Wayland City Manager Joshua Eggleston has confirmed that four candidates for police chief will appear at a special reception next Monday evening.
The event will occur from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 14 at the Jayda Gale Distillery on South Main Street.
The finalists are as follows:
- John Neph of Ortonville, Mich. Current position is as an officer with the Lake Orion Police Department and Detroit Water Authority.
- Eric Speese of Byron Center. Current position is an officer with the Wayland Police Department.
- Mark Garnsey of Rockford. Current position is a consultant, accreditation assessor and public information officer with the Newaygo Police Department.
- Brian Berg of Freeland, Mich. Current position is police officer with the St. Charles Police Department and owner of Adopt-A-COP Solutions, Inc.
The four will be vying to succeed Steven Harper, who has served Wayland as chief for the past six years.
Eggleston said no order has been established for the interview process at the reception.
Why not just hire the officer already in Wayland who knows the people and the area? Too simple.
Hiring a chief of police is not a simple matter if done correctly.
I have no “dogs” in this issue but do find some things a bit unusual.
No disrespect to any of the applicants, but none seem to have any experience in leading a police department.
So the question is… the salary… is that why no one with experience has applied?
Wayland seems to be growing and their citizens should deserve an excellent police force….
A question the citizens should be asking is why the interviews at the local distillery?
Is Wayland the “local Mayberry” but no longer has the traditional barber shop for these important issues?
Guess I’m still in the “dark ages” when it comes to how local government operates.
The best, easiest, and least expensive way to provide law enforcement is to have Allegan sheriff dept. patrol the city – I see more of them in the city than local officers anyway. We might as well hire experts and save the city funds for repairing roads. The officers in the Wayland department might be absorbed by the county. I believe this will save Wayland taxpayers, since Wayland has the highest tax base in the county. But our city council has never been shy in regards to spending citizen’s money.