welcome everybody welcome
so excited you know the excitement in
the room it's full of people and i it
just makes me feel great i've been
looking forward to this moment ever
since we started
this process back in the cold dark
winter
sam marcella and he's going to talk a
little bit about the process how we got
here
[Applause]
thank you all for joining us today
obviously we're all very excited um as
stated i'd like to give you a rough
timeline of the events and how we got to
the present day
this process started when chief larry
reinhard retired in early january after
14 years is serving our community
shortly after his retirement a group of
a group interviewed several reputable
nationwide search firms to assist our
service for a new jeep
after the interviews we landed on robert
byrd's team with ralph anderson's
associates
they were selected given their
familiarity with columbus bexley
surrounding communities and the history
of providing strong municipal leaders
throughout this country
additionally we hired gail saunders a
saunders pr group to assist with our
community engagement and creation of an
extensive community feedback report
through february march of this year we
focused on community and
internal engagement to determine what we
should be looking for in our new
machines
through these outlets we came away with
the information we needed to select our
new chiefs
and we started to uh create that profile
and we posted the job the position was
published in april and the recruitment
of our new police chief formerly began
during this time uh while applications
were being collected through may 27th of
this year an interview committee was
formed
the committee reviewed the resumes of
more than 20 highly qualified
application applicants students and
selected seven exceptional candidates to
interview from that pool
from there the interview committee
landed on the final four that we
developed met the needs of our community
and uh
excuse me fit the profile of the chief
for the city of new mexico a few weeks
ago we held additional interviews
meetings with community leaders as well
as a town hall style candidate forum
where the entire community was welcome
to provide feedback on what they heard
installed
from there the interview committee
got back with mayor kessler discuss the
candidates and everything we've seen so
far and their kessler landed on his
final two
mayor kessler traveled to their
hometowns to
learn more about them their families in
the backgrounds and people that they've
worked with
finally after a long process a detailed
process in a community-oriented process
mayor kessler was able to make his
decision which is why we're here today
this has not been an easy task for any
of us and
i want to say that mayor kessler has
gone above and beyond what i think we
can expect um you know from mayor to
include the community in this search and
this decision and i want to commend him
on his dedication to this search and to
this community as a whole
at this time i would like to welcome
mayor kessler to introduce our next
chief police
sam
we've got a kind of a full house here so
i'm gonna
i'm gonna make i'm gonna go up the drama
a little bit let's if you're an elected
official or you're a part of our
interview committee or you are a bexley
police officer please join me here stand
behind me
[Music]
this is
so i do want to uh
recognize the elected officials who are
here with us
this afternoon
robinson
we have our city attorney mark fishel
uh
who's not elected but he does yemen's
work
um and then we have those who hopped on
our uh interview committee and our
interview committee and lori
behind the flowers
those who helped our interview committee
tiffany hunt from our crv lead athens
from civil service john hoffenberg from
civil service and monique lampke san
marcelino and troy marcum were also
part of our interview committee did i
get everybody there for that
and i
i would be remiss and it would be uh
inappropriate to me not to recognize and
thank our captain
ken goff who has served the department
for 24 years since early january
took the helm as our interim chief
and did two jobs for the past seven
months thank you very much
so what we heard from you
as we
prepared to find our next choice
someone who would ensure that becca is a
safe place to live and raise my family
a great communicator both for officers
and for the community
someone who will prioritize equities but
no matter what you look like or where
you're from
you are respected as an individual and
you have access to the same outcomes
someone who will have my back
someone who's creative and open to new
ideas
someone who understands the fear of a
black parent
sending their precious child into a
world that is systemically inequitable
someone who can meet with community
groups and community members
and listen to their concerns and
problems
with them
someone who is an expert in planning
emergency response and identifying and
mitigating risk
someone who understands what it's like
to be an officer on patrol laying it all
on the line
in a high-risk situation
someone who has integrity of character
and clarity of vision
these are just some of the foundational
principles that let our search for our
next change of police and define our
focus
and i have to admit it i entered this
search with no small amount of
trepidation
i knew this decision would be a pivotal
moment for our community
i admit to at times wondering
does such a person even exist
will we be able to find them
as a young man
all that young gary lewis jr wanted to
be was an artist
i loved this about him
he attended the art institute of
pittsburgh and soon began to settle into
the timeless role of a hungry
gig-speaking young artist through a
series of twists and turns he found
himself looking into becoming a forensic
sketch artist
