On January 6, the City of Oakley put out an open invitation to the public as a way to to participate to the hiring process for the new police chief. The public had until January 10 to provide potential questions that could be asked during the interview process.
According to City Manager Bryan Montgomery, he stated in an email that input is good and that the last time they did these kind of interviews they received good input.
Here is what was posted via the City’s Facebook Page.
Now it appears, the City has rescinded the offer for public participation and moved forward without public participation. This morning, City Councilman Kevin Romick announced to the world that they will be interviewing six-candidates today.
In the big scheme of things the public likely will have little impact, if any, on the final choice of the new police chief, but this is yet another example of the City not showing residents respect by allowing input to be provided. Given the timeline by the City Staff and then Councilman Romick, clearly public participation is not a high priority.
Lets hope Mayor Randy Pope can work to fix the communication between the City of Oakley and the Community because Oakley does not need any more “oops moments” in 2014.
By Michael Burkholder
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9 comments
Finally someone is catching onto the fact Oakley does not care what its residents think about them. This is a slap in the face and good for you to bring attention to it. Fire Montgomery and fire staff who continue to treat residents poorly. The theme for 2014 needs to be improving customer service.
Mr. Burkholder, I have had my differences with you in the past but this one I agree with you on. Shame on Oakley!!! Unfortunately, if you really think this committee will seriously consider public input on this hire then you are a bigger fool than the City Manager and City Council.
Thanks for the good laugh this morning. The City of Oakley has some serious flaws so I thank you for making Antioch’s staff and council look that much better.
Why does this not surprise me? It is obvious the Manager and the Council could care less what the residents think. Looking forward to the next election.
I really enjoy this site. It pays attention to the littlest of details to highlight a much larger problem with Oakley from its many shortcoming and lack of civic involvement. Wasn’t it the Mayor who proclaimed that he wanted to improve civic involvement? How can you do that if the city says to the public you get this amount of time to chime in but then decides to move forward before the deadline?
Strike 1 Mayor Pope! You have two more chances before November not to strike out with my vote. This is very disappointing.
i can’t wait to move because this city is an embarrassment.
Don’t let the door hit you in the behind
I’m not too sure that this is a lack of leadership from anyone on the council. Probably more of a lack of communication from the manager, and the sheriff’s department. It probably went something like this. The sheriff has x number of candidates that are available to interview for the position, and they are only available on this day. Let’s not forget that the city really has little say in who becomes the next Lt. in charge. More than likely the process starts with, first having to submit a letter of interest to the patrol division commander. Who then either personally or with the approval of his superiors selects the candidates to send.
The question will always be the same, is Oakley getting the best person for the city, and the position or are we just getting someone who wants to add that check mark on their sheriff’s department resume? Since I believe the last three people to occupy that position have all been promoted, it seems like more of the latter, and Oakley is just another rung on the promotion ladder.
Maybe it is time to do things the way some other counties handle their law enforcement contracts. Where the sheriff provides the patrol officers and supervisors, but the city is responsible for hiring command staff. Then again the DSA would probably never go for that.
Too funny and typical of Mr. Montgomery.
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