UPDATE – (Oct. 23, 2017) – Blaine has hired Brian Podany as their next police chief. He will start on Nov. 27, 2017.
“This is a specialty, to recruit a police chief,” said Blaine City Manager Clark Arneson. “We retained a firm called SGR out of Dallas, and they do this across the country.”
With the search firm on board the position was posted and applicants started rolling in. They started with 46 applicants from twelve states. They narrowed the field to twelve candidates through online interviews.
Another round of cuts where made and the final five candidates were identified. The finalists are Mark Bruley, who works as Brooklyn Park’s deputy chief of police; Brian Podany, who works as the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office commander of the patrol division; John Swenson, the public safety director for the city of Lino Lakes; Daniel Szykulski, who is the current interim chief of police in Blaine; and Kathy Waite, who works as a precinct inspector for the Minneapolis Police Department. Those five were put through a long two-day interview this week.
At the meet and greet session the candidates had a chance to interact with Mayor Tom Ryan and to meet with residents.
“I’ve been in law enforcement myself for twenty-nine years, I live in the city, and I’m very interested in the process that they are going to go through to pick the chief,” said Jim Bayer, explaining why he came to the event.
“This is a long process and a tough one,” said Mayor Tom Ryan.
The final decision will be made by Arneson and could be publicly announced by the end of the month. And, he is looking for the candidate that will be the best fit for Blaine.
“It’s about fit for the city of Blaine and who can be the best leader going forward for the community,” said Arneson.
The final five all have more than 20 years of experience and the decision will be difficult.
“You’ve got terrific people here and a wide variety of experience,” said Mayor Ryan.
“I can tell you we’ve got five top notch candidates here and five very high quality people,” said Arneson.
