by Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com reporter
MOUNT VERNON — The formal appointment of Sgt. Roger Monroe as the city’s next police chief will be completed within a month according to Mayor Richard Mavis. Mavis said he received certification on Friday from Tony DeIuliis, the city’s Civil Service administrator, that Monroe averaged a passing grade when his examination and assessment results were combined.
“The mayor makes the appointment,” said Mavis, “and we have 30 days after receiving an official score to make the appointment. I told Roger I wanted to have a series of hour-long meetings to get acquainted with him and to tell him what we expect and of things he needs to be aware of. We want to be able to discuss things that have come up in his 25-year history with the Mount Vernon Police Department, and we expect to hear from him what he would change. He was very receptive to having these discussions.”
Monroe and Capt. George Hartz, who is serving as interim chief, were the only two candidates who qualified under the Civil Service process to take the chief’s exam; Hartz did not pass, leaving Monroe the sole candidate for the position. During Monday’s City Council meeting, Councilman Sam Barone commented on the process.
“We hear increasingly from residents how important our safety services are,” he said. “We are talking about a very important position and the fact that our administration is limited to an up or down vote on one person…is disappointing and a tragedy.”
Barone said he has nothing against Monroe and his comments are not directed specifically toward Monroe, but added that the limited pool of candidates to choose from is “a direct result of being in the small, dwindling number of communities” still governed under a statutory municipal government structure.
Ohio law provides for two types of municipal structure: statutory, which is subject to provisions under the Ohio Revised Code, and charter or home rule, which allows municipalities more flexibility in writing their codes. The 2010 Census lists 241 cities in Ohio; the Ohio Municipal League reports about 75 percent of them have home rule. Having a statutory government requires the city to abide by specific Civil Service requirements relating to the promotion of police chiefs; there is no discretion. Under home rule, a municipality can create its own Civil Service codes that include recruitment options.
“If we were a charter city with the same configuration [of mayor and council] but with the ability to make our own decision, we would be looking at a larger pool of candidates,” said Barone. “We’d be able to go out and look for a candidate with experience in drug enforcement.”
“I’m an advocate of statutory government,” said Vail, declining to elaborate further. Today, Vail said, “There’s a lot more to charter government than just this one small issue. There is a safety in statutory government that becomes an X quantity in charter government.”
