Mayor interviewing for new police chief, street commissioner

The City of Greencastle may have a new police chief before it gets a new street commissioner.

The oddity is, the street commissioner position has been open since late spring when Brad Phillips retired, while the police chief’s position won’t technically be open until Jan. 1 when Tom Sutherlin officially transitions into his new role as chief deputy under Sheriff-elect Jerrod Baugh in the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.

Mayor Bill Dory told the City Council at its July meeting that he interviewed four candidates for police chief last week and expects to interview prospects for street commissioner this week.

Both the street commissioner and police chief are mayoral appointments.

With no one filing an independent challenge and the Democrats failing to slate a sheriff’s candidate for the November election by last week, Baugh is assured of taking over Jan. 1 and taking Sutherlin with him.

Sutherlin has been open about his impending move. A year ago this week he could be seen marching in the Baugh-for-Sheriff entourage and he apparently has filed paperwork for his retirement from GPD, effective Dec. 31.

While there is no hurry to replace Sutherlin, the GPD management ranks thinned recently with the resignation of Assistant Chief Brian Hopkins, who has joined the federal agent ranks.

“We’ve got four good candidates who have expressed interest,” Dory said of the in-house hopefuls for chief, while noting that state statute calls for it to be an internal promotion.

The timetable calls for hiring the new chief first, Dory said, then the assistant chief, although they won’t start out in those positions.

“We’ll have a new chief who will actually serve as assistant chief until Tom goes to the Sheriff’s Department,” Dory said. “By January we want to have a management team ready to go.”

As for the street commissioner, Mayor Dory said there have been several applications. Andrew Rogers will continue in a interim role until a new Department of Public Work superintendent is named.

Meanwhile, GPD has also hired a new parking violation officer, Heather Fauber, to succeed the retiring Alicia Linton, whose last day with the department after 38 years was July 1.