Police Chief Frank Bell will step down after 15 years as this city's top cop.
But he's not going far. He will be the man who heads Park City's Olympic activities.It's a position city officials hope will help them keep abreast of issues and capitalize on opportunities. Bell said city leaders decided in January that they wanted one person in charge of Olympic activities rather than several people handling different aspects.
That person will be Bell.
Bell has headed up the city's Olympic security efforts and spent most of the summer in Atlanta last year. He'll remain assigned to the police department and work for the same wage - about $57,000 a year.
"This isn't about money," he said. "I'm looking forward to it. I guess I just got the (Olympic) bug. I want to represent Park City."
He will be the person interacting with the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and any other boards or groups working on Olympic issues. It's a meeting schedule that is already brutal, he said.
SLOC officials reacted with cautious optimism to the announcement. "Anything that would improve coordination is very welcome by us as long as we don't get too many hurdles," said Mike Korologos, SLOC spokesman.
Korologos said he thinks the new position could help Park City avoid the problems the Salt Lake City Council has had with the old organizing committee.
"As long as it doesn't become a mass of bureaucracy that we have to cut through," he said.
There also may be some duplication of efforts between Park City and the organizing committee in deciding, for example, whether to close off streets during the Games.
"Our hope is that cities will go with our plan and not go off on their own," Korologos said. "We don't want them doing projects that have to be undone later."
Bell has been a member of a security coordinating committee, and he anticipates remaining on it. Co-chairman of that group, Salt Lake Police Chief Ruben Ortega, said he expects the new Park City police chief to be on the committee. The ad hoc group is made up of police chiefs in jurisdictions where an Olympic venue is located.
Ortega said he expects the committee will work with Bell in a different fashion in addressing security issues.