McComb will wait until it has a new police chief before hiring or promoting officers, selectmen decided Tuesday.
Selectman Devante Johnson made a motion to stop all hiring and promotion processes in the police department, and the measure passed in a 3-2 vote.
Johnson and selectmen Ronnie Brock and Shawn Williams voted in favor, and Michael Cameron and Ted Tullos opposed. Donovan Hill was absent.
Cameron asked why Johnson wanted to halt hiring when the police department is already short-staffed.
Interim chief Rodney Nordstrom told the board last week the department was short 12 police officers and three processors, and there’s talk of some officers leaving.
Johnson said the new police chief should build the department the way he wishes, and giving that power to Nordstrom would overstep the new police chief’s authority.
“The new chief needs to be able to come in and pick who’s promoted, who’s hired. I think it needs to be the call of the new chief,” Johnson said.
Tullos said Nordstrom should have the power to hire and promote, and he trusts Nordstrom’s judgment.
Cameron said there is no way of knowing when a police chief will be hired, and that could prolong the police shortage.
“Technically, we could go a year without a chief. Just because we are in the application process and interview process doesn’t mean it is going to be filled,” Cameron said. “There is no need to put the police department on hold.”
Cameron disputed Johnson’s point, saying any new chief that comes in will have the power to mold the department once he is there.
“Any chief comes in the way the department is,” Cameron said. “We need to rock on the way this needs to be.”
City Administrator Dirkland Smith previously told the board that the application process for police chief would end Friday, and at that time the interview process would begin. Smith said he hopes to have a recommendation for a new police chief to the board by the end of May.
