SEARCH FOR EUREKA'S NEXT POLICE CHIEF OFF TO FRESH START

This office may have a new face come July if the search for a new police chief goes according to plan.
 
"We’ve decided we want to start a national recruitment for the city of Eureka,” City Manager Bill Panos said.
 
The city will use an external recruiter and ditch the previous method.
 
“They had a citizen oral board interview the candidates and that ended there,” Current Police Chief Murl Harpham said.
 
Chief Harpham adds that there were about a half a dozen candidates in the last process— but this way gives more opportunity.
 
“More recruits, more people to look at,” Chief Harpham said.
 
Panos said the city is encouraging the previous candidates to reapply— and that going this route is better for the community.
 
“It will create a very, public, transparent process that I think will benefit the community greatly," Panos said.
 
The last time the city used an external recruiter was to find a new city manager, which ended up being Panos. Although no recruiter is in place yet— he says the hope is to go with one familiar to the area.
 
"We have someone in mind but we haven't contracted with them,” Panos said. “So we will know over the next couple of weeks who that is. We'll have a better, clearer picture of the process and the schedule."
 
Once a recruiter is picked, the process to name a new chief will take four months. Chief Harphum said whoever it is needs to understand the community.
 
“We have a lot of challenges and it has to be someone who puts in a lot of time,” Chief Harpham said. “This isn’t an eight to five job.”