PORTSMOUTH — A "task group," charged with probing the circumstances surrounding police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin's $2.7 million inheritance, has selected an outside firm to assist with the investigation, said group chairman and retired Judge Stephen Roberts.

The task group solicited proposals for investigative services from three vendors during the past few weeks and received them last week, Roberts said. The volunteer panel members then met Oct. 14 to review the three agencies' proposals, "in support of the issues within the scope of our charge from the Police Commission," Roberts reported.

From the three candidates, he said, the panel selected Tideview Group from Kennebunk, Maine. Tideview Group is led by Michael Pardue, who has served as police and fire chiefs, as well as director of public safety for police and fire, in Westbook, Maine. Pardue said he has also served as town manager for North Hampton, N.H., and Ogunquit, Maine.

He said his company is a management firm that assists corporate and municipal clients with investigations regarding employee wrongdoing and misconduct and that he has previously conducted investigations for the Portsmouth Fire Department and New Castle Police Department. He said he has 38 years of experience consulting with the public and private sectors.

Roberts said the three-person panel he's leading plans to meet with Pardue next week to review a list of witnesses it has developed, based on "input from the public and the various parties involved in this matter."

"That list is extensive, numbering in excess of 30 people," he said. "In the interim, I will be providing Mr. Pardue with the written materials we have received to date, including the depositions of various individuals. Mr. Pardue will begin reviewing those materials this week as part of his work on behalf of the task group."

Roberts said funding for Tideview Group will come from the city, and City Manager John Bohenko said in August that he will fund it from the city's contingency fund.

Roberts was appointed by the Police Commission to lead the investigation which he previously said will be conducted independently from all city business. He chose retired police chief William Baker and Dr. Kathryn Lynch to serve with him and all are serving as unpaid volunteers.

The panel is charged with investigating the following:

• Whether or not Goodwin violated any policies or procedures of the Portsmouth Police Department with regard to the estate of the late Geraldine Webber, who changed her will months before her 2012 death to make Goodwin her primary beneficiary.

• What level of supervision Goodwin received with regard to Webber and her estate.

• Establish a timeline of facts.

During Monday's City Council meeting, councilors voiced concern about the charge presented to the panel with consensus being that the panel's investigation should be more extensive. The discussion came in response to criticism from Webber's neighbor Jane Zill, who provided the council with a lengthy list of questions she thinks should be answered.

The council voted unanimously to conduct a public hearing with the Police Commission and to direct Mayor Robert Lister and Assistant Mayor Jim Splaine to meet with the Police Commission to discuss the scope of the independent investigation.

The investigation is separate from an ongoing Rockingham County Superior Court probate case that involves multiple parties challenging Webber's last will and trust. Attorneys for parties challenging the estate allege Goodwin exerted undue influence over Webber, while she was impaired by dementia, to inherit her riverview home, stocks, bonds and a Cadillac. Goodwin denies the allegations.

Webber's neighbor, veteran police officer John Connors told the Portsmouth Herald he saw Goodwin visit Webber, in a police cruiser, more than 100 times. After giving the interview, Connors was served with a notice by his own department charging him with insubordination and malfeasance, as well as of violating the Police Department's media policy.

Webber died Dec. 11, 2012, at age 93. Under the terms of her 2009 will, the city police and fire departments were each designated to receive one-quarter of her estate, after the sale of her home and assets. In the will and trust Webber endorsed in 2012, which added Goodwin, the departments are each named as $25,000 beneficiaries, but the city has not taken a legal position in the probate case.

A trial to hear evidence in the dispute over Webber's last will and trust is scheduled for February 2015.