Screening process aids decision on new chief

The screening by the chiefs association was tailor-made to Lordstown.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LORDSTOWN -- The hunt for a full-time police chief here is nearing the end.
After months of wrangling, village officials plan to appoint a chief at the June 16 regular council meeting.
Police Capt. Brent Milhoan has served as interim chief since William Catlin's retirement in March. Catlin headed the department for 16 1/2 years and has served as a part-time consultant for the village since his retirement.
The selection process has been a hot spot in the village for months, beginning with council's decision to use an outside agency as a clearinghouse of sorts for potential candidates.
"There were a lot of misconceptions about how things would be done," explained Mayor Arno A. Hill, who is ultimately responsible for naming Catlin's replacement.
Hill and several council members came under fire when they decided to use the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police to conduct an initial screening of r & eacute;sum & eacute;s. In February, Hill broke a 3-3 tie vote to bring in the association at a cost of about $6,000; some council members tried later that same month to rescind the authorization, but the action died on the floor.
Several residents attended meetings, publicly denouncing those in favor of using the association and offering their support of Milhoan. Most opposed to using the chiefs association said they felt it was unnecessary to have outsiders decide what is best for their community.
Using qualified personnel
But Hill said that using the association was never about having someone from the outside find Catlin's replacement; rather, it was about having qualified police personnel determine what Lordstown needed in a chief and finding a pool of the best candidates.
"They served as kind of a pre-screening group," he said. "They came in to the village and interviewed several people in the community to come up with a matrix of questions to see what people in the village were looking for in a chief."
The Ohio Chiefs of Police Association performed similar services in Liberty and Howland townships in recent years. The group, based in Columbus, includes law enforcement personnel from throughout the state. Established in 1928, the association is a nonprofit group designed to provide professional resources to all police departments in the state. They use services such as independent reviews of the departments and they assist in interview procedures.
Hill said association representatives talked with political heads, business leaders and residents to determine the village's criteria for a new chief. From there, the association examined the r & eacute;sum & eacute;s of seven applicants, and forwarded the names of five people as viable candidates.
"We interviewed four people from there," said Hill, referring to himself and councilmen Richard Biggs and D. James London.
The applicants
Hill said all of the seven initial r & eacute;sum & eacute;s came from throughout Ohio, with three of them from inside Trumbull County.
One of those was Milhoan, who's been with the Lordstown department for the past 15 years.
Milhoan admits he was initially confused about the decision to use the association in the selection process, but says his experience has been a good one.
"I think it was done fairly," he said. "I think it was equal for all of the candidates."
Milhoan said his biggest fear was that association representatives would interview applicants on aspects that don't affect the Lordstown area.
"I had a fear that it would be a generic test geared toward big cities," he said. "I thought maybe they would give us a problem that we would not deal with in real life in Lordstown."
Instead, he said, the screening process proved to be tailor-made to the village. He said he understood representatives questioned people throughout the village to determine their needs in a chief, and that information was reflected in the screening questionnaires. Afterward, Milhoan said, he and other applicants had a chance to rate the association's role in the process.
"They gave us questionnaires to fill out asking how well we thought they addressed the needs of Lordstown," he said. "I scored them very high on that."
slshaulis@vindy.com