There’s a story over at the Gazette that mentions the departure of Whitewater’s Chief Coan, an amount of money that he may owe Whitewater under contract, and the selection of a new police chief. (That process begins, but only begins, tonight.)
I’d be surprised if he doesn’t request to keep the ten thousand; there will be a few who insist that the by-the-letter standard that Coan’s leadership expected of ordinary residents not be applied to him.
It’s much harder still when someone describes Coan’s tenure with the observation that “he raised the standards in the department considerably.”
Opinions like that are not at issue in a request by the chief to withhold this amount from the city. The issue should not be conflated with other views.
Beyond this, our best course would be a serious search for a new chief through an independent firm. There will be, also, insistence against that course (with the false excuse that there’s no money for a search. We have money for all sorts of things, but there will be an unwillingness — a stubborn resistance — from some against an independent search.)
There will be an interim chief, but the easier and worse course would be to pick a final replacement without a pool provided from a serious, independent search firm.
For the story, see Whitewater police chief might have to pay to resign post — GazetteXtra.