NEWS
Time running out for police chief candidates
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by Megan Costello
Wednesday, September 8, 2004
In an effort to nominate a new police chief for the city of Madison, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz appointed a fifth member to the Police and Fire Commission today at the City Council meeting.
Cieslewicz appointed Shiva Bidar-Sielaff to the PFC in an attempt to speed up the nomination for the city’s next police chief. Bidar-Sielaff’s appointment will not be finalized until after a confirmation vote at the City Council’s Sept. 21 meeting.
The PFC will have until Sept. 21 to nominate a police chief. If a nomination does not occur, Bidar-Sielaff will officially be appointed into the commission by the City Council.
If the decision is not made by Sept. 21, the selection of a new police chief could be pushed further back because Bidar-Sielaff will have to go through the interview process like other PFC members have previously done. Bidar-Sielaff will have to complete the entire selection process before she can vote, according to the mayor’s assistant Melanie Conklin.
“The mayor is not allowed to have anything to do with appointing police chiefs other than appoint people into the PFC to make a decision,” Conklin said.
Since former Police Chief Richard Williams’ retirement in April, the PFC has been through several lengthy closed-door sessions without a chosen police chief. The selection was expected to be made in August, but the deadlocked PFC made no final decision at that time.
The commission is considering three candidates: Madison police officers’ acting Chief Noble Wray, Capt. Cheri Maples and Sgt. Mike Koval, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
In appointing Bidar-Sielaff to the commission, the mayor did not want to know Bidar-Sielaff’s preferences on who should be the city’s next police chief. According to Conklin, knowing Bidar-Sielaff’s position on the matter would be treading on the boundaries of the executive branch.
“When the mayor was selecting [Bidar-Sielaff], he told her he wasn’t going to ask her who she was going to vote for and she said she wouldn’t tell him even if had asked,” Conklin said.
Conklin added Bidar-Sielaff’s outspoken nature may help push the PFC out of deadlock if need be.
Regardless, Conklin said the mayor believes Bidar-Sielaff will be an asset to the PFC.
“She’s very intelligent and she’s outspoken when she needs to be,” Conklin said. “She will be a good voice on the commission, even if she isn’t a part of choosing the next police chief.”
Bidar-Sielaff grew up in Spain and obtained a B.A. degree from the School of International Interpreters, University Hainaut in Belgium and an M.A. from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif., according to a press release. She speaks English, Spanish, French and Farsi.
Bidar-Sielaff is on the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care and was awarded the Dane County Public Health Leadership Award for Multicultural Health Care in 2002. In the same year, she was named one of the 50 most influential people in Madison by Madison Magazine.
