The vote to appoint Laws was 4-1 with councilmember Eddie Neal dissenting.

The Leader learned that Lemoore Police Chief and Interim City Manager Jeff Laws was under consideration for the full-time city manager position.

“It’s taken a while,” said Laws of the search for a new city manager. “We really need to move on. We need to do what is best for the City of Lemoore.”

The city manager search has been ongoing since the council fired former city manager Jeff Briltz amid a hailstorm of controversy. The application process ended on June 17 with only 16 candidates applying for the position.

The council, in the early stages of its manager search, opted for a set of guidelines which allowed Laws, the recently appointed interim city manager and Administrative Analyst J.P. Prichard, to review city manager applicants before sending the finalists to an expert panel of former city managers to interview those remaining applicants. From there a citizens’ panel reviewed and narrowed the final list to four

Laws, 50, started with the City of Lemoore in 1997 as a police commander and was second-in-command for several years before taking up the chief’s reins when former Chief of Police Kim Morrell retired. Since the sacking of Briltz, Laws has held the dual roles of city manager and police chief.

Asked recently if he would accept an offer, Laws at the time was non-committal. “I’d have to think about it,” he said. He indicated that he has three years before he’s eligible for retirement and said he would need at least a 3-year guarantee before he would consider accepting the job.

Laws apparently will get his three-year contract. The final terms have to be worked out. Councilmembers will bring a new contract to the table at their next council meeting and seek to approve it.

Laws also told The Leader that they will begin a search for a new chief of police soon. He indicated the new chief would come from outside the department.