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Panel will help choose new Jackson County sheriff Tuesday Jan 3, 2017 at 3:12 PM Jan 4, 2017 at 11:52 AM Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune @VickieAldous The Jackson County Board of Commissioners will convene a community panel to interview sheriff applicants and recommend three top candidates. Commissioners on Tuesday decided to ask retired Medford police Chief Tim George, Jackson County District Attorney Beth Heckert, Justice Court Judge Joe Charter, Racial Equity Coalition member Amanda Singh Bans, Jackson County Health and Human Services Director Mark Orndoff and rural resident Shayne Maxwell to serve on the panel. Jackson County Development Services Director Kelly Madding, who is experienced with conflicts between marijuana growers and neighbors, will be asked to serve if Orndoff is not available. More substitutes could be named if other panelists are unavailable. Commissioners will discuss potential panelists and the process for appointing a sheriff on Thursday. No timeline has been set yet. Commissioners will make the final decision on who will replace Jackson County Sheriff Corey Falls, who has taken a job as director of police services and 21st-century policing with the city of Gresham east of Portland. Many community members applauded the commissioners' move to convene a panel. "Getting input from different aspects of the community is a great idea. The sheriff plays such an important role in our community," Heckert said. She said panelists also can learn from each other. "I'm looking forward to hearing their perspectives as well," Heckert said. Bans said the Racial Equity Coalition wants a sheriff who will carry out Falls' commitment to training in implicit bias, procedural justice and police legitimacy in 2017. She said the coalition favors a sheriff who will continue Falls' progressive, forward-thinking strategies for the office. "We want a candidate who can treat everyone with dignity and respect," she said. Six people have applied to be named sheriff and complete the remaining two years of Falls' four-year term. They are Jackson County sheriff's Capts. Nathan Sickler and Danny Penland, Deputy Sheriff Ian Lance, former Sheriff Mike Winters, real estate broker and former sheriff's Lt. Robert Sergi and William Froelich, a retired West Valley City, Utah, police lieutenant. Sickler is performing the duties of sheriff until a replacement is appointed. He said convening a community panel is a good idea. "It's a level playing field for all the applicants, it seems, and there's going to be quite a few different individuals with a wide variety of backgrounds to provide input to the commissioners, so hopefully they'll be able to make the decision that's best for our county," Sickler said. Commissioner Bob Strosser, who took office this week after unseating Doug Breidenthal, said he is looking forward to the input of the panel. "It's a good sounding board for the county commissioners so we don't make this decision in a vacuum," he said. "Consulting with our constituency is the best way forward." In a press conference last week, Falls said he took the Gresham job to be closer to his daughter, who is in college, but also because he faced a hostile work environment because of how he was treated by county administrators and budget committee members. The county responded by publicly releasing a confidential February 2016 draft report by outside investigators who concluded Falls had not faced a hostile work environment. Staff reporter Vickie Aldous can be reached at 541-776-4486 or [email protected]. Follow her at www.twitter.com/VickieAldous.