Santa Rosa to hold public forum with police chief hopefuls

Santa Rosa residents will have a hand in picking the city’s next police chief.

Finalists for the job of top cop will get the chance to answer questions from the public in a forum held at the end of this month.

City Manager Sean McGlynn will have the final say in who gets the post, but he said he’ll be watching closely to see how the finalists field questions from residents.

“Part of a police chief’s job is to be able to cultivate strong relationships with the community and to be able to meaningfully work with partners in the community,” McGlynn said. “So I need to be able to evaluate how they’ll be able to handle these types of situations.”

The forum will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on March 30 in the City Council chambers. The names of the finalists and short biographies will be released closer to the forum, McGlynn said. The candidates will return the Tuesday after the forum, March 31, for one-on-one interviews with McGlynn, he said.

After a nationwide search, the field was narrowed first by a consultant and then a panel that included council members and the public. McGlynn declined to say if acting Chief Hank Schreeder remains a candidate for the job, but it’s highly likely.

Schreeder, 48, who has been with the department for 24 years, was appointed acting chief after Tom Schwedhelm retired in 2013, and is well regarded in the department and the community.

Schreeder also declined to say whether he remains a candidate, saying he wanted to “respect the process.”

Residents who cannot attend the forum can submit questions for the candidates. Time will likely not permit all of the questions to be asked, but some of the “most common and very important” questions will be posed, McGlynn said.

Questions can be submitted by Friday to www.surveymonkey.com/s/PoliceChiefQuestions

For more information on the forum, contact Serena Lienau at ?543-3457 or slienau@srcity.org.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.