After months without an active police chief, deliberations towards filling the position are still lingering. The Police and Fire Commission convened Wednesday night in a closed-session meeting, attempting to finalize a vote for an active chief.
A declared chief’s name was not released at press time. The PFC will vote on the issue at another scheduled closed-session meeting.
The three candidates in consideration are Acting Chief of Police Noble Wray, Capt. Cheri Maples and Sgt. Mike Koval.
PFC members Gretchen Lowe, John Talis, Michael Lawton, Shiva Bidar-Sielaff and LaMarr Billups deliberated for hours in the Madison Municipal Building.
Currently, Wray presides over the Madison Police Department. He took over after former police chief Richard Williams retired in April 2004.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz appointed Bidar-Sielaff as the fifth member to the commission in an effort to break the deadlocked committee. Bidar-Sielaff was appointed in September and was unanimously inaugurated by the city council.
“People from the policy makers to the police department are really eager to move forward [with a nomination] because we’re in the middle of budget season,” Melanie Conklin, mayoral spokeswoman, said in a previous interview with the Badger Herald.
Bidar-Sielaff has had to undergo a review process for each candidate applying for the position.
Since she was admitted to the committee late, this backlog has taken some time. Bidar- Sielaff has gone through the initial application screening, which included a review of all written examination responses, interviews and background checks.
“Noble Wray is doing great job as acting chief, but he does not want to make policy decisions that may or may not be his to make,” Conklin said. “Everyone is eager to have a chief that is in place to set policy.”
Bidar-Sielaff grew up in Spain and obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the School of International Interpreters at the University of Hainaut in Belgium and a Master of Arts from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif. She speaks English, Spanish, French and Farsi and was named one of the 50 most influential people in Madison by Madison Magazine, according to a release.
