City may have new police chief by week's end

Posted Wednesday, July 31, 2019 8:34 pm

Local candidates eliminated prior to panel interviews

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - Fort Madison City Manager David Varley said the city could have a new police chief selected by the end of the week.

Varley said Wednesday morning that the candidate pool was narrowed down to three with panel interviews being conducted on those three candidates. None of the three are currently within the city's police department.

The city had hired an outside firm to narrow the list of candidates and he took that list to the city's Civil Service Commission meeting and they narrowed that list to six. Varley, who according to city code has authority to hire the police chief, confirmed that some of the six that made it to his desk are currently on the police department.

Varley said he couldn't at this point, make any additional comments on the candidates, but said he pared the list down to three.

He said the candidates have requested that the process be done confidentially in part because the candidates currently have positions.

"I can't tell you much because when this stuff gets out it hurts the city, but I can tell you that when I'm ready to make an announcement I'll send an email to council and then we'll send a press release out."

Varley said he had a few more calls to make and some negotiating to finish up.

"But if everything works out within two days I should know something final," he said.

He said the person could be in place by Sept. 1 and possibly earlier if everything falls into place.

Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber has been serving as interim police chief since former Chief Tim Sittig resigned at the end of May. The Lee County Supervisors signed a six-month 28E agreement with the city for the services, but Varley said at the outset he was hoping three months would be more doable.

The city has been paying the county about $8,500 per month for the services of the sheriff's department, a figure close to what the city would have been paying for a full-time police chief.