Belleville to hire city manager, police chief

Belleville Police Chief Hal Berriman is retiring from his part-time position on Jan. 31 and City Manager Diana Kollmeyer is leaving her full-time position on Feb. 2.
The city council is working to fill both positions as soon as possible.
A special meeting was held Monday to go over the resumes of the 10 finalists for the city manager position. The names and addresses of the applicants were blacked out – redacted – so all council members considered were education and experience, as required on the job posting.
City Manager Kollmeyer said the city received close to 400 applications for the position, “and, they’re still coming in even though the deadline is past.”
The council now will send a questionnaire to each of the four finalists selected with a return deadline of noon, Jan. 17. Among the questions are the date they would be available and what salary is expected. Some, or all of those candidates will be invited to interviews beginning at 10 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 25, and going every 90 minutes until they are done.
The plan is then to have a Meet and Greet session for the final finalists to meet the public on Feb. 3, before the regular council meeting, at a place yet to be determined. Then, the plan is for the council to meet again on Feb. 4 to make a decision. All the meetings are open to the public.
Council members discussed the procedure and Kollmeyer told them that under the city charter they have to have an acting city manager and it would have to be DPW Director Rick Rutherford.
“There will be no police chief then and Rick is spread pretty thin,” said Councilman Ken Voigt.
Kollmeyer said when Steve Walters retired as city manager, the person hired to fill in until a new city manager was hired “just warmed the seat.”
Councilman Jesse Marcotte said the council should have a contingency plan. He said if a person is selected on Feb. 4, there will be a background check and notice to the person’s present employer, so the person wouldn’t be in place until March.
Mayor Kerreen Conley agreed a professional usually gives four weeks’ notice.
Councilman Marcotte said he would like the council to have a plan for someone to come in on a limited basis.
Councilman Tom Fielder said there are people out there who can do a responsible job on an interim basis. He referred to a man he knows who does this for communities.
Councilman Voigt said they need someone on hand, “in case something hits the fan.”
Kollmeyer replied that in the city office “something is always hitting the fan.”
Kollmeyer said Chief Berriman’s last day is Jan. 31 and the city will be posting the job on Tuesday, Jan. 7, with applications due by Jan. 31. The part-time job of police chief will be posted on professional internet sites as well as placed on the city website, she said.
She said the selection has to go through the Civil Service Commission, as required by the city charter. She said Chief Berriman will select a panel of industry professionals, not from this area, to make the decision on the finalists – in public session.
Then the Civil Service Commission will sign off on the list and the person at the top of the list will be hired, Kollmeyer said. She said requirements for the job include seven years as a police officer, three years at sergeant or above, and much more.
She said the people responding will probably be officers who have retired from their careers and won’t need the benefits of a full-time position.
Mayor Conley asked council members to send any questions they would like to be asked at the interview sessions on Jan. 25 to Kollmeyer.
Conley reminded them she will be out of town for a week because of the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington, D.C., Jan. 22-24. She said that is why the dates of the council meetings in January were changed.