PAROWAN — Parowan welcomed a new police chief Thursday night as Addison Adams was chosen to head the city’s police force.

Adams has been with the Parowan Police Department since 2019, after having served several years prior to that with Cedar City Police.

Adams’ promotion follows the departure of former Chief Mike Berg, who resigned last month.

“The recommendation I am making is with a tremendous amount of consideration,” Parowan Mayor Mollie Halterman said during Thursday’s City Council meeting. “It was a tough decision and it’s one that a lot of thought went into.”

“This member of our police force has been serving as our lieutenant,” Halterman continued. “He is the next in line by rank.”

“He has done a phenomenal job as our interim police chief and I believe he will do an excellent job as chief,” the mayor added. “He loves Parowan and he is committed to our town.”

“He is a fifth-generation Adams from Parowan,” Halterman also noted. 

Adams’ great-great grandfather was early pioneer settler Charles Adams (1843-1927), while his father was Fred C. Adams (1931-2020), founder of the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Following the mayor’s nomination of Adams, the City Council then unanimously approved his appointment as police chief.

After thanking the mayor and council for their confidence and support, Adams was then sworn in by city recorder Callie Bassett. Immediately after that, two recently hired Parowan Police officers, Thomas Hart and Kayla Dobrinski, were also sworn in.

Also discussed during the meeting were proposed increases in police officer pay. After some discussion, the council voted to have overtime kick in at 80 hours over a two-week period, down from 86 hours. Additionally, the reserve officer hourly pay rate was bumped up from $17 to between $20 and $25, with the final amount to be determined later. A decision about compensation for officers who are on-call was tabled pending further discussion.

“If we can be fully staffed and have some reserve officers that are under contract and ready to step in, then we don’t have hardly any overtime,” Parowan City Manager Dan Jessen said during the meeting. “That’s our goal. We don’t want to burn our officers out. The job they do is already extremely demanding and just becomes that much harder when overtime is pretty much mandatory every week because of staffing.”

“We need to have coverage at all times with our police force,” Jessen added. “So if there’s a hole, we can plug it with a reserve officer.”

Jessen noted that most of the reserve officers that Parowan uses come from nearby agencies such as Iron County Sheriff’s Office, Cedar City Police Department, Enoch Police Department and Brian Head Marshal’s Office. Although many of them are willing to work extra shifts to earn Christmas spending money and such, attracting such officers is difficult when the pay is $3 to $6 per hour less than what other agencies are paying, he noted.

On a side note, earlier in the week, Jessen won re-election as Iron County Auditor, a race in which he was unopposed. Jessen has announced publicly that he will be resigning from that post, due to his new position as Parowan’s city manager. In the meantime, until he’s sworn into office in January, he will continue to work both jobs.

In a social media post on Oct. 25, Jessen clarified his intentions and provided a detailed explanation of the situation.

Jessen said he plans to have his resignation as county auditor become effective one day after that office’s new term begins in January. Doing so, he noted, will allow the Republican Party’s Central Committee to only have to act one time to select and appoint his replacement.

“I believe this will create the least amount of friction for the election process and for the County Budget process,” he wrote. “Additionally, it will allow for time to train my successor.” 

Jessen also addressed the issue of being double paid in the interim. 

“Regardless of the fact that I am putting in very long hours to accomplish the needs of both (jobs), I have made the decision to donate the extra take-home pay I will receive during the transition period due to two simultaneous salaries,” he said, noting that he plans to split the donation between the Parowan City Pool or similar project, and to the nonprofit Friends of the Iron County Children’s Justice Center, to go toward the building of a much-needed larger facility.

“I will be essentially working both jobs during the transition phase,” he added. “While I can confirm that it is legal, I have zero intention of doing so for a minute longer than is necessary. It is a huge burden on my family, not to mention less than ideal for either entity.”

“I would like to point out that I made this decision with 100% transparency to the governing bodies of both entities,” Jessen added. 

Meanwhile, in other action during Thursday’s Parowan City Council meeting:

• The Rotary Interact Club, Jennifer Terry and Parowan High School students presented a check for $1,400 to Parowan City for Sub for Santa from their Haunted Theater fundraiser.
• At the beginning of the meeting, the 19 members of Parowan High School’s volleyball team addressed the council and talked about their recent 2A state championship. The girls finished their season with a remarkable 29-1 record, avenging their only loss (to Kanab) by beating the Lady Cowboys in the state title match, 3-1. Parowan’s Paige Felder was named Region 19’s co-MVP, while teammates Madison Adams, Taylen Yardley, Layni Williams and Addi Guymon joined her on the all-region team.
  

Photo Gallery

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.