Finalist for Wichita police chief also candidate in Corpus Christi

One of the two finalists for Wichita police chief has been named a candidate for the same position in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The city manager in Corpus Christi announced Tuesday that Jeff Spivey is one of six police chief candidates chosen for interviews in the Gulf Coast city, according to a news release.

Spivey, a 48-year-old assistant chief in Irving, Texas, appeared at a public forum in Wichita on Monday night to take questions from the public. Gordon Ramsay, police chief in Duluth, Minn., is the other finalist for the Wichita job.

Contacted Tuesday afternoon as he was waiting for a flight out of Wichita, Spivey said: “My experience over the last couple of days in Wichita has been amazing. The people that I’ve met – both citizens and city staff – have been incredibly welcoming. I can tell the level of commitment that they have” in selecting a new chief.

“If at the end the city manager selects me as the chief of police, then I’m ready to come to work for the city of Wichita,” Spivey said.

Wichita City Manager Robert Layton has said that a new chief will be hired before the end of the year.

Layton said Tuesday afternoon that Spivey informed him that he was an applicant in Corpus Christi, that the Wichita process is ahead of the Corpus Christi process and that Spivey is committed to being a candidate in Wichita.

It is the second time that Layton has found himself in the position of possibly losing one of two finalists to another city. In September, Allentown, Pa., Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald turned down an offer from Wichita and was named the new chief in Fort Worth. Layton said then that he wasn’t offering the job to the other finalist at the time, former Deputy Chief Terri Moses.

That prompted Layton to reopen the chief selection process, which resulted in Spivey and Ramsay being named finalists.

Corpus Christi is holding a “meet and greet” for Spivey and the other candidates there on Friday. They are being interviewed Saturday by Corpus Christi city officials and community leaders, said DeAnna McQueen, a spokeswoman for the Texas city.

The Corpus Christi police chief manages about 432 sworn officers, 220 civilians and a budget of more than $70 million, the news release said.

The Wichita police chief supervises 836 employees and a budget of almost $82 million in a city of more than 382,000 people.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 1:06 PM with the headline "Finalist for Wichita police chief also candidate in Corpus Christi."