Taylor resigns as Silverhill Police Chief

By John Underwood / john@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 3/26/19

SILVERHILL, Alabama — For the second time in less than a year, the town of Silverhill is operating with an interim police chief following the resignation of Michael Taylor on March 4.

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Taylor resigns as Silverhill Police Chief

Posted

SILVERHILL, Alabama — For the second time in less than a year, the town of Silverhill is operating with an interim police chief following the resignation of Michael Taylor on March 4.

In minutes for the meeting, which were approved at the Monday, March 18 meeting, Mayor Tim Wilson announced Taylor’s resignation, “due to his schedule being too busy to devote time needed for police chief.”

While Wilson was not present at the March 18 meeting, in an interview on Friday, he commended Taylor for his service to the town.

“We really hate to see him leave,” Wilson said. “He basically revamped this department. He made sure all the officers were trained in multiple duties and that each officer had a specific task to perform. He really did a good job for our town.”

Taylor served as the town’s acting chief following the resignation of Kevin Brock in January of 2018 and was hired to take over the position on a part-time basis in September.

The town currently has four full-time officers and four-part-time officers. When Chief Kim Wasdin was terminated in January of 2016, the town had just one full-time officer.

Taylor has also overseen the purchase of several patrol cars for the police department, Wilson said.

“He did all of this while operating under basically the same budget,” Wilson said.

At the March 4 meeting, the council approved Wilson’s recommendation to appoint Sgt. John Branscomb as part-time interim chief. It was announced at that time that Branscomb would finish the year as the SRO at Silverhill School while serving in his capacity as chief. The town is also advertising for an SRO position.

“We’d really like to keep two SROs so that one can be used as a backup,” Wilson said. Currently Branscomb is the town’s only certified SRO. Sgt. Daniel Boutwell will begin training this summer for SRO certification, Wilson said.

Also at the March 4 meeting, the council voted to approve a franchise agreement with Point Broadband and approved a resolution to oppose Sen. Chris Elliott’s bill to remove the police/planning jurisdiction from municipalities.

In other business March 18 the council:

•Discussed updates to the Zoning Ordinance proposed by the Planning Commission.

•Discussed concerns over the placement of new walls at the Veterans Memorial.

•Discussed whether to increase the cost of living raise for town employees from 1 percent, the amount budgeted for 2019 to 2 percent.