The City of Charlottesville has selected a Washington D.C.-based executive recruiting firm to help identify candidates for the open police chief position.
POLIHIRE was chosen to assist interim city manager Michael Rogers with the process expected to take up to 120 days. The cost of the contract is $35,000 although more services may be selected by the city for an additional cost.
The city manager is responsible for choosing the police chief in the city charter – though Charlottesville City Council will also have to approve the selection.
“What was impressive about POLIHIRE was that they had led a number of local government searches across the State of Virginia and the country, and that a number of clients engaged them for multiple senior leader searches, a testament to their effectiveness as a search consultant,” said Rogers.
POLIHIRE led the search for the police Chief of Fairfax and Arlington counties, as well as many other similar positions across the state and the country.
POLIHIRE will work with Rogers and city staff to design an effective and appropriate community engagement and outreach strategy to assure that all stakeholders have an opportunity to provide input on the desired characteristics of the next police chief, the issues that residents feel the next chief should have the experience to address, and the questions about the police chief that candidates should be asked.
A link will be added on the city’s website so that residents can access the police chief search questionnaire and provide feedback confidentially. The results of the survey as well as input from several focus groups will provide the information needed to develop a recruitment brochure that will be advertised nationally.
Candidates will be screened and evaluated based on the criteria set forth in the recruitment brochure and POLIHIRE will present a group of semifinalists for review by the city manager and executive staff, who will select two finalists to be presented for interview.
All information about the finalists will be presented on the city website for review and comment by the public. The information presented will include cover letter, resume and written responses to questions.
City council will interview the final candidate recommended by the city manager and then vote to approve or reject the candidate.
For more information, visit charlottesville.gov