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Resident urges Orono leaders to seek outside candidate for police chief amid retirement announcement
Summary
During public comment at the March 30 special meeting, resident Jane Igard said Police Chief Arneac is retiring and urged the council to recruit a police chief from outside Orono, citing an "old boy network" and a need for outside experience.
ORONO, Minn. — During the public comment portion of the Orono City Council’s March 30 special meeting, resident Jane Igard told the council she had learned Police Chief Arneac is retiring and urged elected officials to look outside the city for a replacement rather than promote from within.
Igard, who identified herself as living at 1386 West Point Road in Orono, said she has long experience with local policing and praised former Chief Stephanie Good, whom she said the city lost when Good left for Hennepin County. Igard said the department had previously operated as an "old boy network led by Gary Chazwick" and argued that promoting from inside could perpetuate that culture. "Are we gonna promote from within and continue it? Or are we gonna allow the same old buddy network... Or are we gonna look from without?" she asked the council.
The comment was the sole public comment in this meeting; no council response to the specific allegations about department culture was recorded in the transcript. The council did not take any formal action on police leadership at the special meeting.
What happens next: The transcript records only the public comment; the council did not place police succession on the special meeting agenda and did not vote on police staffing. Any formal recruitment or selection process would require an agenda item and council action at a future meeting.
