Commission works on hiring police

The Grand Coulee Civil Service Commission will hold a special meeting, Friday, Nov. 15, at 5:30 p.m., in the council chambers to begin efforts to hire a police officer.

Commission Chair Alan Cain and Commissioner Ken Carroll were the only members present at Monday afternoon’s meeting. Mark Graves had been in the council chambers earlier but had to leave before the meeting began. The commission’s new recording secretary, Kathy Carroll, was also present.

Commissioners Cain and Carroll agreed to develop information from companies that do testing and oral examinations so the group can move forward on the hiring of a police officer.

“We will need this information before we can develop a budget for 2014,” Cain stated. Then the commission can set a date for tests of applicants. “We also want to see how this operation works so we can decide if in the future we want to do this ourselves,” Cain added.

The commission is interested in getting public input as it moves forward with its task. “We could develop members of the public to become the oral board later,” Cain said.

All three members of the commission were appointed by Mayor Chris Christopherson in August.

The commission was in a quandary whether to open up applications for the patrol opening in Grand Coulee or move forward with the seven applicants who have already submitted letters of interest.

One provisional officer, Adam Florensen, has already been hired. He is a former police officer for the town of Coulee Dam and applied for an opening in Grand Coulee when it was announced that Coulee Dam wouldn’t be awarded a contract with the Bureau of Reclamation.

Since Florenzen’s appointment is a lateral move, he has four months to pass his examinations.

For the other police officer opening, the top three applicants from the testing process would move forward to Police Chief Mel Hunt, who will make the final selection.