New police chief will be Berquist or Kinney Acropolis withdraws from selection process BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis won't make the final decision about who will be the next police chief. The choice of candidates to replace retiring Chief Ronald Dougard has been narrowed to two men - Capt. Douglas J. Kinney and Capt. Nils R. Berquist, Township Administrator Scott M. Pezarras said. Acropolis has longstanding ties to both men. Berquist's daughter is married to Acropolis' son, Robert. Acropolis and Kinney have been friends for 20 years, the mayor said. "After thinking about the situation, I believe it has the appearance that it could be a conflict," Acropolis said. "So I am going to withdraw from the selection process. I've asked Scott Pezarras to take that over." An ad hoc committee consisting of Township Council members Anthony Matthews, Daniel Toth and Ruthanne Scaturro interviewed both men separately late last week, Pezarras said. Both men will be required to submit "position papers" about their qualifications to be chief and their plans for the police department, he said. "Then we go through the selection process and hopefully we'll have a name in time for the reorganization," Pezarras said. The township will probably ask the State Department of Personnel for a waiver of a civil service test for the position, since there are only two candidates, he said. "The [civil service] list is deemed incomplete if you don't have three people on it," Pezarras said. "If you only have two people eligible, most likely we'll request a waiver. The waiver has to be granted by the DOP." Dougard submitted his resignation papers to the state Department of Personnel on Nov. 30 He has been police chief since 1990. Acropolis said recently the search for a new chief would take between three to six months. The township does not have a current civil service list to pull candidates from, since Dougard decided to leave a year earlier than originally planned, Pezarras has said. "We haven't had to pick a chief in 17 years," Acropolis said. "The laws have all changed." TownshipAttorney Jean Cipriani doesn't feel his relationship with either Berquist or Kinney would be a conflict, Acropolis said. "I don't want to put myself in that situation," he said. "I don't want someone to say you picked your friend or your son's father in-law. It does not bode well for me. I've been in town since 1958. I've been friends with a lot of people." The police department has two other captains - John Rein, head of the community policing unit and James Riccio, administrative services. Kinney, who heads the patrol division, ran the community-policing unit for 10 years. Berquist runs the detective bureau.