Three Graham city council members made clear this week their preference that city manager Megan Garner select an existing Graham police officer for promotion to police chief when the current chief retires later this year.
In March, chief Kristi Cole Baker, who has led the police force since 2020, posted an announcement on the police department’s Facebook page about her impending retirement on September 1.
Municipal authorities often emphasize the fact that council members are responsible (and legally allowed) for hiring only two – or, possibly three – of any city’s top staff (generally the manager, the city attorney, and sometimes the city clerk). But Graham’s council spent about 10 minutes at the end of Tuesday night’s meeting with mayor Jennifer Talley and two council members (Bobby Chin and Bonnie Whitaker) pressing that they’d like to see an existing Graham officer elevated.
Mayor pro tem Ricky Hall interjected that the council is “only allowed to hire one person,” apparently referring to the city manager, but his admonition did not stop the other council members from weighing in on their preference for an internal candidate.
While no names were used during the public discussion, it was also clear that Whitaker particularly wanted to see Captain Duane Flood elevated. Flood was a finalist when then-city manager Frankie Maness instead elevated Kristi Cole (now Baker), then assistant chief, to police chief in 2020.
But it is widely known that Flood does not have an advanced degree. Flood, reached on Wednesday (the day after the council meeting) told The Alamance News he has an associate’s degree, as well as several specific law enforcement training degrees.
Since that 2020 consideration, however, the job description has been revised in a way that emphasizes educational degree over law enforcement experience.
Whitaker pressed during her comments, in particular, that Garner not require a master’s degree as a prerequisite for appointment as police chief. “I’ve known people with a master’s degree,” she said, “who I wouldn’t want to walk my dog.”
Whitaker said she wants to see experience to count as most useful, and particularly experience within the Graham police department.
Meanwhile, Whitaker said she had sent an email to Garner about the police chief’s hiring. Based on a public records request from The Alamance News, Garner provided a copy of that correspondence on Wednesday. In her email, Whitaker asks if a “hiring panel” will be used “as has been done in the past,” adding, “I would love to be on such a panel.”
Similarly, Chin, who started the discussion during the council comments portion at the end of the meeting, said it “sends a message” and undermines officer morale when none of “our internal candidates” is considered to be chief.
In a somewhat ironic twist, Talley told Garner that she’ll get “pushback when you bring people in,” as the council did when it hired Garner in 2021.
Flood, asked about his interest in being the next chief, confessed that he was “still on the fence about it somewhat,” inasmuch as he is eligible to retire in another year or so. He’ll celebrate 27 years with the department this October. But Flood said he’d consider the chief’s position if it were offered to him and, if so, he would commit to staying on for four or five years.
According to city hall and law enforcement scuttlebutt, other potential candidates include the assistant chief, Rodney King; however, King already is eligible to retire based on his years of service.
Two younger officers are also said to be interested in the position – sergeant Ben Edwards and captain Daniel Sisk. The third captain in the department, Joaquin Velez, is said not to be interested.
(Edwards, King, and Sisk each has a master’s degree, according to publicly available biographical information.)
In law enforcement circles, various former Graham police department officers, now with other agencies, are said to be interested, as is at least one high-ranking Burlington officer who has not been with the Graham department.
In other nearby departments, Alan Balog, an internal candidate within the Burlington police department, was selected by city manager Craig Honeycutt to be Burlington’s chief of police in 2023. In Mebane, then-city manager Chris Rollins brought in Mitch McKinney, then the deputy police chief in Apex, as Mebane’s police chief in 2023.
At the end of the discussion, which she did not join in on, Garner promised to provide Chin and other council members with the job description of the police chief’s position, as initially requested.
