April
Phase I: Official launch of the national search process
Advisory Committee named
Process and timeline shared
Local community engagement firm selected
Request for Proposal for search firm released
May to July
Phase II: Community Engagement Round I and Search Firm Selection
Community engagement begins
Search firm selected
July to October
Phase III: Candidate Recruitment
Community engagement results inform candidate profile
Candidate recruitment begins
Initial rounds of interviews conducted
October to December
Phase IV: Interviews and Community Engagement Round II
Final rounds of interviews conducted
Community stakeholders meet the final candidates
December 2019/January 2020
Phase V: Selection and Announcement
*Subject to change
Columbus City Charter, Section 149
The Columbus City Charter, Section 149, authorizes and assigns responsibility for classifying and standardizing all positions in the City’s classified service to the Civil Service Commission. Part of the classifying process involves defining minimum qualifications for city jobs.
Prior to 2017, only individuals currently serving as a Columbus Police Deputy Chief or Police Commander could meet the stated minimum qualifications for the Police Chief classification. As part of the Commission’s review of the Police Chief class in 2017, Commission staff researched current minimum qualifications for police chief positions in twelve U.S. cities with sworn staff sizes comparable to Columbus and were accredited law enforcement agencies. All but one of the twelve cities reviewed allowed for an appointment to the Police Chief position from outside their own agency.
As a result of this survey and the desire to increase the pool of well-qualified candidates from which to make a future Police Chief selection, Commission staff proposed expanding the minimum qualification so that external applicants could also be considered in the selection process. On December 11, 2017, the Civil Service Commissioners voted to adopt the proposed minimum qualifications for the Police Chief classification to read as follows: “Possession of a bachelor's degree and one (1) year of service as a permanent appointee in the class of Police Deputy Chief OR five (5) years with any combination of service as a permanent appointee in the class of Police Commander and/or Police Deputy Chief or comparable experience elsewhere.”
This change did result in arbitration, however, the arbitrator determined that the City is well within its rights to consider any applicants who wish to apply for the position.