HIGHFILL — Gentry Police Chief Keith Smith has been hired to serve as part-time chief for Highfill. He retains his position in Gentry.
Mayor Stacy Digby said many of the applicants for the chief’s position do not have experience as a chief and are not familiar with all the paperwork and requirements to run a police department. Some applicants may be under-qualified or even overqualified, Digby said. It was difficult to determine whether the applicants would be familiar with all they needed to do as chief, he said. For that reason, he suggested to the City Council hiring a part-time chief to assist in hiring and training of a sergeant to possibly take over the duties of full-time chief within a few months or a year.
Instead of hiring a full-time chief and two full-time officers as the council discussed last month, Digby proposed hiring a part-time chief and a full-time sergeant, with another regular officer to be hired and a third officer to be hired when a full-time chief is hired.
The city set the salary for a starting officer at $28,000 per year if not certified and $29,000 if certified. Digby suggested a full-time sergeant’s salary might be in the range of $32,000 to $34,000 per year. According to the proposed budget, the chief’s salary would be $41,000 per year including benefits.
The additional salary cost for a full-time sergeant would be offset initially by the reduced cost of hiring a part-time chief.
Digby had already hired Smith as a consultant to get the Police Department in compliance with state requirements and to assist in reviewing applicants for chief.
“Hiring Smith as a part-time paid consultant has already paid off,” Digby said, “because Smith was able to get the PD a $4,300 JAG grant which it was late in applying for.”
Smith has worked for the city as a consultant for three weeks.
Toby Lester, a council member, asked if it would be a conflict of interest to hire Smith as part-time chief since he was already full-time chief in Gentry and Highfill’s needs would come second. He wondered if Smith would get called away from his Highfill duties when needs arose in Gentry.
Digby said officers from the two towns back one another up because of an interagency agreement. Smith also pointed out that his sergeants in Gentry could handle most of Gentry’s needs when he was working in Highfill.
Digby said he spoke to the mayor of Gentry who had no objection to Smith working in Highfill.
The part-time chief’s position will be 25 hours per week.