Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Rice
The finalists for Clovis' police chief job could not have contrasted more, at least on paper.
Dirk Ronald Budd's seven-page resume contained probably 3,000 words recounting his storied law-enforcement career that included his current job – overseeing detectives for a Denver-area sheriff's department that employs more than 420 sworn officers.
He wrote that he was a "Respected law enforcement Division Chief and Commander offering 26 years of public service expertise with an unflinching commitment to directing, planning, and leading people and change for law enforcement agencies."
He also offered "Exceptional abilities to coordinate mission-critical mandates issued by the executive team to align objectives and activities with outside agencies."
The resume Roy Rice sent with his job application was four pages long. Those four pages contained maybe 500 words total. They told us he was once a church choir director and participated in Distributive Education Clubs of America at Brownfield High School in Texas.
Oh, sure, Rice's resume also included his qualifications to lead Clovis Police Department – two years with Clovis PD already, six years as police chief in Muleshoe, eight years as police chief in Brownfield, a law-enforcement career that started six decades ago and includes more than 1,500 hours of training ...
But the paperwork suggested Clovis City Manager Justin Howalt had two significantly different options to choose from when he announced last week that Rice would succeed Doug Ford, who retired Dec. 31.
Budd was focused on "Providing competent leadership to direct the police operations of the city, ensure safety of life and property, and deliver optimal administrative, management, law enforcement, and supervisory expertise." He said so, right at the top of his resume.
If Rice has a personal mission statement, it wasn't reflected in his resume. He did mention he was once a member of the Muleshoe Rotary Club.
Truth is, Clovis could probably use both men in leadership roles of its largest policing agency. It feels like Howalt chose the more personable, more community-minded, less-formal option, at least on paper.
There's a lot to like about kinder, gentler cops we can get to know on a personal level these days.
David Stevens writes for Clovis Media Inc.
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