and before he knew it he was sitting in
the office of a legendary captain of the
ohio state highway patrol
unwittingly being recruited into the
field of law enforcement
one of the attributes i was looking for
in our next chief of police
was creative
creative
imaginative innovative problem solving
is a critical pillar of leadership in
any field
and policing is especially ripe and
hungry for it
all of his life
all of his life chief lewis has provided
his creativity to professional practice
and that creative and imaginative
alliance has set him apart
as a young member of the highway patrol
trooper lewis made a stop that would be
formative in his career in outlook on
interstate 71 on a hot summer day lewis
initiated a stop to a car traveling at
excessive speed
when he approached the window he met a
young mother in financial distress
in a car full of hungry kids without car
seats
quickly assessing the situation trooper
lewis offered to escort the young mom
back to his post so that he could find
and outfit her car with car seats
she took him up on the offer
and that day trooper lewis didn't just
send her off for the warning he also
sent her off with money for food in a
car full of safely secured children
we set out
and searched for the police chief who
believed in and modeled
equity in policing the chief who would
lead with compassion and kindness
with a servant part that values outcome
above penalty
chief lewis has modeled these principles
throughout his career from the moment he
was first sworn in to his vision as he
stands before us today
as he settled into his role with the
state highway patrol one faithful day a
local tv crew asked to film him on
patrol and the ease with which to then
now sorry now sergeant lewis
chatty and affable as always related and
communicated so impressed ohio state
highway patrol leadership in short order
commander lewis found himself become the
voice of the entire highway patrol
operation
serving as the head of communications
and the public information officer for
the state of y
after retirement from oshp commando
lewis transitioned into a civilian
capacity to serve
as the senior director of media and
public relations at the ohio state
university
we set out looking for a fantastic
community
gary lewis's knack for clear and
effective communication and his latent
ability to connect people in communities
across a spectrum of backgrounds and
contexts
has served as a cornerstone of success
if you all wanted to sit here with me
for another hour
i have some great pocket anecdotes
in the short time i've gotten to know
chief lewis to illustrate how our goal
of identifying a chief who could lead
oversee crisis planning and response
work closely with community members
launch effective nuclear policy programs
create a culture of learning identify
and reward officers talents and
initiatives collaborate with other
agencies and communities craft strategic
plans and benchmark and measure the
successes are met and exceeded by our
new chief police
bexley i am proud and i'm honored to
introduce you to our next chief of
police chief gary
[Applause]
what an amazing amazing turnout
opportunity i am extremely humbled and
honored to be standing before you i
would be remiss if i do not first and
foremost thank the mayor
to thank the amazing
the city council and all the citizens
who have contributed to what
this would look like and how
the next development of 21st century
century policing would look from a
leadership perspective and what the
future will hold with me i also must
pause um i have my wife krista
my daughter ivy
two of my sons nathaniel and ross are
out there
they are all active military two of the
brothers we've got one who's stationed
in north carolina another station in
hawaii he was not making the trip
um
lieutenant colonel chuck jones chuck and
i have
been um the best of friends
for probably the past 25 years and so um
i thank him for coming and that he's
also ivy's godfather
um lawrence wendenberg
lawrence and i go back from childhood to
the west side of columbus this is home
for me
and to have friends and family to be
surrounding me right now it's very
humbling although i feel that i'm a
pretty strong communicator i did not
provide a speech because i want the
humility and just
the moment to sink in and just tell you
how happy i am how proud i am i can't
wait to hear of suggestions to meet with
each and every one of you not just once
not twice but regularly i think it's
going to be key um a lot of the success
i've had is being a good listener i've
learned that for marriage and
if i don't listen and then adapt and
adjust to those suggestions that i am
family
and so i
will tell you that i am willing to
listen to hear those suggestions and
ideas i've got some ideas time to pitch
them to you get your feet back um the
people behind me have been absolutely
amazing
i am just again so humbled by this
opportunity and really offer you an
opportunity to ask me questions even now
to listen i'm in this format or a long
competition so again thank you very much
i'm just going to talk real quickly
about the next steps uh
actually i think right after this
meeting we have a council of this quick
and special council meeting to have a
first reading of the appointment
ordinance uh and we hope to have chief
lewis join us on september 1st as our
next chief uh he's got
some some houses a house to sell in
louisville and some fun work to wrap up
uh so we're really excited to have him
join us
stick around
heal him a little bit ask some questions
give them a warm we're actually welcome
and i want to thank you all for for your
contribution to this you're here and
that means a lot but every one of you
gave so much through this process and it
was
a critical piece as we navigated through
it so thank you very much you guys have
a great afternoon be safe thank you for
joining