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Mitchell hired as Ronan police chief

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RONAN – After eight months of scrutiny and the resignation of two police chiefs, the Ronan City Council hired John Mitchell to lead its police department on Jan. 21 and created more stringent health and residency requirements for future officers.

“We’ve been dealing with this since June and I think the message we were trying to send was that we were going to bring somebody in from the outside,” Councilmember Chris Adler said.  “We were going to get everybody POST-certified. We were going to show Helena, as well as everybody in the public, that we were going to play by the rules and do what we needed to here. I’m just tired of it getting drawn out.”

In July 2013 the Montana Public Officer Standards and Training Council stripped longtime Police Chief Dan Wadsworth of his law enforcement certifications because he allegedly falsified the documents so his son could attend the Montana Law Enforcement Academy. Wadsworth denied the allegations and said that a disgruntled former employee tampered with documentation that proved his innocence. Wadsworth has appealed the case to the Montana Board of Crime Control.

Montana POST Council also questioned the legality of Ronan’s reserve officer program. The program included between four and five uncertified officers, according to Mayor Kim Aipperspach. Montana POST Council argued Ronan needed to have a full-time, certified police force instead of relying heavily on reserves. The city council suspended the reserve program on Sept. 16, 2013, with intent of reviving it at a later date.

The city began the hiring process for officers and sent Mitchell to the law enforcement academy. Mitchell graduated in December 2013. James Garcia, a former Montana State Prison guard and military policeman is currently at the academy. Officer Tim Case, who graduated from the academy in December 2013, was hired in January.

Valent Maxwell was brought in from Klawok, Alaska, to serve as police chief, but he lasted only 11 weeks on the job. An officer and Aipperspach gave two separate accounts of Maxwell’s departure from the city. The officer said Maxwell resigned on Jan. 11, only a few days after the city council scrutinized his job performance. Aipperspach said he served Maxwell with a letter of termination on an undetermined date after the questioning session.

Adler said he favored promoting Mitchell to chief after the failed attempt to bring an outsider into the mix.

“I know we were worried about the good old boys system, but I feel from what I’ve been hearing that John has taken up the brunt of the work here,” Adler said. “I think after he’s done the academy that we expected him to do, it’s his turn to try. However, I will say that I will be watching (him) like a hawk.”

Clerk Kaylene Melton said Mitchell has been the administrator of the department since September 2012 and stressed that it isn’t necessary to seek outside candidates for chief to change the direction of the department.

“John has already expressed many, many things (he would) liked changed, but he’s never had the authority,” Melton said. “He’s just been doing the work.”

Other council members, employees and officers voiced support for Mitchell. Officer Pat Noble said Mitchell’s leadership made recent turmoil in the department more bearable.

“Any time that we have a question or need any help, he’s there,” Noble said. “That man puts in more hours that this town will never know about that he will never get recognized for. I just can’t believe it. It gets pretty bad when a lowly peon like me says ‘You’re taking a weekend off. If you come in, I’m kicking you out of town.’”

Mitchell gave some ideas on how to improve the department.

“We’ve never had real structure,” Mitchell said. “I just want to see where we have regular meetings and keep up with county, keep up with the tribe. Basically get it where the guy comes on and he knows what happened the night before – basically just good structure and accountability.”

The council voted unanimously to hire Mitchell, and set new guidelines for officer fitness and residency. Officers will have to live within a 15-minute commute of city limits under the new policy. No officers currently live within city limits, Aipperspach said. 

Future officers will have to undergo a health screening, although council members could not agree how in-depth that screening would be.

Dr. Ed Vizcarra said it would be difficult for a health screening to detect a controlled medical condition, like diabetes, which Maxwell claimed may have caused instances of memory loss when he was questioned by council members.

“We want to put them through a run to make sure they aren’t going to fall over somewhere while wearing a badge and a gun,” Adler said.

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