Council pauses fire‑chief appointment after questions about interview panel and background checks

The Hollywood Park City Council on Aug. 25 pulled a scheduled appointment of a new fire chief from the meeting agenda to address procedural steps required by the town’s hiring ordinance and state licensing rules.

Mayor Drash opened the item by saying he would remove it from the agenda and recommended either tabling the appointment or completing required steps first. He said, "I'm going to pull that from the agenda," and invited council direction. Councilors and staff then discussed the town ordinance that sets an interview panel and pre-interview background checks.

City staff said the ordinance envisioned a panel interview that included two fire chiefs plus council representation. Staff reported that one finalist missed an interview because the external chiefs could not find a common time; one councilmember and the mayor interviewed the candidate instead. The city attorney’s guidance, as relayed by the mayor, was that the council could either accept the process as it occurred or follow the ordinance procedure by scheduling the outstanding panel interview and completing the required background checks before appointment.

Police and other staff explained the background-check options. Chief Fred Pritchard (speaking in his police role) described two levels: an open-source background check the department can run quickly and a full fingerprint-based law-enforcement background — discussed in the meeting as the TCO/TCOLE background — that is more intrusive, requires original documentation and can take three to six weeks depending on the candidate and workload. Pritchard told the council the department’s open-source checks give a good indication of a candidate’s record but said statutory TCOLE checks are required for certain peace-officer or fire-marshal appointments before the person can assume those specific duties.

Council members discussed options: (1) proceed with full background checks for top candidates and set up the missing panel interview (including remote Zoom participation for the external chiefs); (2) accept the way the screening had been conducted and move ahead; or (3) table the item until the full statutory steps are completed. Several council members favored re-interviewing the one candidate by Zoom and completing criminal checks on finalists before any appointment.

Ending: The council did not appoint anyone at the workshop. The mayor removed the item from the agenda for follow-up; staff were directed to schedule the outstanding panel interview and begin the appropriate candidate background checks as required by ordinance and state licensing rules.