{"id":70291,"date":"2025-12-03T23:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/70291\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T23:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:10:07","slug":"city-commissioners-meet-with-candidates-for-police-chief-amid-local-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/70291\/","title":{"rendered":"City commissioners meet with candidates for police chief amid local concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 On Wednesday, WPTV learned Fort Pierce city commissioners met with the remaining candidates up for police chief<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought all three interviews went fine,\u201d said Commissioner Michael Broderick. \u201cWe have three outstanding candidates, all meet the threshold of requirements of the city to take on this position.\u201d <\/p>\n

WATCH: Commissioner says he wishes local candidate was among finalists <\/p>\n

Fort Pierce city commissioners meet with final candidates for police chief<\/p>\n

Those three candidates include: Vernon Hale, from Maryland; Mirtha Ramos, from Georgia; and David Smith, from Virginia. <\/p>\n

All three candidates have more than 20 years in law enforcement, with experience in high-ranking positions. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that outside knowledge and information would be very beneficial to the city, from a long-term perspective,\u201d said Broderick.<\/p>\n

But Commissioner Broderick said he wishes a local candidate was among the finalists. <\/p>\n

Specifically, current acting Deputy Chief Caleb Gillette<\/a>, who served the city for more than two decades and made the final seven candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m concerned about the short term. What type of morale problem are we going to have with Mr. Gillette being passed over for the position,\u201d said Broderick. \u201cIt’s going to create issues with the union. The union endorsed him for the chief’s position. So I have my concerns about retainage of officers continuing.” <\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s commission meeting, Commissioner Broderick added an agenda item to address concerns about the police chief selection process.<\/p>\n

He also said he expressed interest to add Gillette back in the running, but it didn\u2019t move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor and I both requested that he be brought back into the process,\u201d said Broderick. \u201cThat request was not agreed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city charter outlines the hiring of a police chief is up to the city manager and then voted on by the commission. <\/p>\n

WATCH: 3 finalists for police chief announced <\/p>\n

Fort Pierce announces 3 finalists for chief of police<\/p>\n

City Manager Richard Chess didn’t say why he passed on the other candidates.<\/p>\n

“I am looking for the candidate that showed the most experience, leadership, understanding of where the department should be going,\u201d said Chess.<\/p>\n

During the meeting, neighbors and members of the police department expressed their desire for an internal candidate. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe union has backed an internal candidate. That means the men and women who wear the badge are saying we trust this leader,\u201d said one man during public comment. \u201cWe don\u2019t get that very often.”<\/p>\n

The city manager will announce his final choice on Monday before a vote by the city commission. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am cautiously optimistic that a consensus can be reached,\u201d said Broderick.<\/p>\n

If a consensus isn’t reached, the search will start over. <\/p>\n

PREVIOUS WPTV COVERAGE: <\/p>\n

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Police union backs this man to become Fort Pierce’s next chief<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 On Wednesday, WPTV learned Fort Pierce city commissioners met with the remaining candidates up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1202,171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-70291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-police-chief","9":"tag-port-st-lucie","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","11":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}