City begins search

EPHRATA - The Ephrata City Council hired a Seattle-based recruitment firm to help the city search for a new police chief.

Ephrata's current police chief, Joe Varick, announced he plans to retire at the end of March 2009. The city staff evaluated three firms to help search for his replacement, BBSI, Waldron and Prothman, according to city records.

City Administrator Wes Crago said Prothman is one of the most prominent firms in the state for government.

"If you work for a government entity you get pretty routine e-mails or letters from Prothman firm when there's job openings," he said. "They cover the Pacific Northwest in general and they do a very nice job."

The city negotiated a $10,000 cost for their services, Crago said. For the price, the firm will collect about 30 to 50 qualified applicants based on the city's criteria.

"They would do the background checks and the ratings," he said. "They would hand it off to us with consultation, right through the interview process. Not only is it going to give us a very broad brush for possible candidates that would go far outside our ability to gather, but we would be picking up some human resource skills."

Recreation Director Ray Towry, who researched the firms, said Prothman had the most recent searches among cities of Ephrata's size for a police chief.

"They're going to have a more current, and in our observation, better feel for what's out there," he said.