A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2015
FROM PAGE A1
EDMISTON:
continued from page A1
to be good, solid decision
makers.”
He said, however, when
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beyond their responsibilities
or expertise, they are trained
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sor.
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cracy in the sense of memos
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chain, down the chain and
sideways,” he said. “None of
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we do.”
DOWN THE CHAIN
As chief, Edmiston said
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where the department is go-
ing and how it is going to get
there.
He said he is “constantly
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external relations.
“As far as what I do, it’s
meetings — it’s trying to
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said. “It’s setting the tone for
the department, i.e. goals and
objectives. It’s looking at dif-
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are we effective at X, Y and
Z, or is there a way that we
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have?”
CHARTER:
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not provide his name said
he was concerned the city
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pointed rather than elected,
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responsibility for what that
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is appointed, then the City
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hiring if they hire a person
who is a non-lawyer and that
person goes off the rails.”
He said an appointed
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dependent and that people
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pointed one.
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comes from people’s belief
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can say whatever he wants,
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Smith said an elected
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the campaign process and
that other cities, most of
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es, have dealt with the po-
tential liability problem.
Creasing, an attorney
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Edmiston said he analyzes
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goals. He said he determines
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consideration — and makes
departmental decisions to bet-
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With a large Span-
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Hermiston, he said HPD is
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23 percent of the department
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“To me, it’s not a matter
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States?’ ” he said. “It’s a mat-
ter of ‘Who is it that we’re
serving, and are we effective-
ly serving those people?’ The
only way we can get there is
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some sort of balance percent-
age-wise internally for bilin-
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serve externally.”
Another important part
of the department’s external
relations, he said, is meeting
with different people and or-
ganizations.
“There’s a lot of meet-
ings,” he said. “Nobody likes
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enhances those relationships
that we know that we need
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meetings are with entities that
represent those we serve.”
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of the state bar.
Drotzmann said the City
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torney by passing an addi-
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charter. Creasing, however,
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repealed.
“I think the city ends
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Creasing said. “I think
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option of placing any con-
troversial changes in the
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mayor term changes, on the
ballot separately as amend-
ments, so the entire charter
was not voted down over
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Creasing recommended
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the ballot as an amendment
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dents “have had the right
for 50 years” to elect their
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ing, Smith said people also
expressed their concern
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presentation at the Lions
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were “pretty comfortable”
with the other changes. He
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to the Noon Kiwanis and
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charter revisions will be
held at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 20 at
the Hermiston Conference
Center.
“We don’t like bureaucracy in the
sense of memos done in triplicate
and up the chain, down the chain
and sideways. None of us are for
that, but there has to be some
structure to what we do.”
— Jason Edmiston
Hermiston police chief
FROM THE BOTTOM
TO THE TOP
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Edmiston was born and one year,” he said. “Normal-
raised in Hermiston and be- O\\RXZRXOGZDQWDSHUVRQ
gan working as an HPD pa- to be a sergeant for a while
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promoted to sergeant in 2004 QH[WVWHSEXWWKHUHZDVVRPH
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a position title that has since WKDW¶VMXVWNLQGRIWKHZD\HY-
changed to captain.
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“That promotion from
He was named acting
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was placed on administrative
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following allegations of staff
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cially appointed in May of
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position is what he expected
it to be, being a chief has pos-
itive and negative aspects.
“Nothing has really been a
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haps the biggest challenge is,
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decisions. I’ve had to make
some decisions where peo-
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them that it was probably time
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and I don’t take those deci-
sions lightly. Those weigh on
me heavily internally.”
Edmiston said the easiest
part of the job is “empow-
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year, he was able to promote
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sory sergeant position, which
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said being able to provide a
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little or no police experience
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“The last several people
we have hired, basically
they’re balls of clay, and
we are shaping them the
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for those that we serve
here in Hermiston,” he
said. “There’s something
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will always be that person’s
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position to be able to give
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to achieve a goal or a dream
that they’ve had to become
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pacts their family — there’s
something extremely re-
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