Eight candidates left for top cop's job

... and then there were eight. The Halton Regional Police Services Board has whittled down its list of candidates for the position of police chief to eight names. The list was finalized during a private session of the board after the last regular board meeting. "It's quite a long short list," new police services board chair Ken Musgrave said about the selection process to replace outgoing chief Ean Algar. In a conversation earlier, Musgrave had guessed that the seven-member board would chop an existing list of 12 potential candidates down to six. The original dozen names had been compiled and recommended by the Toronto executive search firm Ray & Berndtson Lovas Stanley from a list that initially was "quite a bit larger", said Musgrave. He said the short list consists of two individuals from within Halton police and six external candidates-- all of them male. The board chair said no females had applied for the top cop job at the beginning of the process and that it was not surprising to him. "No, I think everybody that we expected to apply did." The next step, said Musgrave, is to hold three separate private meetings of the full police services board to conduct interviews. Each candidate will be grilled for about one hour with board discussion to follow. By the next regular board meeting next week, Musgrave said he expects board members will have either drawn up an even shorter list of two or three candidates or have a recommendation as to who should be Halton's new chief. Algar, a 38-year veteran of Halton police, announced last November his intention to retire by no later than the end of 2006. The chief earned $162,000 in salary and almost $9,000 in benefits in 2004, according to provincial public sector salary disclosure figures.