
A citizens group has also been called. It is comprised of at least one person from the South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center (not Leanne Wagoner who is married to Officer Ryan Wagoner and daughter-in-law to Mayor Kathay Lovell), B Gorman from the Nevada-based chamber, David Kelly from the Tahoe Area Coordinating Council for the Disabled, a rep from the Latino community and perhaps others.
A peer review of people from the basin will ask candidates questions, too. Lt. Les Lovell of the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department is not on the panel.
“I’m not going to these groups to see who they would hire. I want to know what they see as strengths and weaknesses in the candidates,” O’Rourke said. “I would hope after going through the gauntlet of interviews there would be some consistency, but there might be an aberration to look at.”
He wants someone who has strong managerial and strong community skills.
O’Rourke plans to interview all the candidates before the panels do.
After the September interviews, the hope is two finalists will emerge. Further background checks on them will be done, with possible secondary interviews to follow.
O’Rourke wants to have a chief by early October.
Tony the Tiger. Go get’em boy. We need to get behind this man SLT. You want to clean up this town? Support Tony. He has some great ideas. He’ll get the tourist here if business owners will clean up their act. And it will take the support of all residents giving 100% as well. That means taking pride in your work, giving excellent customer service and being a part of the community instead of an outside spectator.
Not sure what you mean by “if business owners will clean up their act” Bob, but do wonder why the South Tahoe Chamber doesn’t have an official rep on this committee, but the Nevada based Chamber does.
What qualifications does Tony have for the initial interviewer? Thirty years behind the badge, a degree in criminology, maybe an arrest for spitting on the sidewalk, or he is an HR specialist. Chuckle, chuckle.
As far as the rest of the committees, after they are done I am afraid our new police chief will look like a camel and be afraid of his or hers own shadow.
Good luck SLT.
Look forward to hearing the attributes of the candidates and the conclusions of the interviewing committee. On another note …
The Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce represents the “South Shore” business community (both in the make up of the board, its members and the issues). As a member and long serving chamber director for our business community on both the LTSSCC and the STChamber of Commerce (it’s predecessor), I don’t find the constant pejorative reference to the “Chambers NV base” as accurate nor productive. We are (South Shore residents) members of bi state business and residential community. We live and prosper together and quite franky the stateline is blurred. The inspirational message echoed in the Lake Tahoe Basin Prosperity Plan clearly recomends not only the business practice of “local to local” but also recommends the utilization of synergistic regional business relationships. Good advice, regardless of the visioning model however, and by working together the opportunities are promising. Let’s strive towards that end.
Based means where something is headquartered. I have had this discussion with this chamber’s executive director as well as several board members. Maybe the sensitivity you all have to Nevada-based stems with regret from being there. I don’t know. You have defined the use as “perjorative”. Why? And the chamber is based there, so what is written is accurate.
No other company I have written about has had an issue with having it written where it is based out of. Lake Tahoe News is proud to say it’s based out of South Lake Tahoe. This doesn’t mean it only covers news about South Lake Tahoe.
Here are examples just dating to July 30, 2010, of articles using a city and the word “based” to describe where a business/organization is located.
A Sacramento Bee story on LTN using Anderson-based;
A San Francisco Business Times story on LTN using San Francisco-based;
A Sacramento Bee story on LTN using Auburn-based;
A Reno Gazette-Journal story on LTN using Auckland-based;
A Reno Gazette-Journal story on LTN using Las Vegas-based;
A Denver Business Journal story on LTN using Broomfield-based.
Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher
Frankly, the state line is very sharp when the subjects are subsidies for the Airport and gaming tax revenue. The poor taxpayers of the City of South Lake Tahoe alone subsidize the Airport. Douglas County pays nothing, yet makes a lot of money from gaming taxes on high-rollers who fly into the Airport.
The Nevada-based Chamber would be more persuasive with its “synergistic regional” argument if it encouraged Douglas County to help subsidize the Airport.