City starts over again in hiring new police chief
Based upon legal counsel’s advice, the city of Bonners Ferry has re-posted the chief of police position.
The city is hiring a replacement for retired chief Rick Alonzo.
The decision was made Tuesday during a regular City Council meeting.
City Manager Stephen Boorman said this decision was made based on the advice of the city attorney. The previous process of appointing a new chief has been canceled.
The application process for the appointed position will now start over.
Bonners Ferry Mayor Dave Anderson has the right to procede with the process. Anderson has multuiple options: He can decide to appoint someone or go through all the procedures again.
“The process takes time, and won’t be instantaneous,” said Boorman. “It will take some time to get through the process.”
On Feb. 10 after the council selected staff sgt. Steve Benkula of Twin Falls for the job that they job requirements would need to be rewritten because his rank did not meet the original qualifications.
The original listing required the person applying have at least three years experience as a lieutenant. The updated listing was reposted on the Idaho Job Service site on Friday, Feb. 10.
Applicants who previously applied for this position do no need to reapply.
The listing also changed the requirement regarding the need to have three years lieutenant experience. Last week the listing stated the applicant has to have at least three years supervisory experience in sworn law enforcement.
In the original job listing the wording was such that did not allow anyone with less than three years as a lieutenant to apply, however at least one applicant did qualify under the original listing.
According to city officials there were three more applicants during this open week, however now the process is canceled and will begin again. After the original process which began in January, Mayor Dave Anderson, Clerk/Treasurer Kris Larson and Council President Mike Klaus reviewed all applicants and chose four stand out professionals for interviews. after the interview process, the three unanimously chose Staff Sergeant Ken Benkula from Twin Falls to fill the position.
This brought up controversy and a lot of questions as to why the now acting Chief of Police Joel Minor, who has been with BFPD for 13 years,was not chosen.
Anderson said that Benkula was a better fit for what the city needed at the moment.
Minor took on the role of acting chief on Dec. 31. Anderson said all four applicants were very capable and credible and there were no specific job related reasons to not choose the current acting chief.
He did admit that Minor had more experience than Benkula but that was not a factor in the decision.
“His (Benkula’s) experience is a little less than Joel’s and they both had very good resumes,” said Anderson. “There is no such thing as ascension in the city police department, it is not automatic (to be moved up in ranks).”
During a special meeting Feb. 13, Anderson said hiring of Benkula, that the city’s insurance company would not cover the city for liability because he did not meet the requirements as posted on the job listing.
After a special meeting held Monday night , Anderson further explained what he meant by Benkula being a better fit for the position.
“We had a committee. We went over resumes, chose four. We went through the interview process, we discussed, we slept on it, then discussed again, then we individually opened it up and discussed it again and came up with a unanimous decision,” said Anderson.
Last week the mayor added that since the job has been reopened, people can submit resumes. It is undecided as to how city officials will deal with hiring process once the job listing is closed.
“It is unknown whether we interview again or not, that will be up to us,” Anderson said.
The motion was withdrawn to hire Benkula by councilman Mike Klaus and second by Connie Wells.
Anderson was not present during Tuesday’s city council meeting as he was working out of town and unavailable for comment.