{"id":2306,"date":"2012-09-11T14:59:02","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T18:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=2306"},"modified":"2012-09-11T17:15:24","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T21:15:24","slug":"coatesvilles-police-chief-candidate-withdraws-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=2306","title":{"rendered":"Coatesville’s police-chief candidate withdraws name"},"content":{"rendered":"

State police veteran did not comment on his decision, which came after a grueling meeting<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Updated at 5:15 p.m. with comment from City Council President<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/span><\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Councilwoman C. Arvilla Hunt, who opposed the selection of Maj. John “Jack” W. Laufer as police chief, assists newly-elected Council President David C. Collins with moving into the leadership seat.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the wake of a contentious City Council meeting last night that failed to resolve issues regarding permanent police leadership and dire financial woes, the announced candidate for police chief no longer wants the job.<\/p>\n

Maj. John \u201cJack\u201d W. Laufer III, a veteran of the state police, said this morning that he withdrew his name following the nearly 3\u00bd-hour meeting. He declined further comment.<\/p>\n

Laufer, currently the director of the state police Bureau of Training and Education, was one of two candidates selected by a search committee of diverse, well-regarded volunteers. The panel submitted the names to City Manager Kirby Hudson, who conducted additional interviews. Hudson announced last night that he had chosen Laufer to run the department, which has been plagued by understaffing and litigation – \u00a0a decision subject to approval by City Council.<\/p>\n

When the council voted, only four members were present: newly-elected President David C. Collins, Joseph Hamrick, Jarrell Brazzle and C. Arvilla Hunt. Councilwoman Ingrid Jones left midway through the meeting, and Councilmen Ed Simpson and Jeff LoPrinzi were absent. Citing medical issues, Simpson stepped down as president at the last meeting.<\/p>\n

Calling Laufer’s withdrawal unfortunate, Collins said this afternoon that Hudson would contact the second candidate recommended by the search committee. If that individual is no longer interested in the position, Collins said the panel would be asked if it recommended a third or fourth candidate. If not, the the search would start over, he said.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he feared that the city’s grim financial picture would impede the process, Collins said no. \u00a0“I believe that there are many qualified candidates in the area,” he said, adding that belt-tightening would have to occur in all the city’s departments. “The city has gotten too used to dipping into the trust fund … Our costs have to be in line with our revenues.”<\/p>\n

In casting the lone dissenting vote that prevented Laufer from getting majority approval, Hunt cited the city\u2019s red ink. Finance Director John Marcarelli reported last night that \u00a0without a $2.25 million infusion from the city’s reserve fund, Coatesville will be unable to meet its payroll for most of the remainder of the year.\u00a0Hunt said that Interim Police Chief James Bell is doing \u201ca great job,\u201d and because Bell is paid an estimated $15,000 less than the $90,000 salary Laufer would have received, she said there was no rush to replace him.<\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s appointment as interim chief generated a no-confidence letter from the Coatesville Police Benevolent Association, which accused the city of disregarding the minimum requirements it advertised for its police chief. Those\u00a0 qualifications include Act 120 certification and a bachelor\u2019s degree, which Bell lacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State police veteran did not comment on his decision, which came after a grueling meeting Updated at 5:15 p.m. with comment from City Council President By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times In the wake of a contentious City Council meeting last night that failed to resolve issues regarding permanent police leadership and dire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[126,24,773,774],"class_list":["post-2306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-city-council","tag-coatesville","tag-police-chief","tag-search"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}