Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 2, 1990                   TAG: 9003023505
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

129 SEEK CHIEF'S POSITION COUNTY EXPECTS FEW MORE APPLICATIONS

The applications "look like a good mix," Keith Cook, county personnel director, said.

The applicants included people from the Roanoke Valley, Southwest Virginia, across the state and the country, Cook said.

Four deputies in the county Sheriff's department also applied for the chief's job, sources said.

The chief is being hired to head up law-enforcement activities in the county because voters approved a referendum in November calling for the creation of a police department.

Voters overwhelmingly defeated a similar referendum seeking to take law-enforcement duties away from an elected sheriff in 1986. The approval in November came on a 15,738 to 13,098 vote.

The vote appeared to support the contention by the Board of Supervisors that county residents were unhappy with Sheriff Mike Kavanaugh's performance in the two years he's been in office.

County officials plan for the department to begin operating July 1, and have said they hope to hire the new chief by May 1. But County Administrator Elmer Hodge said Thursday the hiring process may take somewhat longer than anticipated.

"It's going to go as quickly as it can, but it's going to be a fair, thorough process," Hodge said. "I'm very pleased with the applications we received."

Hodge said the screening process will begin in the county personnel department, which will review all applications against the guidelines in the advertisement for chief. "Those that obviously don't qualify will be taken out," he said.

The remaining applications will be sent to an advisory committee Hodge established to help him select the chief. That committee consists of the police chiefs from Roanoke, Salem and Vinton, county Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart, Fire Chief Tommy Fuqua, Assistant County Administrator Don Myers, and Cook.

The committee will rank those applications and give Hodge its top 10 choices for chief, the county administrator said.

Those 10 finalists will then participate in an assessment conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

This is a series of tests specifically designed to present applicants with simulated challenges they would face as Roanoke County police chief, said Kim Kohlhepp, manager of the IACP center for testing services.

County officials, who have contracted with the IACP to conduct the assessment, will meet with evaluators and tell them exactly what sorts of challenges they expect the chief to face. An assessment center will then be custom-designed to fit the county's needs, Kohlhepp said.

Applicants will be placed in situations they would face as chief and would show evaluators how they would react. The center is designed to evaluate eight managerial skills, such as oral and written communications, judgment, planning and organization, and delegation, Kohlhepp said.

Evaluators will rank the 10 finalists and present Hodge with those names.

The county administrator then will interview a top few of the 10 finalists and make his choice.

Hodge said it always has been his practice to interview "all qualified in-house applicants" for any job that is posted. The advisory committee will determine which applicants from inside the sheriff's department are qualified for the position, however, he said.