Wauconda close to naming new police chief
Wauconda officials have settled on a candidate to be the town's next police chief.
Now, it's just a matter of making the appointment official with a village board vote.
Mayor Frank Bart and the village trustees unanimously agreed to offer the job to an undisclosed applicant during a closed-door meeting Tuesday night, Village Administrator Doug Maxeiner said.
The applicant has accepted the offer and must now complete pre-employment exams, including drug, psychological and polygraph tests, Maxeiner said. Wauconda officials are keeping the candidate's name and background secret until those tests are complete.
Maxeiner would only say the candidate works at a police department in Illinois.
The board could approve the hiring at its next meeting, Dec. 15, Maxeiner said. He expects the new chief will start the job during the last week of December.
Eighty-six people applied for the post. They came from 16 states and Canada.
Trustees interviewed seven candidates and recommended three finalists to Bart so he could make a formal nomination. It's up to the board to approve or reject that nomination.
"The quality of the candidates made the process easy in one aspect because it felt as if you couldn't go wrong in choosing from any number of candidates," Maxeiner said. "The final selection was overwhelmingly the top choice and a unanimous one between the board, mayor and myself."
Police Chief Patrick Yost retired this summer. He'd held the job since 2013.
Deputy Chief Thomas Bender has served as interim chief since the summer.