As reported on the Brown County Democrat’s website last week, Nashville Police Chief Heather Burris has been removed from her position after a unanimous vote during a town council meeting that Monday.

During the meeting, the council announced that Sgt. Daniel Scott Bowling will take over as interim chief while the council begins their search for a new permanent police chief.

The council contacted Bowling on Saturday, notifying him that they would be promoting him to the interim position at the meeting.

“When they asked me that, I told them I will do it for now just to keep things running and get things right, I’ll consider it and we’ll play it by ear,” said Bowling.

The council said that Burris was being removed because of her performance. Town Council President Andi Wilson said the findings come after an investigation that took place over the last six to eight months.

The council did not state specific reasons for Burris’ removal during their public meeting.

“We’ve just come from an executive session, we determined that Chief Heather Burris does not have a current contract,” Wilson said during the public meeting. “We are a very small department and a small town and over 60 percent of our budget goes to the police department. We cannot afford to do anything that is not helping the residents of this town, and right now, we don’t feel the residents are getting the best protection. We have little precious resources to spend and we have to ensure that they are spent carefully.”

When pressed for more information, Wilson asked Town Attorney Wanda Jones to speak with the Democrat on her behalf.

“I think the letter reflects the fact that beginning in February, she was asked to change the schedule for the officers and that was ongoing,” Jones said. “I don’t know specifically when the other issues were raised with her, but she was asked beginning in February to make changes with the officers and that was not done. The other things were asked of her along the way, I can’t really say specifically and I don’t know that Andi can either, but I know that there were a number of discussions with her at various times. We had a meeting of the council and I think that’s in my letter. Then we had a meeting with Heather that was an executive session, I believe. We then had an executive session with the (Nashville police) merit board and the president of the merit board agreed that he would speak with Heather about all of these issues immediately. Then approximately two weeks after that, we had a meeting in my office, Andi, myself and Heather. All of these issues were raised at that time and then maybe a week or two after that the council decided that nothing was getting done and they felt that it was very, very important that we take action. We sent a letter to Heather at that point in time, and at that point in time she had already lawyered up. First, I spoke with him at length about Heather’s situation and I advised him that we wanted Heather to resign if she would. I don’t think that she was receptive to that idea, so we gave her a two-week time frame to think about it and then we reduced her in rank from chief to her current rank of officer.”

Burris apparently received a letter with all that information included.

The letter also listed the reasons Burris was demoted from her position:

• Failure to provide coverage in town on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays
• Failure to provide foot patrol presence in town
• Failure to stop reserve officers from using vehicles for personal use
• Failure to move within 20 miles of Nashville
• Failure to cut down overtime hours

“These are all performance issues, which the council believes are important to the town and to the residents of the town who need to feel safe and protected,” the town council said in a press release. “When residents stop calling for police protection because they feel there are no police available, it is time for a change.”

Despite multiple attempts from the Democrat, no messages or phone calls to Wilson, Burris, Jones, town council members Dave Rudd, Scott Dick, Lance Miller, Rex Watters or town manager Sandie Jones were returned.