Council interviews applicants for Citizens Police Review Board
The Columbia City Council held a work session Saturday to interview applicants for the Citizens Police Review Board.
Nineteen of the 20 applicants were interviewed in 15 minute intervals, with questions ranging from why they applied to what characteristics they might bring to the board.
Fourth Ward Councilman Jerry Wade said the interviews were going exceptionally well.
“We have an unbelievably competent pool of applicants," he said. “Sometimes you have trouble making decisions because you wish you had more applicants and they had better qualifications. This is just the opposite.”
The interviews ran from 8 a.m. to about 12:15 p.m. in the Mezzanine Conference room at City Hall. The final applicant will be interviewed on Monday during the council’s pre-meeting before the regular City Council meeting.
“We have one more interview during the work session then we will basically do the selection process and the final steps of the selection process and it will be toward the end of the meeting,” Wade said.
One of the applicants interviewed was forensic scientist Kim Gorman, who said the Review Board would help lay out the framework in the relationship between the police department and the community.
“I think it is very important that the police department and the community work as one,” she said during the interview.
Gorman has dealt with forensic matters for about 15 years and is accustomed to working with people of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Gorman is one of a range of occupations that has applied to the review board, with others including a prosecuting attorney, a former police officer and a member of the Columbia Housing Authority.