AUSTINTOWN — The township has its new police chief, and it didn’t have to look very far.

While the paperwork is still pending, trustees made the official announcement Monday that Lt. Valorie Delmont will succeed Chief Robert Gavalier as the department’s next executive officer. Gavalier retires at the end of the month after a 44-year career, all spent with

Austintown. Delmont will be sworn in at the March 3 trustees meeting.

Trustee Bruce Shepas said Delmont is not only the first woman to serve as police chief in Austintown, but likely the first in Mahoning County.

“I’d like to … thank outgoing Chief Robert Gavalier for his many, many years of service. We are so thankful and I know for Chief Delmont these will be some huge shoes to fill and we can only hope you’ll do as good a job as he did,” Shepas said. “This board of trustees is very confident that we made the right decision in hiring within the department and we congratulate (Chief Delmont) and look forward to spending many years with you.”

Gavalier announced his retirement in December. The search for his successor saw nine applicants, and five made it to interviews with the trustees. Two were screened out by Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito and Gavalier, while Capt. Tom Collins removed himself from the pool and announced his plans to retire at the end of March instead.

Delmont and Lt. WIlliam Hoelzel were the other two internal candidates. Kathy Dina, the director of security for Austintown Local School District and a former detective sergeant with the police department, also applied.

The two other candidates were Maj. Jeff Palmer, most recently employed with the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office and formerly the police chief in Girard, and Larry McLaughlin, a sergeant with the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, in charge of the Mahoning County Drug Task Force.

At the 11th hour, a resume was submitted on behalf of Robert Clark, an Austintown native who has since served in the FBI and in several international police consulting positions.

Shepas said the department did discuss Clark’s resume, but their minds were fairly well made up between two finalists and trustees did not see anything that made them doubt their decision to hire Delmont.

Delmont said she is looking forward to taking the reins.

“I’m excited to serve my community and the police department in a larger way than I have in the past,” she said. “To have influence not only on the things that go on inside the department, but also in the community.”

Shepas said Delmont’s contract is still being reviewed by the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office, which provides all legal services for the township. As soon as it is approved — likely sometime later this week — Delmont will sign it and the promotion will be official.

WHO IS THE

NEW CHIEF?

According to her resume, Delmont graduated from Wilmington Area High School in 1995. She graduated from Westminster College in 1999, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a concentration in criminal justice and a minor in political science. She also earned her policing certificate from the University of Akron that year and has spent her entire career in Mahoning County.

Delmont was a patrol officer in Canfield from 1999 until 2007 when she joined Austintown police. She has been promoted up the ranks since then, earning her lieutenant’s stripes in June 2023.

During her time on the force, Delmont has been in charge of officer recruiting and hiring, scheduling, reserve officer and field training supervision, community outreach, and has served as a department representative on Mahoning County’s OVI and Domestic Violence task forces.

She has completed nearly 230 hours of education and training in human resources, police executive leadership, crisis intervention, and voice stress analysis, which is an interrogation technique.

Trustees Monica Deavers and Shepas said they were impressed with Delmont’s resume, experience and reputation within the department.

“She definitely has the respect of the department,” Deavers said. “And she’s engaged with the community. People already know her.”

“We did all we could, as a board, to ensure that we found the right candidate to be the next police chief,” Shepas said. “Her interviewing skills were fantastic, she’s going to have very little difficulty in transitioning, compared to an outside candidate, she’s familiar with the inner workings of the department, and she’s already been well established in a leadership role in the department.”

Gavalier also gave his endorsement and said he has nothing but confidence in Delmont’s qualifications for the job.

“I thought it was an excellent hire,” he said. “I was there when we hired Valorie and she worked her way up through the ranks, and in each position she held, she did an excellent job. She’s the kind of person I know I can call, who can dot the I’s and cross the T’s. If I need something, it’s usually completed before I finish asking her. She’s very punctual, very thorough. She looks into it, researches it and completes it before the deadline.”

A CHALLENGING TIME

Despite Gavalier’s best efforts in recent years, Delmont ascends to the leadership of a department in turmoil, though he said Delmont is the right person to guide them through it.

At a meeting in January, D’Apolito said the department in 2024 used $670,000 from the general and he expects Austintown to transfer anywhere from $1.1 million to $1.4 million for police functions from the general fund this year.

A failed 2.4-mill police levy in November would have generated another $2.26 million for the department. Trustees have said that they may return the measure to the ballot in 2026.

Prior to approaching the voters, Gavalier worked with trustees to cut $200,000 from the department’s budget.

The township also has begun renegotiating contracts with the other Mahoning County fire and police departments for which it provides dispatch services, citing a disparity in what the Austintown police and fire departments pay and what others pay for the same services.

Delmont said she intends to continue working with trustees to reach financial stability.

“Our priority will be to cut wherever we can to trim the budget, to increase revenue and reduce spending,” she said. “It’s definitely an issue that will be my first priority and it will probably put some other things that I want to do on the back burner for at least a couple months until we get a handle on that.”

Delmont said she is optimistic that her rapport with her fellow officers will make it easier for her and everyone to navigate the difficult times.

“I think that already being on the department and becoming the chief, number one — that’s good for morale for the department, and it’s good for motivation,” she said. “It will mean some advancements coming up for some other young officers, and we also won’t have any delay in moving forward. I already know what’s going on, I already know the system, I’ll be able to immediately hit the ground running, in making changes that need to be made.”

Gavalier said Delmont’s greatest challenge to begin with will be staffing.

“I’d say probably trying to keep staffing levels maintained, so we’re providing the same high level of service, and she’ll have to do that with the limited resources she has,” he said.

Delmont said she feels confident she and the department will be able to weather the storm.

“I think we’re already doing a good job,” she said. “I’ve been doing the schedule for the last year and a half since I became a lieutenant, and we’re refining a couple things that might help us out as far as the budget. But we’re also maintaining minimum staffing so we can appropriately and adequately serve the community. I don’t plan on there being any gaps in service, even as far as response times.”

Gavalier said he will be there for the next three weeks to shadow Delmont and ease her transition. He said he hopes to be able to leave her with at least a few pearls of wisdom to guide her.

“There are several pieces of advice I hope to give her, things that I’ve learned throughout my career,” he said. “I’ve made mistakes along the way and hopefully I can help her avoid the same mistakes.”

While the union contract requires that a sergeant be promoted to lieutenant and a patrolman rise to sergeant, as a result of Delmont’s promotion, one position that will be left unfilled is the captain’s spot, once Collins leaves at the end of March.

When Gavalier was promoted to police chief from patrol division lieutenant in 2005, succeeding Gordon Ellis, Lt. Bryan Kloss served as interim police chief until Gavalier was appointed and stayed on with the department afterward, eventually being promoted to captain. He stayed in that position until his retirement about five years ago. In June, Gavalier tapped Collins as the department’s new captain, after he had effectively been serving in the role since Kloss’s retirement.

“Given the budget and concerns about staffing levels, we’ll keep everyone on the road that we can,” Demont said.