Township narrows search for chief

UPPER POTTSGROVE >> Township officials have narrowed to three the number of candidates being considered to be the township’s new police chief.

Former chief Francis Wheatley resigned last month to take a job as chief in his home town of Upper Dublin Township.

Wheatley has been involved in helping to select his replacement and the township commissioners Monday night interviewed the final three candidates recommended by Wheatley and Township Manager Michelle Reddick.

Commissioners’ Chairman Trace Slinkerd said the board hopes to make a final selection this month.

Reddick said Wheatley’s last day was June 28.

At the June 17 meeting when Wheatley resigned, Upper Pottsgrove Police Cpl. Al Werner was unanimously appointed acting chief.

Wheatley said Werner has 18 years with the department, is working through his master’s degree and has attended leadership and management classes, including one through the FBI, according to the minutes of the June 17 meeting.

“The chief said he feels very comfortable leaving Cpl.l Werner in charge,” according to the minutes.

According to the minutes “the chief wanted the public to know that he was not looking for a new position; a job opened up in the town where he grew up and started his law enforcement career and they reached out to him to apply for the job to replace the retiring chief of police.”

“I feel I was called back home,” Wheatley said about his new job in a recent interview with Montgomery News.

The chief position was advertised in a chiefs of police magazine and Wheatley and Reddick went through “stacks of resumes,” Slinkerd said.

“We asked them to recommend three candidates to the board,” Slinkerd said.

Those three interviews were conducted during a closed-door executive session before Monday’s meeting.

Wheatley was hired in 2015 and during his time in Upper Pottsgrove oversaw the hiring of three new officers, increased security in the police building, purchased new rifles and handguns and oversaw the installation of a new computer server, according to the minutes.

EVAN BRANDT — MEDIANEWS GROUP Upper Pottsgrove Police Cpl. Al Werner, right, has been named acting police chief in the wake of Francis Wheatley’s resignation last month.

MEDIANEWS GROUP FILE PHOTO Upper Pottsgrove Police Chief Francis Wheatley, right, who served briefly as the township’s acting township manager, resigned in June to become police chief in his home town of Upper Dublin.