NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson City Manager Kendal Francis said he can't talk about why former police chief Jeff Hooper was terminated.
"I'm not at liberty to say much more about what went down with that position," Francis said Monday. "I can tell you how we're going to move forward."
The city has already engaged a consultant to help them with a search for a new chief.
"We have engaged with Strategic Government Resources to lead a nationwide search for our new police chief," Francis said. "That work is beginning immediately. First steps are to put together a position profile that kind of outlines the job itself, as well as our community."
The discussions on getting that profile together happened last week.
"The recruiter will be contacting some stakeholders that we've provided some contact information for, so that we could get their input on some of the characteristics that they would like to see in the next chief. We will also be doing an internal survey of our police department to get some input from our officers as we move forward in this process."
He did clarify, as he had in other public articles, that the decision to terminate the chief wasn't a quick one and the process to hire a new one will take time, as well.
"We hope to officially announce the opening, probably within the next couple of weeks," Francis said. "Depends on how quickly they can put together that profile. Moving forward, you know, about a month or so to take applications and review them and do the interviewing and then, if we bring somebody in from the outside, when could they start, those types of things. I'm going to say [it will take] about four months."
Francis also has an engineering department head to still hire, as well as a combined position of building official and planning and zoning that he is calling the Community Development Coordinator. Those positions were vacant prior to Francis coming to the city.