Four candidates apply for open position on police review board

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Four candidates have applied to become the newest member of the Key West Citizen Review Board, replacing outgoing Joseph Pais.

Pais resigned from the board recently. There are three years left on his four-year term.

The candidates were originally scheduled to appear before the Key West City Commission at its July 21 meeting. However, Commissioner Clayton Lopez could not attend that meeting and requested that the matter be postponed. The applicants will come up for review at the commission’s August 2 meeting.

The four candidates are Omar Calleja, Nelson Jimenez, Rochelle Pearson-Major and Leo Waters.

Calleja, who lives on Kennedy Drive, is currently a program administer for the city of Ft. Pierce, Fla. He said he has a “lifetime history” of community service, including working in several positions relating to the juvenile justice system.

Jimenez is a stylist at Key West Haircuts and has lived in Key West and the Lower Keys for the past 26 years. He is a past member of the Oakland Park, Fla., General Employee Pension Fund.

Pearson-Major is a pastor at the Cornish Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church on Whitehead Street. She said in her application she has interacted with many people in her congregation and the community who have concerns about the treatment they say they received from the Key West Police Department.

Waters’ application states he worked for the Music City Information Centers in Nashville, Tenn., until last year. A former resident of Nashville, he was elected to the Metro Nashville Davidson County Council, where he served from 1995-2003. He was also a member of the Nashville Convention Center Board of Directors from 2009-2014.

In the 2002 Key West general election, 60 percent of the voters approved an amendment to the city charter to create a Civilian Review Board. The seven-member volunteer group is an independent board with authority to review and/or investigate complaints against city police officers. Any findings or recommendations by the board are forwarded to city officials, the chief of police, the state attorney and/or other state and federal law enforcement agencies and grand juries.

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