MAHWAH — Council tabled a motion to appoint a new police chief during Wednesday night's special meeting, just days after the mayor announced a successor.

The appointment of Capt. Stephen Jaffe to succeed retiring Chief James Batelli effective March 1 was announced by Mayor John Roth on Sunday, and was expected to be confirmed by council Wednesday.

Following a three-hour closed session, the motion was approved for a vote, and Councilwoman Janet Ariemma voted in favor. When council Vice President George Ervin was asked to vote, instead he made a motion to table it "until we've had adequate time to assess the other candidates that were put forth."

Council members Michel Crowe Paz, James Wysocki and Ervin voted to table. Jonathan Wong, Robert Ferguson and Ariemma voted against tabling the motion. Council President David May broke the tie by voting to table.

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Resident Frank Orlich, who objected during the public portion of the meeting, said he was confident documents, performance reviews and other materials supplied by the police department to council and the mayor "support Jaffe as the most qualified candidate" to become the next chief of police.

"I ask you to please check your egos, put aside your agendas, and do what's right for the citizens of Mahwah," said Orlich. "This should be a no-brainer and is not worth a lawsuit."

Resident Marianne Moro also questioned the vote to table.

"Isn't there a better way to do that process than have Capt. Jaffe come here with the understanding that he would be promoted?" Moro asked.

In a Thursday email, Roth wrote that council had his appointment recommendation on Feb 11.

"I agreed to the interview then," said Roth. "They have struggled with the interview scheduling among themselves since that time," he said. "I insisted on the interview before Wednesday to have a transition period. When that didn’t happen I insisted on Wednesday because Chief Batelli’s last day was Thursday."

Roth's Sunday announcement reads: "we first identified the candidate pool and that included both captains and all five lieutenants." Roth stated in the press release that 10 hours were spent reviewing candidate files, and each candidates had a 1-1/2-hour to 2-hour interview, with an additional hour for the captains.

Contacted Thursday, Ervin would only confirm that much of the three-hour closed session was spent interviewing Jaffe. He declined to elaborate why council waited until the Wednesday meeting to decide they were not happy with Roth's method or wanted to interview the other candidates before voting.

On Thursday May said council asked Roth before he released his announcement on Sunday that they wanted to interview the candidates. He said he could not explain why Roth chose to make the announcement if he thought council wanted more information.

"The mayor made a recommendation and we had to act on it," said May. "Some of the council members wanted time to digest the information."

Email: Stoltz@northjersey.com