By Jessica Edwards
Hiring a police chief will take until at least June, and filling two
vacant officer positions may wait until then as well, Haines Borough officials said this
week.
The borough has received seven applications for chief, but only six for
the two officer positions advertised since March 21. Of the six, four were from the Lower
48 and two were from Alaskans lacking required certification. The borough re-advertised
for officers last week, hoping to attract Alaska officers ready to work.
"Right now we’re down to two officers. If we can find good
officers who can walk in and start working, I’ll hire them," said borough
manager Robert Venables. Otherwise, the next chief may make the hires.
Approaching summer without three of five members of the borough police
force is a slight concern, said mayor Fred Shields. "It means everyone is working
very hard. It’s not ideal, but it will be okay."
Officers’ positions pay $18.69 an hour plus standby pay, a wage
that will increase in July to $19.06. The borough assembly last year raised officer pay 80
cents an hour above cost-of-living and step increases after the borough and union
representatives agreed police were underpaid, said borough chief fiscal officer Jila
Stewart.
"I’d like to raise the pay a little more," said Shields.
"Haines’ strong point is quality of life. Some people want money."
Homer is currently advertising for police officers with a starting wage
of $21.82 and Valdez is offering a $52,000 salary for officers.
The borough’s public safety commission and an ad hoc
citizens’ committee appointed by Shields each were to submit recommendations to the
borough on the seven chief applicants this week.
"I think there are several among the group that are potentially a
good fit, at least on paper," said ad hoc committee spokesperson Mike Case. The group
planned to meet and interview short-listed candidates telephonically.
Public safety commission chair Paul Nelson said initial review of the
seven applications was promising. "There are applicants that have a lot of experience
and look like they’d be qualified." The commission will recommend its top three
choices after a meeting May 12.
Shields said the borough assembly might have the short-listed
applications to review as early as their meeting May 13, but otherwise would address the
finalists at the May 27 meeting. "I think we have at least two good candidates,"
Shields said. "I think it’s looking very good."
Salary for chief of police depends on qualifications. Former Chief Greg
Goodman ended his 17-year tenure at $68,164.
Applicants for chief include Haines Borough police sergeant John Wahl,
Edward Talik of Upper Marlboro, Md., Gary Lowe of Pekin, Ill., Myron Kline of Tacoma,
Wash., Rodney Enevoldsen of Naknek, Thomas Bohlin of Long Beach, Calif., and Steven
Annetts of Pickerington, Ohio.
Wahl, who has worked with the local force since February 2006, worked
14 years as an officer with the St. Cloud, Fla. police department beginning in 1988. In
2004, Wahl left a job in protective services at a regional hospital in Florida for an
international police mission in Kosovo with the United Nations, where he was chief of an
EMT training unit for more than a year.
Talik, a lieutenant with 20 years’ experience with the Prince
George County Police Department in Maryland, is a graduate and master’s degree
candidate at the police executive leadership program at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, Md. Talik’s responsibilities with the force include managing security for
the Washington Redskins NFL football team and commanding a marine patrol unit.
Lowe has worked for the Pekin, Ill., police department since 1983,
where he was promoted to lieutenant in 1998. He is shift commander for 15 officers, a K-9
and school resource officer, and manages clerks and parking enforcement officers. He has
been elected three times to his local school board.
Bohlin has 30 years’ experience in law enforcement with the
Hermosa Beach, Calif. police department, where he is a lieutenant. He worked as a
detective, patrol officer, motor officer and training officer from 1978 to 1993 and then
became detective, patrol and traffic sergeant. In his cover letter, Bohlin said he has
been vacationing in Alaska for 25 years and is more interested in quality of life than
monetary gain.
Kline has 17 years’ experience as a cop, including 12 years as
police officer in Federal Way, Wash. He has about two years’ law enforcement
experience in rural Alaska (King Cove and St. Paul), which he served in the early 1990s.
Kline served briefly as the first police chief in Uniontown, Wash. He has a 30-year-old
music production company in Tacoma, and has written and produced jingles for Holland
America Cruise Line.
Enevoldsen is currently a police officer in Bristol Bay, and previously
worked as chief of police for the Kalispell Tribal Police Department in Usk, Wash. He has
19 years’ experience in law enforcement, twelve of them in supervisory jobs.
Annetts is a patrol commander with the City of Pickerington, Ohio,
police department, where he has worked since 1989. Four sergeants, ten patrol officers,
motorcycle, bicycle, and K-9 units also fall under his direction. He is a graduate of the
FBI academy and is a police instructor for the state of Ohio.
