About 12 hours after Burlington city councilors agreed to hire a search firm to help find a new police chief, Mayor Miro Weinberger announced he would ignore the council vote and pursue his own plan to select the next best cop.

In a press release Tuesday afternoon, Weinberger said progressives in council made consensus on the search process “impossible” by refusing to take action that the mayor said would attract more candidates. A months-long search yielded only two viable hires, the mayor said: interim chief Jon Murad and another unnamed candidate.

Weinberger, a Democrat, said on Tuesday he would go ahead with both candidates and bring a finalist to the board for a vote early next year.

“It falls under the authority of the mayor under the city charter to select and appoint department heads, and I believe it is my duty to do so urgently,” Weinberger said in the communicated. “The community and our police department need a permanent leader now.”

The city has been without a permanent chief for two years. The last big cop, Brandon del Pozo, resigned in December 2019 amid a social media scandal. The city went through two acting bosses before Murad took on the acting role in June 2020.

Weinberger suspended national research for the city when the pandemic began in March 2020, and then restarted it in May of this year. He put the process on hold again in November after the city’s search committee recommended increasing the announced pay scale.

In one note that month, Weinberger demanded that the advisers hire a research firm; offer a higher salary scale; hire a police recruiter and public information officer; and allow the new chief to retain his authority over the discipline of officers. Councilors only accepted the first point, voting by a narrow 6-5 margin late Monday night to spend $ 75,000 on a headhunter.

At the meeting, and again in his memo on Tuesday, Weinberger said the council’s actions were “not in accordance” with his ultimatum.

“This action does not give the administration what it needs to successfully relaunch the research process,” said the mayor. “Instead, it is almost certain to be wasting months of precious time and wasting tens of thousands of dollars in tax resources and could well result in the loss of the two qualified candidates who applied and are eager to serve Burlington.”

Weinberger’s statement made no mention of how he planned to deal with the measure passed by the council on Monday evening. In a follow-up email, his chief of staff, Jordan Redell, said the mayor “has not ruled out vetoing for clarity” and has until Jan. 10 to do so.

Redell said the council resolution authorized the spending of money to hire a research firm but did not force Weinberger to take the step.

“The Council does not have the unilateral power to direct the mayor on how to carry out a process of finding a candidate or of requiring the specific expenditure of money for such a process,” she said. writing.

City council chairman Max Tracy (P-Ward 2) was unaware of the mayor’s statement when Seven days contacted him Tuesday afternoon. Weinberger’s office issued the press release late Tuesday afternoon, just before the start of the mayor’s week-long vacation.

Tracy said he was disappointed with the mayor and Democrats on the council, and criticized them for not bringing forward their own resolution that included all of Weinberger’s demands. At Monday’s meeting, some members of both parties appeared willing to increase the pay scale, but no one offered to vote on it.

For his part, Tracy said he was not in favor of an increase in the pay scale, so he did not propose the change; council chairs also rarely make motions during deliberations.

Other advisers have expressed support for Murad’s appointment, but Tracy doesn’t think the interim leader is right for the job. Tracy said Murad’s criticism of some police reform efforts and his public silence on a proposal to pilot an overdose prevention site in Burlington are examples of how Murad is not the chief “transformer” that the city needs.

“It feels like Jon has done everything in his power to stand in the way of progress,” Tracy said.