SEQUIM — Former Sequim Police Chief Bob Spinks, one of four finalists for the job of police chief in Columbus, Miss., is expected to be invited for an interview in early December.
A selection subcommittee completed its task of vetting finalists Tuesday and handed the actual hiring process over to the city’s mayor and council, the Commercial Dispatch reported.
In an email, Spinks, 52, said he had not heard anything more than what the Columbus newspaper reported.
“I merely know that our names were presented to the City Council [on Tuesday], and I am waiting to hear what the next step might be,” he said by email.
“In the meantime, I’m also evaluating Columbus, their crime challenges, the history of the community and the [police department] and the politics of the city.”
Dispatch Publisher Birney Imes, who served as chairman of the selection subcommittee, said the panel was tasked with getting “a sense of who the candidates were.”
The council was given a one-page report on each of the four candidates.
Besides Spinks, who lives in Sequim, the remaining finalists are Curtis Brame of North Chicago, Ill.; Nathaniel Clark of Albany, Ga.; and interim Columbus Police Chief Selvain McQueen.
Columbus Mayor Robert Smith said the next step for the city is to conduct criminal background checks on the finalists and then set up interviews with them. He said the goal is to begin interviews the first week of December.
Spinks was Sequim police chief from February 2005 to June 2010.
City Manager Steve Burkett last year asked Spinks to resign as Sequim’s police chief, saying that he and Spinks had clashing management styles, and Spinks did so.
Spinks has been teaching online classes in victimology and criminology for Everest University; serves on the boards of the Sequim Senior Activity Center and Olympic Community Action Programs; and is involved in the Sequim Senior Meals Program.
He is part of the nonprofit KSQM-FM 91.5 radio management team, where he is an announcer.
He also writes a column for the weekly Sequim Gazette.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.