The Eugene City Council voted eight to zero Tuesday night to hire Mark Gissiner, a former director and investigator with Cincinnati’s police auditor’s office, as the Eugene police auditor.
Gissiner will begin working part-time on June 29 and will take over his full responsibilities on Aug. 7, after he finishes a temporary contract working with health officials in Cincinnati on swine flu.
Eugene residents voted to create the police auditor position in 2006, and it has been met with some resistance, Eugene City Council Member Alan Zelenka said. Gissiner, 53, will take over for Dawn Reynolds, who will step into the role of deputy police auditor.
“When you look at all of the police auditor systems across the country, you begin to realize that every community has their own set of auditor growing pains, but we are confident that Mark has the experience, skill set and style to hit the ground running.”
Zelenka said Gissiner is nationally recognized after he worked in Cincinnati for 20 years during some of the worst police and community tensions in the city’s history.
“Between 1995 and 2001, eight or nine men were shot by police because of their race, and in 2001, Cincinnati encountered some of the worst riots in its history,” he said. “Mark was in the thick of it all, and there is nothing that could happen in Eugene that he hasn’t already seen.”
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Experienced police auditor elected
Daily Emerald
May 28, 2009
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