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Gold Hill faces decision on police Council meets Monday to vote on ordinance By MELISSA MARTIN Gold Hill wants to fill council seat GOLD HILL -- The city is accepting applications to fill a City Council vacancy. Applicants must be registered voters and must have lived in Gold Hill for at least a year. The appointee will replace Hy Klaus, who resigned this month. His term expires in 2002. Applications may be picked up between 8 a.m. and noon and 1 and 4:30 p.m. at Gold Hill City Hall, 420 Sixth Ave., Gold Hill. Applications are due by the council meeting at 6 p.m. Monday. GOLD HILL -- The question of how to police Gold Hill may be answered Monday when the City Council decides whether to make official an earlier action abolishing the police department. The council will vote during its regular meeting at 6 p.m. Monday whether to repeal the 1982 ordinance that created Gold Hill's police department. The meeting follows dual votes Sept. 13 to disband the department and contract for services with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. The vote came as a surprise, partly because the City Council voted the opposite way earlier in the year. Gold Hill has been operating without a police department since its only cop, David Crawford, was convicted of misdemeanor crimes and lost his job June 30. The sheriff's department has been responding to emergencies. City Recorder Tony Paxton said he interpreted the Sept. 13 votes to mean he should send a letter to Sheriff Bob Kennedy requesting coverage and write the motion for Monday's meeting. He did both. Kennedy's office has in hand a proposed contract that the county attorney prepared last year at Gold Hill's request, but it was put in a file after Gold Hill Mayor Tim Roddam told Kennedy the council was searching for a police chief, Kennedy said. "I will wait to see what the council decides to do so I don't have to spend time and money on a contract that might not be signed," Kennedy said Tuesday. Meanwhile, three applications for police chief that the city has received also will remain in a file folder until the council's decision Monday, Paxton said. In other business on Monday, the council will appoint a Gold Hill resident to fill a council vacancy. The vacancy was created this month by the resignation of Hy Klaus, who said he needs to spend more time with his businesses. It also will swear in a new elected member. Gold Hill voters last week elected Scott Eilefson to fill a seat held by Judy Curtiss. Curtiss was appointed to fill a vacancy created by Patrick Pillon, who resigned for health reasons. At the Sept. 13 meeting, the council learned that Curtiss moved out of Gold Hill, making her ineligible to serve on the council. After the new council members are sworn in Monday, the council will consist of seven people: the new appointee, Eilefson, Betsy Hettum, Donna Silva, Lisa Alexander, Bernadine Howard, and Roddam, who helps make a quorum, but votes only in the case of a tie. Alexander and Howard are the subject of a recall vote scheduled Oct. 26. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA