Up to five candidates are expected to be interviewed.
By: Helen Pettigrew
MONTGOMERY – The Township Committee hopes to name a new police chief Dec. 21, according to Mayor Don Matthews and Committeewoman Ali Henkel.
The committee is scheduled to interview up to five candidates for the vacant position at a private meeting Wednesday evening, according to Township Administrator Donato Nieman.
That meeting will follow a full day of testing of an unknown number of candidates Wednesday, after which the five with the highest scores will have moved on to the interview stage, Ms. Henkel said.
The committee will select a final candidate Wednesday night, following the interviews, said Committeewoman Henkel and Mayor Matthews.
The candidate will then undergo further background checks, and a psychological examination, Mr. Nieman said, and the final candidate will be announced when these stages of the testing process are complete.
Mayor Matthews and Ms. Henkel said the committee does not know exactly how long this process will take, but the current plan is to reveal the name of the new chief at the last Township Committee meeting of the year, on Dec. 21.
The committee has been working with its police testing consultant, Carroll Buracker & Associates, hired the first week of October, to develop a testing process and criteria for a new chief.
The department’s two lieutenants and eight sergeants are believed to make up the pool of candidates.
The township has been without a police chief since July 1999 when William Beachell took a leave of absence. He subsequently retired in November. His departure came after two female employees sued him for alleged sexual harassment.
From July 1999 until March of this year, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office assumed oversight of the department.
On March 2, Mr. Nieman was named police director on a temporary basis, and he, in turn, named Lts. Gregory Harkins and Robert Palmer as alternating officers-in-charge.