4 vie for Warren chief’s position

By Ed Runyan

There is a chance the city’s next police chief will be a woman.

WARREN — Two men and two women will take a two-hour multiple-choice test at 10 a.m. Aug. 20 that will determine who will become the next chief of the Warren Police Department.

The four are captains Tim Bowers and Janice Gilmore and lieutenants Joseph Marhulik and Cathy Spencer (formerly Giovannone).

The deadline to sign up for the exam was Thursday, and two other eligible lieutenants, Tom Skoczylas and Gary Vingle, declined.

Bowers has been acting chief since former chief John Mandopoulos left the department on sick leave and later resigned in April under pressure from the city administration.

Mandopoulos’ resignation becomes effective Aug. 10, according to an agreement between Mandopoulos and the city. Mandopoulos had been chief since December 2000.

Mayor Michael O’Brien said Monday he and Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin advised the city’s civil-service commission that it preferred the test for chief include only a written exam this time around and not the more subjective type of evaluation done when Mandopoulos was selected in 2000.

The commission, whose chairman is Atty. James Fredericka, agreed.

In 2000, a panel of police chiefs conducted an interview with the two candidates — Capt. Tim Roberts was the other one — and also conducted “exercises” that test a candidate’s readiness for the job, O’Brien said.

Such exercises put the candidates through different scenarios to see what their response would be, O’Brien said.

The mayor said there are two reasons for excluding the evaluation done by police chiefs.

First, the evaluation costs additional money, around $3,200 for each candidate to get two evaluations each at around $400 each.

Also, such an evaluation is not necessary because the candidates in question all have about the same amount of experience, O’Brien said.

“It would be an unnecessary expense for the same result,” he said.

Bowers has been a captain, the top rank below chief, since Dec. 10, 2000.

Gilmore became a captain July 23, 2008, and served as a lieutenant — the rank below captain — for eight years, since Dec. 7, 2000.

Marhulik has been a lieutenant since Jan. 16, 1998, and Spencer has been a lieutenant since Sept. 2, 1999.

Bowers supervises the support division, which includes the dispatching staff, clerical staff and grant writing.

Gilmore became the first woman captain in Warren police history in July 2008. She is in charge of the patrol division, overseeing road officers such as patrolmen, sergeants, lieutenants and two canine units.

Marhulik is responsible for the department’s concentration on the city’s public-housing units, which are run by Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority, and assists Bowers with other support-division management, such as dispatching.

Spencer is lieutenant in charge of the day shift. She works under Gilmore, who is responsible for all three shifts.

Michelle Scala, civil service commission clerk, said the last test given for a top job in the police department — given to Gilmore — involved 130 multiple-choice questions. She said the same company will prepare the next test, and it most likely will be similar.

The commission last month chose the textbooks the company Daniel T. Clancy & Associates of Cleveland will use to arrive at the questions to be used on the test. The candidates have been informed of the textbooks to study.

The National Institute of Justice estimates that around 1.4 percent of police chiefs and captains in the U.S. are women.

runyan@vindy.com