The search for a permanent West Tisbury police chief suddenly turned from straightforward to complicated this week, beginning on Tuesday when selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter 3rd, who is also a longtime sergeant on the force, turned up as a name on a list of four finalists recommended by a town search committee. Then two days later, a letter surfaced signed by eight of the nine members of the town police force endorsing acting chief Dan Rossi for the job.

Mr. Rossi is also a finalist. The other finalists are a Connecticut deputy chief and a New York city lieutenant with the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

“Dan is a tenacious, determined and sincere man who has proved that he can develop and maintain the core foundation of our police department, and we are confident in his future success,” said the letter from the West Tisbury officers. Dated July 9, 2010, (around the same time the search committee was formed this summer) the letter was sent to selectmen sometime late last week or early this week, said town administrator Jennifer Rand, who said she does not time-stamp letters.

Mr. Manter is the only person on the force who did not sign the letter. He also did not attend the special selectmen’s meeting Tuesday when the finalists were announced. Upon learning that Mr. Manter had been named a finalist, selectmen Richard Knabel and Cynthia Mitchell agreed to refer the matter to town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport before proceeding any further in the search.

But at the regular Wednesday afternoon selectmen’s meeting, Mr. Manter announced that he will declare by next week whether he will withdraw his candidacy for police chief and remain on the board of selectmen, or resign from his position as selectman to pursue the job of police chief.

Mr. Manter could not be reached for comment yesterday. His legacy is long in West Tisbury, where both his father and grandfather were police chief.

On Monday morning the search committee that had been charged with reviewing applicants submitted a list of four finalists — one more than the board had requested.

“Four names even though we had asked for three,” said selectman Richard Knabel to police chief search committee chairman Bob Wasserman. “Evidently you couldn’t come to any conclusion on three?” he added.

“I think the committee believed that all four — that we couldn’t make a cut between one and the other,” replied Mr. Wasserman.

The search committee screened a total of 16 applications from as far away as Washington state. It held preliminary interviews with six candidates before narrowing the field to the final four.

In addition to Mr. Rossi and Mr. Manter, the other two candidates are Donald B. Hull, deputy police chief in Canton, Conn., and Christian Pedoty, police lieutenant for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York city.

The committee also recommended to the selectmen a process in which the four remaining candidates will interview both with the selectmen in public and also in an open session in which each of them would give a 10 to 15-minute presentation on an issue posed by the search committee.

Selectman Cynthia Mitchell lauded the process.

“Last time we hired a police chief it is my recollection that there was a community public session at which I think at that time there were seven candidates that addressed the community, and it was an extremely valuable exercise and I appreciate the recommendation of the committee,” she said.

Mr. Knabel said the selectmen would wait to hear from counsel on the question of Mr. Manter’s eligibility before moving ahead to schedule interviews.

Meanwhile, on Monday selectmen voted to extend indefinitely Mr. Rossi’s appointment as acting chief. Mr. Rossi was named to the interim position in April following the planned retirement of Chief Beth Toomey, who had the job for 16 years.