A Field of Candidates Narrows to Three for Town Police Chief

By MAX HART

A veteran patrolman of the Tisbury police department and two
off-Island officers are among the finalists for police chief in Tisbury.

Daniel Hanavan, who has worked for the Tisbury police for 17 years,
was named as a finalist this week along with John Cashin, a captain with
the police department in Norwalk, Conn., and Lieut. Kenneth Harrison of
the Weymouth police department. The Tisbury selectmen now will conduct
separate, 45-minute interviews with each candidate on Tuesday, July 18.
The interviews are open to the public and begin at 5 p.m. in the
Katharine Cornell Theatre.

The trio was recommended to selectmen at their meeting Tuesday night
by a town search committee, which culled through 18 resumés and
held several months' worth of interviews before deciding on the
three.

"I think what impressed us the most may have been their desire
to get in with and really understand the town and people of
Tisbury," search committee member Jeff Kristal said yesterday.
"All handled the process admirably and professionally and there is
no doubt that any one of the three would bring respect to the position
and be admired by anyone on the street. It is a very professional group
of men."

Mr. Hanavan is already well-known in town; he joined the Tisbury
police department in 1989. Mr. Cashin is a 25-year policeman who became
a sergeant in 1989, was promoted to lieutenant in 1998 and then to
captain three years later. Mr. Harrison started as a patrolman in the
Brewster police department in 1975 and moved to Weymouth two years
later, where he eventually rose to rank of lieutenant.

"The process was very involved," town administrator John
Bugbee said. "There was the initial review of all the
resumés sent in, telephone interviews with qualified candidates
and then after further cuts were made, we held in-person interviews. We
feel these are very strong candidates."

The vacancy at the top of the department arose last year after
selectmen could not come to financial terms with former police chief
Theodore (Ted) Saulnier, whose contract expired on June 30, 2005. Under
the terms of that contract, Mr. Saulnier was allowed one year to stay in
the position. He left the department last month while the search
committee was conducting interviews for his replacement.

Following the interviews, the search committee will again meet with
selectmen to discuss the candidates. A new chief likely will be named
after the board discusses the matter in executive session later this
month.

At the meeting on Tuesday, selectmen debated the process for next
Tuesday's interviews - specifically, whether there should be
a question-and-answer session with the public. The selectmen agreed to
allow questions from the audience, but only in written form and
submitted prior to the interview.

"We want to stay away from anything personal," chairman
Tristan Israel said. "We are looking for general questions from
the community."