Chief Dolan

The good news: Minneapolis is trying to promote from within for a police chief; Mayor Rybak has nominated Tim Dolan for the job:

Dolan, 51, has long been considered the frontrunner for the job and has run the department since Bill McManus left in April to become police chief in San Antonio.

After decades of going to outsiders - like the disastrous New Yorkers Tony Bouza and Bob Olson, and Bill McManus, the former Dayton chief who only tolerated two years of Minneapolis' schizoid City Council before scramming for San Antonio - finally, an insider.

It can't hurt.

Of course there's bad news!:

Rybak will need at least seven council votes to confirm Dolan's nomination. So far, an informal poll showed he has at least five supporters on the council.

Another five members are undecided on issues ranging from community relations to being strong and direct with a powerful police union. Two council members, Ralph Remington and Scott Benson, said they would not vote for Dolan.

Remington called the selection process for chief "secretive and perfunctory."The process is flawed; therefore the selection is flawed," he said, adding that the city missed a chance to nominate a black. He said that such a candidate could make an impact in a community wracked by violence. Forty-four people have been killed in Minneapolis this year.

Minneapolis' weak-mayor system, combined with a City Council that is both very strong and terminally-beholden to special interests, is a formidable obstacle for any candidate who's not both supernaturally tough on crime and doesn't have superhuman social and political sensitivity.

Minneapolis will not get a "perfect" police chief (by City Council standards) until science not only learns how to build androids, but build them by committee.

Posted by Mitch at September 12, 2006 06:24 AM | TrackBack