Walton Hills council meets in executive session to discuss hiring new police chief

A special meeting of the Walton Hills Village Council on May 18, 2026, moved into an executive session to discuss hiring a new chief of police and related employee-benefit matters, council members said.

A council member opened the meeting at 4:04 p.m. and proposed "to go into executive session to discuss the hiring of a chief of police for the village due to the retirement of the current chief, including not limited to conducting interviews of potential candidates and to discuss employee benefits in general pursuant to the Ohio Revised Code," according to the meeting record. Several council members voiced assent and the body entered executive session. A speaker clarified that no public vote on the hire would occur during that closed session.

The council later made a motion to reconvene from executive session; the motion was seconded and the transcript records "five yeses" as the vote to reconvene, with the council stating it was reconvening at 7:00 p.m. The mayor then moved for adjournment; that motion was seconded and recorded votes were affirmative.

No hiring decision or public vote on the police chief was recorded in the transcript. The executive session was used for personnel discussion only, and the council did not announce any appointment or next steps in the public record during this meeting.

The Ohio Revised Code was cited as the authority for holding the closed session in the meeting, and the council cited candidate interviews and employee-benefit discussions as the topics for that closed meeting. The transcript does not include candidate names, personnel details, dollar amounts, or a timetable for a hiring decision.

The special meeting opened at 4:04 p.m. and reconvened at 7:00 p.m.; it concluded after a motion to adjourn was approved.