A former security director at the Tampa International Airport was hired Monday as interim chief of the embattled Wildwood Police Department.
The city commission approved a contract with Paul Sireci that will pay him a bi-weekly salary of $3,750, the same as departing Police Chief Paul Valentino. Sireci will start Jan. 1 and serve until a permanent chief is hired.
Valentino, who served as chief for about one and a half years, will retire at the end of the month and two other command officers, Deputy Chief Gerald Olbek and Capt. Ashley Rogers, also are resigning.
Their departures came after the command officers clashed with the city manager and expressed concerns over mold and asbestos exposure at the 52-year-old police station, which was severely damaged by an electrical fire on Oct. 21.
The department now operates out of a temporary trailer parked on the station site and calls are dispatched out of the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office in Bushnell. Wildwood plans to build a $7-million police station on the southwest corner of U.S. 301 and County Road 462, but construction hasn’t begun.
City Manager Jason McHugh said he already has received resumes from applicants for permanent chief and that someone could be hired by March.
He said Sireci was recommended by the state police chiefs’ association for the interim post.
Sireci served 15 years as director of public safety and security at Tampa International Airport, leaving in 2017. Earlier this year, he served as interim chief in Brooksville, where he guided the department’s dissolution and the community’s transition to protection by the Hernando County sheriff.
Mayor Ed Wolf said Wildwood has no plans to disband its department and that the hiring process for a permanent chief should proceed as quickly as possible.
The city will advertise the chief’s job and a selection committee will screen resumes to narrow the field to a few finalists.
“The more this can be expedited, the better,” Wolf said. “We want to make the right choice.”
Commissioner Joe Elliott agreed, adding that the city doesn’t “want to make a bad choice.”
Commissioners did not address the circumstances that led to the departure of the three command officers, but an issue was raised of perceived bias by officers handling calls on the west side, where many residents are black.
Gerard Corbin, who owns a neighborhood barber shop, told commissioners he is concerned about the department’s turnover because he felt progress was being made with Valentino about the issue.
Corbin said police stops on the west side sometimes involve a half dozen officers, even for minor issues like overly tinted windows or a broken tail light.
“Let’s not paint the west side to be a bad area,” he said.
Corbin also said he was concerned that Sireci was criticized in 2011 after pictures of his grandchildren holding an M-16 rifle on the Tampa airport’s firing range appeared on his Facebook page. For several years, employee surveys also showed less satisfaction among the airport’s security employees than in other departments.
West side resident Mary Wimberly said she has been the victim of police overkill. She said four officers accused her of casing the neighborhood for possible burglaries when she was talking to a neighbor in front of her house.
Commissioner Julian Green said police officers have made some improvement.
“In my opinion, some of the changes have not happened as quickly as we’d like,” he said. “If there’s bias, we definitely want to nip it in the bud.”
Wolf said in Wimberly’s case, where the officers responded to a complaint, or when they are following a car, officers don’t know what they are going to find.
But he said improving the relationship between west side residents and police officers will be a priority.
“These are some issues we’d like to address,” he said.
McHugh suggested last week that a west side police substation be established on city property that formerly housed a day care center.
Attending Monday’s commission meeting was Chris McKinstry, who resigned last week as Lady Lake police chief. McKinstry said he is interested in the position of Wildwood’s permanent chief.