Hawaii County Police Commission members have yet to learn the names of applicants or the number of people who applied to be the next leader of the Hawaii Police Department.
The nine-member commission, which currently has one vacancy, is tasked with appointing Hawaii County’s next police chief following the retirement of 40-year HPD veteran Paul Ferreira on Sept. 1. Paul Bugado, who served as deputy chief during Ferreira’s nearly six years at the helm, is serving as acting chief while the process to select a permanent leader continues.
“We have asked at this time to be left in the dark,” said Police Commission Chairman John Bertsch during the panel’s meeting Friday at the West Hawaii Civic Center in Kailua-Kona. “I don’t know how many applicants we have or how many applicants have met the minimum qualifications, and that is purposeful.”
He said the commission did not asked for such information because the panel doesn’t want any appearance of being biased when it compiles a list of questions that’ll be distributed to the applicants by the Department of Human Resources amid its review of the applications received during the four-week recruitment period that opened Aug. 1.
“HR will send the commission back the list of (qualified) applicants along with their responses,” Bertsch said. “We will then go through each and every one of those responses and then begin to discuss who our lead applicants are and do the hard task of trying to figure out the best executive leader for our department moving forward.”
Once the top candidates have been selected, the commission plans on holding at least one public forum, although the number of forums and locations have yet to be determined. Bertsch also hopes to use new technology to increase access for the community.
“Now that the commission is meeting in Council Chambers, the technology is available for remote community engagement,” he said. “Based on that, there may be the opportunity to have one open session meeting with the applicants and allow testimony and commentary from an island wide perspective.”
When asked how long the commission anticipates the process to select a new police chief would take, Bertsch could not commit to a date on Friday. However, during the commission’s July meeting, he had set a goal to select the next chief by Oct. 15.
“When we embarked on this we were really looking forward to having an expedited review process,” he said. “Our ambition to hire a police chief has been tempered with our commitment to make a good choice. I think it is prudent for us to take the opportunity to digest the implication s of what we are doing and make sure we make good selections. Our goal is not to drag it out. Our goal is to try to do this as soon as we possibly can.”
Per the County Charter, the chief of police shall have a minimum five years experience in law enforcement work, including at least three years in an administrative capacity.
The position pays $153,270 annually, about $9,300 less than the highest paid county official, the mayor at $162,582. The chief is tasked with overseeing 484 sworn personnel, in addition to civilian employees, that serve the island’s more than 200,000 residents.
According to Civil Beat, Maui’s police chief makes $205,000 while Honolulu’s chief earns $205,800 and Kauai’s chief earns $137,022.
The deputy chief will be selected by the future chief appointed by the commission.
Email Laura Ruminski at lruminski@westhawaiitoday.com.