Interim Chief Price, NC’s Klamar will meet Council, Citizen’s Council, staff, public on Friday, May 17
By Mike McCombs
The City of Beaufort has narrowed its searched for a new Chief of Police to two finalists, and the public can become much more familiar with them on Friday, May 17, in three different events.
Beaufort’s Interim Police Chief Stephenie Price and Kenneth J. “Ken” Klamar, Chief of Police in Sunset Beach, N.C., are the two finalists for the job, left vacant when Chief Dale McDorman retired in January.
Price, acting as Beaufort’s Interim Chief for the past four months, called making the cut down to two finalists “humbling and an absolute honor.”
And Klamar told The Island News, “I’m excited to be this far in the process. I’m looking forward to meeting the city staff.”
The big day is Friday
The home stretch of the interview process, as well as the introduction of the finalists to the public, will happen Friday in three stages.
From 9 to 11 a.m., the two candidates will be interviewed by a Citizens’ Panel in the Police Department Training Room. Mayor Phil Cromer and each City Council member each appointed a citizen to this five-member panel.
City Manager Scott Marshall said he asked each member of the council to name one member of the community they’d like to serve on the committee. Marshall said if the city had taken applications for the committee, the process would have taken a considerable amount of time.
The panel includes Kay Merrill, Tim Newman, George O’Kelley, Fred Washington Jr., and Connie Hipp.
This event will include a Zoom link and be live streamed on the City’s Facebook page. The public is welcome to attend this event, either online or in person.
The second event will take place between 3 and 5 p.m., at a Special Meeting of City Council.
City Council will interview the finalists in the Police Department Training Room. Like the first, this meeting will include a Zoom invitation and will be live streamed on Facebook. Again, the public is invited to attend either online or in person.
Finally, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., the finalists will attend a meet-and-greet with members of the public in the foyer of City Hall.
Marshall said there would also be an event around midday at which the finalists would have the opportunity to meet with the senior staff of the Beaufort Police.
Price confirmed it is now common for municipalities to conduct searches for police chief in this manner, making an effort to “really involve the stakeholders.”
She called the process “community driven,” and said the goal is to hire a qualified individual that is both trustworthy and personable, who “can earn the trust of the community.”
Klamar said Beaufort’s approach “seems similar and in line” with several other interview processes he’s been through. “It’s a pretty thorough assessment.”
The search
According to Marshall, the City, with the assistance of Find Great People, a search firm the City retained, began the with 94 total applicants. After a series of interview rounds, that pool was whittled down to three, he told The Island News earlier this month.
“It has definitely not taken longer than I thought it would,” Marshall said of the search process. “I’ve had experience selecting police chiefs before, and it is definitely is not a quick process.”
Marshall said, there were roughly a dozen candidates that the recruiter felt were best qualified for the position. From those, Marshall said he chose nine that he wanted to interview, initially, then narrowed it to five. Those candidates were interviewed by Marshall, City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Chief Tim Ogden, and City of Beaufort Human Resources Director Ivette Burgess.
“I looked at education, experience level, were they a chief before, or the potential to be a police chief,” Marshall said.
More than once in the search, Marshall said, the City had to replace a candidate that removed themselves from the process. All dropped out for different reasons, he said.
“We had 3 finalists identified, then one of the finalists dropped out,” Marshall said.
Marshall said they went back through the candidates that interviewed during the semifinal round and found a replacement still interested in the position.
“Then that candidate dropped out,” Marshall said.
Then Marshall said, after they added another candidate to replace the second who dropped out, it happened again, leaving two finalists once more. Then another candidate withdrew.
“We got back to three again,” Marshall said, “Then that person that we added dropped out and left us down to two. And then one of those two dropped out, and then we added another candidate.”
Eventually, Marshall said the City settled on just two finalists.
“They are both strong candidates,” he said.
Marshall confirmed a person of color, at least initially, was a finalist for the position.
“Yes,” Marshall said. “… We had a person of color in our finalist round, one of the people that dropped out.”
Should Price be hired, she would be Beaufort’s first female Chief of Police.
Despite the shake-ups among the finalists, Marshall said he decided to stick with the May 17 date for the finale of the interview process, citing the difficulty of making sure all involved parties were available, including Mayor Cromer, the City Council, the Citizens’ Panel, and the finalists.
The finalists
These are the biographies of the two finalists as released by the City of Beaufort.
Chief Kenneth J. Klamar: Klamar has been in law enforcement for 29 years and has been police chief of Sunset Beach, N.C., a town with 4,400 full-time residents, since 2017. Before that, he was police chief for Perkins Township in Sandusky, Ohio, for eight years.
Klamar has a Bachelor’s of Criminal Justice Administration from Tiffin University, and a Master’s in Criminal Behavior Analysis from the University of Cincinnati. He is a graduate of the Police Executive Leadership College and the FBI National Academy.
Klamar is an adjunct professor for Columbia Southern University and trains area educators and professionals on topics including workplace and school violence, and emergency planning. He is an advisory board member for the North Carolina Training and Standards Basic Law Enforcement Training and serves on the training committee for the North Carolina Chiefs of Police Association. He is also regional director of that association, serving nine counties in southeastern North Carolina.
Interim Chief Stephenie Price: Price was appointed Interim Chief of the Beaufort Police Department following the retirement of former Chief McDorman earlier this year. She joined the Police Department as Deputy Chief in February 2023. Previously, she was Chief of Police for the Town of Bluffton Police Department beginning in 2020, after serving as Assistant Police Chief in Savannah beginning in 2019. Price spent most of her earlier career with the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, which she joined in 1999. She rose to the rank of Central Patrol Division captain by 2019. In Kansas City, she worked in financial services, drug enforcement, vice, domestic violence, and internal affairs. Since joining the Beaufort Police Department, she has begun initiatives bolstering community relations, youth engagement, crime prevention, and transparency and communication.
Price earned a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from Park University and an MBA from Benedictine University. She is a graduate of the Center for Homeland Defense Executive Leaders Program, the FBI LEEDA Command Institute for Law Enforcement Executives, and she recently obtained a certification from the International City Management Association, Local Government 101.
The decision
Marshall told The Island News earlier this month that he was “looking for the best candidate.”
“I’d like it to be someone very personable and someone who can engage with the community,” he said.
According to the job listing posted earlier this year, candidates must “exhibit integrity and ethical leadership, knowledge of effective policing strategies, such as Community Policing and 21st Century Policing, and expertise in developing appropriate policies and procedures that will positively affect the Department as it works to meet the City’s strategic goals for public safety. Experience addressing complex issues requiring collaboration and partnerships to resolve, like homelessness, could be particularly of interest.”
Candidates should have a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice or a related field (both finalists do); a Master’s of Public Administration or related degree is preferred. They should have at least 10 years of progressively responsible experience, with at least five years in a significant supervisory position (both finalists meet this threshold).
The chief will oversee a department of approximately 60 people, and report to the city manager. The salary range is from $100,000 to $120,000 a year.
“I will want feedback from the committee, the council and our senior staff, as well as any public feedback,”Marshall said. “And then, I’ll make an informed decision.”
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
