Second Public Meeting Held on Police Chief Hiring Process
NEWINGTON - Residents that came out to a second public input meeting regarding the town’s search for a someone to replace retired Police Chief Richard Mulhall would like the person to, once they take the position, live in Newington.

       That was the consensus among residents who attended the April 22 meeting--a question and answer session with a representative from the hiring consultant firm Badge Quest.

       â€"By having a chief live in town and attend certain events, it puts a face on them,” said Newington resident Stanley Sobieski. â€"It makes them more approachable.”

       And more readily available to address emergency situations, residents said.

       â€"If something happens at night, you’re not 50 minutes away,” said Elaine Boland, a resident and former Newington Police Department employee. â€"When you live in a town, you begin to become a part of it.”

       Town Manager John Salomone had been looking to add another meeting date because residents had expressed concern about how the afternoon scheduling would conflict with the work schedules of those wishing to weigh in.

       The town is currently in the process of filling the chief position for only the fourth time within the past 35 years.

       It will be a couple of months before the position is filled, but the process is moving along, said Badge Quest consultant Robert Pomeroy during the first March meeting.

       The window for candidates to submit their applications closed April 8, and the consultants will be proceeding to the next step, which involves filtering the pool down to a portion that will be asked to provide narrative-style answers to a list of questions.

       â€"We’ll work with the Town Manager to narrow those down to a group of individuals,” Pomeroy said.

       From that group, a smaller handful--Pomeroy estimates as many as five--will take a day-long assessment designed to simulate on-the-job situations.

       â€"You can think of the number of things a police chief has to do in a given day,” he said. â€"It could be an Internal Affairs Investigation, investigating a civilian complaint-there are hundreds of possible scenarios.”

       The assessments will be run by a panel of three retired chiefs, Pomeroy said.

       â€"They’ll be from Connecticut, but we’ll make sure they don’t have any conflicts-a familiar relationship or friendship,” Pomeroy said.

       And the candidates? Applications have come from all over the country, and that’s typical of a Badge Quest search, he said.

       â€"You want to look for someone who’s right for the community,” Pomeroy said. â€"If you have someone from a large metropolitan area that’s very dissimilar to Newington, you have to wonder, will they be a good fit? Will they adapt?”

       Badge Quest’s role is to compile information about the most suitable candidates. The rest is up to Salomone, Pomeroy said.

       â€"It’s not the consultant’s goal to pick a candidate and say, ‘this is who your new chief is gonna be’,” he said.

       Mulhall took the position in 2002, replacing the retired Richard Klett.

       Mulhall started his career as a police dispatcher and cadet in Farmington in 1971. He moved onto Avon in 1972 before being appointed Captain of the Bloomington Police Department in 1986. Nine years later, he became Chief there. He also headed the Governor’s 9-1-1 Emergency Commission from 2008-2011.

       Residents have expressed a desire to see internal candidates considered, and Salomone has said that he is in the process of reviewing those from both within and outside the department.

       Lieutenant Nicolas Miano has been serving as the department’s interim chief since Dec. 27, when Mulhall officially retired.
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