SEQUIM — City Manager Steve Burkett will announce his choice for police chief Monday, he said Friday.
“I’m going to send out a news release about the police chief,” Burkett said.
Burkett conducted deep background checks, narrowed the list to two finalists from a field of five, and offered the Sequim Police Chief position to one of them.
He did not say why he would not announce the name of his choice on Friday.
The new chief will fill a position vacated by Bob Spinks in early July.
Burkett asked Spinks to find another job last March, saying he was no longer the right man for the post Spinks held for five years.
The Sequim City Council has endorsed Burkett’s proposal to boost the police chief pay 10 percent, bringing the range to $80,000 to $106,000, depending on experience.
Finalist interviews
Five finalists for the Sequim police chief position met the public, City Council members and local law enforcement representatives Aug. 5 at the Transit Center’s council chambers, and were interviewed the next day by Burkett, and police department and city staff panels.
An open house before the interviews allowed residents, area law enforcement authorities and City Council members to talk to the candidates.
The two panels reported back to Burkett on what they saw were the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses.
The candidates for the position are:
• Sheri Crain, acting Sequim police chief.
Lt. Crain has served the department since being initially hired as a patrol officer in February 1991.
• William “Bill” Dickinson, with 39 years of experience in the criminal justice field.
Now an investigator for the state, he is a former police chief of the SeaTac, Burien and Tigard, Ore., departments.
• Matthew “Matt” Kosec, a Port Townsend native whose family was in the funeral home business until 2000.
He is a police lieutenant in a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb and nationally recognized speaker and consultant on the use of community and government coalitions to address underage drinking.
• Todd Muilenberg, a lieutenant with the Scottsdale, Ariz., Police Department.
He was hired as a patrol officer in 1990 and worked his way up through the ranks.
• Julius “Phil” Schrenck, who has family roots in Sequim, deputy police chief in Sunnyside for almost 10 years.
He has a 21-year career with the Sunnyside Police Department.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.