Enterprise makes offer to potential Chief of Police

Published 10:15 am Tuesday, October 6, 2015

If Enterprise City Council gets its wish, a big city boy (who, nevertheless, can ride a horse) will be the new chief of police.

In a unanimous vote Monday, the council decided to make a conditional offer to James Episcopo, a police lieutenant from Brookfield, Ill., a Chicago suburb.

Episcopo has 27 years in the field and is currently patrol commander overseeing 21 officers on three shifts.

He impressed both Enterprise law enforcement and the selection committee not only with his background, which includes training at the FBI National Academy, but with his sincerity and interest in rebuilding the Enterprise force.

“I believed him,” said Mayor Steve Lear after the vote. Lear had nothing but praise for the interview committee, which included representatives from business, mental health professionals and schools in addition to Sheriff Steve Rogers and District Attorney Mona K. Williams.

“Having a really great cross-section able to ask about things this city needs from their own areas really made a difference,” he said.

Chief Brian Harvey of La Grande, moderator for the interview, was “a master of the interview,” Lear said. “All of this really took the intuition right out of (our decision) and gave us the information we needed to say, ‘this guy is the right fit for us’,” Lear said. “It’s the best interview process I’ve ever been part of.”

Enterprise Police Officer George Kohlhepp said he was looking forward to getting to work rebuilding the force under a new chief.

“I’m just going to be happy to have a chief and go back to work and build a department we can all be proud of,” he said.

Harvey said he anticipated this result after the interview process closed and the panel discussed the process. He had nothing but praise for the panel and the city.

“I think the city showed their willingness to invest in a professional, objective process — which I always believe serves the community best,” he said. “The panel was a good representation of several sectors of the community and they were excellent to work with.”

The offer made to Episcopo is conditional based on a background check and medical and psych exam.

In the meet-and-greet event Oct. 1 at Community Connections, Episcopo introduced his wife, Suzanne, and spoke about his long career, which included four years with SWAT, extensive management training, and attendance at the FBI National Academy in 2014 — a training offered to only 1 percent of law enforcement officers, he said.

What he learned over the years was “there is no need to reinvent the wheel,” he said. “Every problem is something that someone has already dealt with and there will be someone to advise you and give you the information you need.”

He also identified what he thought was the most important job in the department: Training.

As for life in an isolated and decidedly rural location, Episcopo assured the public that he and his wife have been looking for just such a place to settle with his horse and the two family dogs.

“We’ve always talked about coming to a place like this,” he said. “A small, tight-knit community where people enjoy where they live.”

When they saw the advertisement for a police chief and then Googled Wallowa County,

“We looked at each other and said, this is somewhere we want to go check out,” he said.

Visiting the county and meeting Wallowa County residents “wowed” them, he said. They found the community to be exactly as advertised.

A conditional offer to a candidate is by no means the end of the matter, warned City Administrator Michele Young, who said that even if everything went well it could be months before Episcopo was on the job.

Should Episcopo decline the offer, the process would have to be repeated with another round of candidates.

“It takes a long time to hire a chief,” cautioned Wallowa County Sheriff Steve Rogers.