Tensions Evident Between Wymore Council And Police Department Advisory Committee

By Gordon HopkinsTensions were evident between the Wymore City Council and Police Department Advisory Committee (PDAC) at a meeting on Wednesday, April 2, to discuss progress in hiring a new police chief.The City of Wymore has been without a police department since June of 2024, when Wymore Police Chief Bobby Martinez submitted his resignation just 10 months after he started on the job. Chief Martinez was the city’s only law enforcement officer, although he had been attempting to hire more before his departure. PDAC was created because of the difficulties of finding, hiring and retaining law enforcement officers, which is occurring not just in Wymore or in Nebraska but across the country.PDAC met on March 10. Wymore City Councilperson Neil VanBoening, who also serves on the PDAC, gave a report at the city council meeting, “I sensed a high level of frustration. The PDAC wants to create a hiring and application process in which the PDAC is involved. I was impressed that the committee members are willing and desires to be a working committee and not merely a rubber stamp for either the executive branch decisions or the council’s decisions.”“They’d like to establish a transparent hiring process that all the parties are aware and knowledgeable of the status of the applicants, and a substantial PDAC presence on the interview committee and report on what department activities are in process now,” said VanBoening. “If we don’t have a process here, why are we here? And we don’t.” A major sticking point is background checks for applicants. City Councilperson Max Allen said, “I think that they (PDAC) should know, and they should be privy to what applications have been submitted and by who. But as far as to your point, when the investigations are done into their backgrounds, quite honestly, there are some things that are turned up that maybe they don’t want everybody to be privy to.”Background checks are conducted by Fire Chief Mark Meintz, who is acting police chief, “It all is confidential. I have to sign that it’s confidential, so I will not give my background check to nobody but the city council in executive session.” During the meeting, it was revealed that there were three applicants for police chief have been received. Meintz said, “You have applications. I’ve had the backgrounds done on them for a month and a half, something like that. We brought it to the council in executive session.”No offers have been made to any of those applicants. The mayor and council declined to say why no offers were made.Allen said, “I would like to see their involvement. I would like to see their participation. They’re working hard for this. I think that we should keep them included. I think we could give them information, as long as that information is is managed and move forward.”“So, we’ve established that there is a set criteria for doing background checks that established by the state that you have to follow for police officers,” said Allen. “And established that we are going to share the applications with Police Advisory Committee. But there is going to be some privacy things put in place so that we can.” Mayor Collin Meintz said the PDAC would be involved once an applicant has bee approved for an interiew. “I’m not opposed at all to any of that if it gets to the interview point, but in order to be able to interview, we have to have a contingent offer in place before you can interview.”“If you read the city ordinance, what the mayor’s responsibility is, is to review the applications and do the hiring,”said Mayor Meintz. “Yes, there was intentions of including you (PDAC) at the interviewing point.”

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