Board of Police Commissioners hiring process for key position in limbo

Just when it appeared the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC) was making headway on filling a key vacancy on its staff, the board may have to take a step back.

The board, which provides oversight to the Detroit Police Department, had been planning to have interviews with three board secretary candidates to take place during its meeting on Thursday. However, one candidate declined to move forward and another may not be eligible for the job.

“It seems probable there’ll be some level of restart,” Board Chair QuanTez Pressley told Outlier Media after the interviews.

A city contractor — and U.S. congressional hopeful

During her interview with the board, Shakira Hawkins said that after the pandemic started, she worked for the city’s Department of Appeals and Hearings as a hearings officer, later joining the blight team in the city’s Law Department.

The city charter and BOPC’s bylaws say the secretary cannot have worked as an employee within three years prior to appointment.

In fact, former interim board secretary Melanie White was fired for this very reason . She was given the position after working for the board in another capacity.

White has since filed a complaint in Wayne County Circuit Court against the City of Detroit and former BOPC Chair Bryan Ferguson for wrongful termination and discrimination. The complaint points out that acting board secretary Robert Brown “had also been a City of Detroit employee longer than three (3) years” when he was appointed to the position.

Hawkins told Outlier that she believes she is eligible for the position because her work at the city has been paid for with federal American Rescue Plan Act funds as a contractor.

“I’m not considered a full-time employee,” Hawkins told Outlier after her interview with the board. “I don’t get benefits. I can’t join the union.”

She may also face a separate issue. Hawkins is currently running to represent Michigan’s 13th Congressional District on the Democrats’ August primary ballot . She told the board she applied for the board secretary position more than a year ago.

“I’m sure I’m not the only person out here that’s looking for another job,” she told Outlier. “It just so happens that the other job that I am considering is public.”

Hawkins wouldn’t say at this time whether she would still run for Congress if she was hired as the board secretary.

Nonprofit consultant says she’s ‘driven’

The other candidate interviewed for the board secretary position was Genevieve Clark-Dench, a human resources and consulting professional.

Clark-Dench talked a lot about her experience working in various departments at Wayne State University and her experience working at United Way for Southeastern Michigan, which her LinkedIn profile says was from 1984-89.

Clark-Dench told the board, “I was driven to this position because I saw some things that had occurred based on video that I watched … and I felt driven because I said to myself, ‘I can help fix that. It doesn’t have to be like that. This can be better. Oh, how I wish I were there.’

“I felt drawn to you, not away from you,” she said.

Filling the secretary position

When asked by Outlier when an action will be taken related to the secretary position, Pressley said, “To be determined.”

The board secretary is a key role. The BOPC bylaws say that the secretary is responsible for training board members and that they supervise all but one board employee — the director of the Division of Police Personnel. The board secretary is responsible for being the first BOPC staffer to receive complaints against members of the police department and for maintaining a public, online docket of complaints against police.

Victoria Shah worked as the board secretary for 10 months, until she resigned Dec. 27 .

Shah said in an email to Outlier that one of the hardest parts of the job for the next board secretary will be “the continued discrepancies around the duties, responsibilities, and powers.”

Shah wrote that according to the BOPC bylaws, the board secretary is expected to take on a leadership role and act more like an executive director. But Shah said the city’s Office of Inspector General and Law Department seem to disagree that the board secretary has this authority.

“It’s good that some progress is being made on filling the position,” Shah said. “However, until the internal contradictions mentioned above are resolved, no matter who is hired (they) will be confronted with the same challenges faced by their predecessors, including myself, thus impeding the BOPC’s ability to fulfill its oversight mission as mandated by the Bylaws and the City Charter.”

Shah also said some commissioners’ inability to consistently attend board meetings , participate in committees, check emails and review necessary information will also make the job difficult for the next board secretary.

Detroit Documenters Elyas Khan and Alex Klaus contributed to this story.

Board of Police Commissioners hiring process for key position in limbo · Outlier Media