Best police chief candidate in C.R.

Last week's open house allowing residents to meet and speak with the seven candidates for police chief was a great opportunity. I took advantage and met each of the candidates. Some of them were very impressive. Some were decidedly unimpressive.

I asked each a couple of questions and each gave me a different answer as to why they would want to lead our police force. A few of the answers made me feel the transition would be skewed more toward advancing the career of the candidate than providing a benefit to the community.

However, there was one exception. He has a proven track record, shown great leadership, knows our community, has intimate knowledge of our police force and has expressed a vision of what our police force should be and how to build and strengthen it for the future.

I am talking about Cedar Rapids' own Capt. Steve O'Konek, who spent time at the helm leading our force after Chief Greg Graham's departure. While running a search can be helpful in vetting the options to ensure that the best candidate is selected, wouldn't it be nice to have the process show that we didn't need to look any further than our own backyard to find the best? The icing on the cake for O'Konek's selection is that the cash-strapped city wouldn't have to pay relocation expenses.

I hope that City Manager Jeff Pomeranz and the City Council decide that they didn't have to search very far to find the best candidate.

Patrick DePalma

Cedar Rapids