The mayor should select the police and fire chiefs with City Council approval

May 16th, 2008 at 08:49pm Chuck Sweeny

Sometimes my blog entries mysteriuosly disappear, so here’s one I did a few days ago that is now gone. I’ll try and reconstruct it because I want your input on the topic.

The Rockford City Council is taking up the idea of changing the way the city hires (and presumably fires) the police and fire chiefs. The Forest City is alone among Illinois’ major cities in picking the chiefs through an arcane “Board of Fire & Police Commissioners,” a three member panel appointed by the mayor with the approval of the aldermen. It’s been that way for as long as I remember, and I don’t know why it was set up in the first place.

Once they’re in place, the panel can’t fire the chiefs except for cause. No fire chief or police chief has ever been fired, to the best of my knowledge, and I remember back as far as Thomas Boustead (sp?) being police chief and Wayne Swanson being fire chief. All chiefs have come from within the departments.

In other cities in Illinois, from Chicago on down the line, the mayor hires the chiefs with City Council approval. This makes the chiefs directly accountable to elected officials.

I think it makes a lot of sense to make this change. The Board of Fire & Police Commissioners would still have a key role in other matters, but the naming of the top public safety officers in the two most important city departments should be done by the mayor, who is elected by the whole city, and the 14 aldermen elected from their respective wards.

What do you think?

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