City Should Iron Out Hiring Process For Steele

To let anyone but Cheryl Steele oversee Spokane’s neighborhood police station program would be like “midwifing at a difficult birth, then firing the mother.”

So says Marilyn Trail, community resource coordinator of Washington State University’s Family Focus Project.

Steele, the activist who helped launch COPS West, Spokane’s first neighborhood police substation, was a temporary, part-time employee of the Spokane Police Department, in charge of the expanding substation project, when the Spokane Civil Service Commission said her work exceeded the limits for temporary, part-time employees.

Rather than open the job to competitive selection, the City Council contracted the project, using tax dollars, to a new non-profit organization, Spokane COPS.

On Tuesday, “Bagpipes” asked readers if Steele’s background logically entitles her to the job, as Police Chief Terry Mangan and Spokane COPS leaders believe, or if the letter of the law should apply.

“Logic,” says City Councilman Chris Anderson, the only council member to oppose the contract, “would suggest that we have a responsibility to assure that the best, most-qualified person for the role is hired in a fair, objective and quantifiable process, not simply surmise that that’s the case because one person, the chief, says subjectively that he ‘thinks so.”’

Among other responses:

James A. Nelson: “She’s certainly proved she can handle it, and in many ways I think this is far more important than a test.”

Dennis Flynn: “If everyone is so sure she’s the best for the job, then there should be no problem with Ms. Steele following these (fair-hiring) procedures.”

Cindy Algeo: “While fair-hiring procedures are important, they can make government focus more on constraints than tending to its task of serving its citizens.”

Helen Bowlin: “Let her compete against other people who are probably just as well-qualified or can learn the job quickly.”

Paul Unger: “I once had to contact Cheryl Steele about a young man in our neighborhood who was heading toward a life of crime. Money can’t buy the kind of personal concern and dedication she puts into her job. She is a true civil servant. Of course she should be hired as the COPS project coordinator.”

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