SEQUIM — Three weeks after Police Chief Ken Burge left his post for a job in Tennessee, the city is no closer to filling the vacancy.
But that’s not a catastrophe, City Manager Bill Elliott says.
“We’re getting along just fine with the sergeants we have in place,” Elliott said.
“As far as I’m concerned, we want to do this right — to get the right person in there, rather than get one in quickly.”
Burge was considered “the right person” when he was hired in 2002 to replace retiring chief Byron Nelson.
But family on the East Coast led Burge and his wife to relocate to Alcoa, Tenn., leaving his position open one month shy of the two-year period which the executive search firm that found him guaranteed he would stay.
Waldron & Associates offers continued search assistance if a candidate they present doesn’t last two years, so Elliott has been working with the firm to find a chief eager to lead the department of 13 commissioned officers.
Unfortunately, Elliott said, there happens to be a glut of open positions for police chiefs throughout the nation, and the salary offered in Sequim — about $60,000 annually — might not lure anyone immediately.