Chaffee City Council to vote on new police chief Thursday

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The Chaffee City Council will have a special meeting Thursday to vote on hiring a new police chief.

The city council met on Monday and agreed to hire Chaffee native Jim Chambers to run the department, as well as appoint Steve Loucks to fill the remainder of Ward 3 councilman Bill Dysinger's term. Dysinger resigned earlier this year.

Chambers, who currently works as a jailer for the city of Cape Girardeau, has also worked as a Scott County Sheriff's Department deputy. He will fill a vacancy created when Jesse Chisum resigned after being police chief for less than a year. Chisum left the department to focus on completing a nursing degree. His tenure was marked by power struggles among the police, city council and the city's police board.

But Monday's meeting was invalidated by a technical glitch.

According to City Attorney David Summers, four members of the council were present at Monday's meeting -- not enough for a quorum -- and councilman Tom Cunningham was present by phone.

Summers said on arriving at his office Tuesday morning, he double-checked Missouri's open meetings and records act, nicknamed the Sunshine Law, and found that, while emergency votes by phone or the Internet are allowable, a quorum must be physically present. So he called city officials and advised them to have a special meeting, making sure at least five members of council were present.

That meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, at Chaffee City Hall, 222. W Yoakum Ave.

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pmcnichol@semissourian.com

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