MASON CITY – A police officer from Ames has been chosen from a pool of candidates to be Mason City’s next Chief of Police, and the city council will vote on the matter next week.
Jeff Brinkley, currently a Lieutenant with the Ames Police Department
was selected from a list of 9 candidates that were approved by the Mason City Civil Service Commission.
The candidates, according to city documents, were interviewed for 45 each with city administrator Brent Trout and current department directors for 20 minutes. They all also met with the mayor and city council in an open house plus an hour-long open house with the public. Additionally, the city had hired Cayler Consulting to conduct an assessment panel to gauge the readiness of each candidate to be the next police chief of Mason City. The panel consisted of a retired chief of police and two currently employed police chiefs.
All of these factors led to the selection of Mr. Brinkley to be the chosen candidate. He has a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies from Iowa State University and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Iowa State. He has extensive training, city documents claim, along with a 19 year career in law enforcement, mostly in Ames.
If hired, his starting salary would be slightly less ($93,017.60) than Chief Lashbrook’s, who announced his retirement earlier this year. He has already been conditionally offered the job by Mr. Trout.
