By Michael Donoghue, Vermont News First
One Chittenden County community is closing in on picking its new police chief, while another former area police chief is packing his bags to head west to take control of a department on an Indian reservation.
The selection of a police chief in South Burlington is now in the hands of City Manager Jessie Baker following the final round of interviews last week and a few unusual twists, a spokesman said.
Meanwhile former Hinesburg/Richmond Police Chief Anthony Cambridge has been hired to rebuild a troubled police department in Wolf Point, Montana.
Cambridge, 46, will serve as a permanent replacement for Police Chief Alicia Morales, who along with her husband Lt. Enrique Morales, were terminated earlier this year, according to news accounts and city officials.
“We are very excited to have him and his family coming here and to steer the Wolf Point Police Department into a new era,” Mayor Chris M. Dschaak told Vermont News First.
South Burlington is seeking a permanent replacement for Chief Shawn Burke, who resigned to go back to Burlington on March 24 to serve as the Interim Police Chief for two years.
The South Burlington hiring process has become twisted. At one point the city apparently became upset with its police union and decided it would not be represented last week during the final interviews for the chief. The head of the police union Sgt. Matthew Plunkett had been appointed initially by Baker to serve on an 8-member screening committee that she was using to whittle down applications in the process. Baker had said she wanted key stakeholder groups involved.
Col. Matthew Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police, also was due to represent police on the advisory committee, but the South Burlington resident couldn’t serve. He was subsequently replaced by VSP Lt. Col. James Whitcomb.
Also, one committee member announced by Baker was School Superintendent Violet Nichols, who found herself giving up her city job on Tuesday.
South Burlington Deputy Chief Sean Briscoe, who was hired two years ago, and an unnamed out-of-state police chief, believed to be from New Hampshire, were among those still in the running after interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a person not authorized to speak for the city.
Former SBPD Lt. Chris Bataille, a 14-year veteran, also had been in the running, but the city apparently removed him from further consideration when he resigned recently to accept a job offer at the Vermont Police Academy in Pittsford.
Former Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad was in the running for the South Burlington post for a short time. He had asked friends to call South Burlington officials to support his candidacy, but one day after Vermont News First reported his candidacy, Murad, who had rocky times in Burlington, told friends he was out of the running. It was unclear if Murad pulled the plug or South Burlington did.
Murad had strained relations in recent years dealing with various local and state officials, the business community, the general public and the news media. He finally announced in November 2024 that he would not seek re-appointment from Progressive Party Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak when his term was due to end in June.
The Burlington Mayor had said initially there would be a two-week overlap transition for Murad and Burke in March, but when the time came, Mulvaney-Stanak pulled the plug on the idea. She placed Murad on paid leave two days after Burke returned to the department.
The city of South Burlington has been assisted in the hiring process by former State Police Capt. Julie Scribner, who is now associated with JW Leadership Consulting, a Southern Vermont firm operated by former State Police Director James Baker. He is no known relation to the city manager.
Jessie Baker has said South Burlington received 14 applications and the list was whittled to 8 for interviews by the screening panel. The screeners worked to get it down to a handful as finalists for more interviews and role-playing.
The screeners said privately they were asked not to speak about the process or the candidates on the record.
Meanwhile in Wolf Point, Mayor Dschaak told Vermont News First on Sunday he hopes Cambridge can arrive sometime next month. He knows the new chief has to move his wife of 15 years, Amy, and their family over 2,000 miles. They have four children – including triplets – two boys and one girl — age 12. The other son is age 8.
No contract has been signed yet, but the job will pay about $72,000 a year along with a $10,000 signing bonus, the Mayor said. Cambridge will get full benefits, including a retirement program.
He will be required to go to a one-week police school to get up-to-date on Montana laws, the Mayor said.
Former Wolf Point Chief Morales and her husband Enrique, the police lieutenant, were initially suspended, according to City Councilor John Plestina, a longtime journalist whose career included the Newport Daily Express in Vermont.
The Northern Plains Independent reported the Wolf Point City Council discussed the terminations of the chief and lieutenant at a regular meeting on March 17.
Following a January council meeting, Mayor Dschaak said he had turned the internal investigation over to Valley County Sheriff Tom Boyer. Boyer presented his findings on March 7 indicating that it had substantiated allegations included partner/ family member assault, a hostile work environment and instances of sexual harassment, the Independent reported in March.
Both officers remained on paid administrative leave at the time, but were eventually terminated, records note.
Longtime Wolf Point Police Chief Jeff Harada came out of retirement this spring to take over as an administrative chief in recent months
Wolf Point is a community of about 2,200 residents on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Northeast corner of Montana on the Missouri River. Wolf Point may be small, but its staff includes a city judge and city attorney and is home to an airport.
Hinesburg selected Cambridge in June 2019 to succeed Police Chief Frank Koss. Koss had spent more than 40 years in law enforcement including 13 years with Hinesburg Community Police. He had served as president of the state police chiefs association and was the Hinesburg chief for seven years.
Cambridge received his Bachelor of Arts from William Patterson University (2007) and prior to beginning his law enforcement career, worked as a high school social studies teacher for the Manchester Regional High School District in Haledon, N.J. (2007-10). He also volunteered as an auxiliary police officer while teaching. He completed the Montgomery County (Penn.) Municipal Police Academy in July 2011.
Cambridge initially joined the South Burlington Police in 2013 and graduated from the fulltime course at the Vermont Police Academy, but resigned after 11 months and later moved to Hinesburg Police.
About two years ago Richmond, which struggles to find and/or keep police chiefs, set up an agreement with Hinesburg for Cambridge to oversee its department, which was down to one officer. Hinesburg agreed to do some police services in Richmond.
Cambridge later opted to be hired by Richmond and resigned from Hinesburg after a disagreement with Town Manager Todd Odit. After Cambridge signed a hiring agreement with Richmond, the town strung him along for a few weeks. Municipal Manager Josh Arneson eventually announced the night before Town Meeting Day in March that Richmond would not honor the signed agreement and Cambridge would not be chief. No explanation was provided to Richmond taxpayers.
The biggest issues for Wolf Point Police are drugs and mental health cases — the same topics most police deal with across the nation, one of its City Councilors, Dean Mahlum, a retired sheriff, told Vermont News First.
The job posting noted the location on an Indian reservation means multiple jurisdictions are dealt with daily.
The police department is now authorized 6 fulltime sworn officers, including a chief, a lieutenant and patrol officers, the Mayor said. With the hiring of Cambridge, the department is at full staff. The chief will be able to promote an officer to lieutenant. The department had 8 sworn officers, including a sergeant assigned as a school resource officer, but budget tightening has reduced the size.
