The Police and Fire Commission (PFC) invites members of the community to assist in planning for the City’s public safety future, by attending a community listening session at 6:00 P.M. on June 14, 2018 in City Hall.  The PFC is committed to hiring a new Police Chief to lead the City’s  Police Department, an agency built on service, respect, trust, and transparency, and certainly one that is responsive to the community it is privileged to serve.

The goal of the listening session is to provide the community with a public forum to ask questions or otherwise provide guidance directly to the City of Mequon PFC Commissioners, concerning the new Police Chief’s recruitment.  The PFC needs the community to provide feedback to assist and guide the Commission prior to beginning formal assessment of candidates for the Chief of Police position.

This public session will be open to community members to ask questions, share concerns and engage with Police and Fire Commissioners, the present Police Chief and other City Officials concerning the type of Police Chief and ultimately Police Department you want to see in Mequon’s future.

By Ryan Stillwater, a member of the Visalia County Center Rotary, California, USA

On my walk to work on a recent morning, air crisp and clear after an overnight rainstorm, I walk past a man sitting on the street corner. I immediately recognize him as a former resident in our Life Change Academy, who left early on in the program. I nicknamed him Logan, due to his striking resemblance to one of my favorite X-Men comic book characters — with his muscular frame and prominent dark sideburns and stubble. This morning, he is angry and making loud threats against a man (not present) who had very personally wronged him. “Are you ok?” I ask. “No!” he screams, eyes fixed on an invisible enemy. I am standing with Wolverine – the enraged persona of the gentle man I had known.

I became a Christian at the age of 15 and was baptized in the Pacific Ocean a year later with blue-dyed hair and a head full of ambition to do great things. In the years that followed, I would travel to Vancouver, San Francisco, and what is now South Sudan. I saw remarkable (and terrible) things – hopeless drug addicts, prostitutes of all ages, and a desperate mother holding a sick infant miles from medical aid. I imagine these experiences contributed to my becoming a Rotarian at the age of 31.