Boardman trustees should let screening panel screen

When the Boardman Township trustees announced they had appointed a three-member committee to screen the applications for the police chief's job, we thought that they had adopted the same procedure Mahoning County commissioners used when they hired the first county administrator several years ago. We were wrong.
Two of the three trustees, Kathy Miller and Robyn Gallitto, indicated last week that they intend to review all 58 applications rather than staying clear of the screening process until the committee has done its work. In other words, Miller and Gallitto, as elected officeholders, are insinuating politics into a process that should be apolitical.
There is a good reason public bodies use independent review panels when filling important government positions: They protect the decision-makers from special interest groups and from political pressure.
We urge Miller and Gallitto -- we don't know what position Trustee Elaine Mancini has taken -- to rethink their strategy. Otherwise, they will open themselves up to the criticism that their creation of the screening committee was nothing more than a ruse.
There's no reason for the trustees to be involved in the process this early. They should let Dr. A. Bari Lateef, appointed by Miller, former Chief Glenn Bowers, named by Mancini, and former Youngstown Police Chief Bob Bush, appointed by Gallitto, whittle the 58 applications to a manageable number.
Public interviews
Those applications -- a dozen seems to be a reasonable target -- could then be sent to the trustees, who would further reduce the number to three finalists. The finalists would then be interviewed -- it is our opinion that such interviews should be conducted in public -- and the new police chief would be appointed by a majority vote of the board of trustees.
Such a procedure keeps politics at bay, if not removing it entirely.
If Miller and Gallitto insist on reviewing the applications from the get-go, what would happen if someone they want is not on the list prepared by the screening committee? Or what if the panel includes an individual who does not have the support of one of the trustees?
Gallitto, who has been in office just seven months, has another problem with being directly involved in the screening of applications: Her husband is on the Boardman police force. Does anyone believe that two of them haven't discussed the chief's job?
When we advocated an independent screening of the r & eacute;sum & eacute;s that had been submitted for the county administrator's position, we urged the commissioners at the time to steer clear of the initial streamlining process so as to silence any charges of influence peddling. To their credit, the officeholders kept their distance until they received the list of semi-finalists from the committee. They then took over. The process worked extremely well.
Boardman trustees should do likewise.