AUSTINTOWN — Township trustees have a new candidate to consider for police chief, after an outside applicant submitted his resume at the 11th hour.

Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito confirmed that Austintown native Robert Clark is under consideration, despite his late submission for the job.

Trustees met Thursday and Friday last week to interview five finalists for the position, then recessed until Wednesday to discuss the candidates and make a final decision. D’Apolito said Clark’s resume and experience were discussed at Wednesday’s meeting, though Clark said he has not yet been interviewed.

D’Apolito said he spoke to Clark by phone Monday after a third party submitted Clark’s resume on his behalf.

“Prior to this call I did not consider him a candidate because he had not submitted on his own behalf,” D’Apolito said. “Based on our discussion I agreed to forward his information to (the) trustees.”

Clark, 58, started his career in Austintown before transferring to the Youngstown Police Department in 1989. He has worked as a local and federal law enforcement agent, and has worked to reform police departments internationally.

After leaving Youngstown in 1995, he became an FBI assistant special agent in charge in the Los Angeles field office, the third largest in the bureau. Among other highlights during that time, he served on U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s personal protection detail for four years, beginning on Sept. 11, 2001.

He also led more than 350 agents in addressing local, national and international gang violence, drug cartels, organized crime and crimes against children. He served as that office’s international operations chief, coordinating with police agencies in several Central American and South American countries.

From 2017 to 2021, he worked for private enterprises, doing consulting work in Trinidad and Tobago, coordinating with local police to reform and reorganize the department, upgrading infrastructure, technology, policies and procedures, and working with multiple coordinated task forces to address organized crime, gang violence, human and drug trafficking and other crimes.

He returned in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From 2021 to 2023, he was the director of public safety and a mayoral Cabinet member in Columbus. He served briefly in 2023 as the vice president of Public Safety for the Philadelphia Housing Authority. Since then, he has been the executive director of the Central Texas Public Safety Commission, in Austin, Texas.

Clark said the opportunity in Austintown is one he has hoped for throughout his career.

“It is home for me,” he said. “My daughter lives there, my sister lives there and my brother-in-law. And it’s the department I started with,” Clark said. “And there hasn’t been an opportunity in my career. But when I learned about it, I thought ‘let me take the opportunity and see if there’s any possibility.'”

Clark said he knows Austintown is not the same place he left in 1989, but he still feels he knows the community and would relish the opportunity to bring his experience and skill set back home.

“Ultimately I want what’s best for the township and the women and men who work in public safety,” he said. “I know the trustees will make the decision that’s best for their community and the people who work in the Austintown Police Department.”

Clark said that despite his distance from Austintown, he knows about some of the department’s challenges, like the failure of the police levy in November, and the budget shortfall.

“As for my skill set and experience, transformations have been the highlight of my career, the ability to transform and reform law enforcement organizations, locally, nationally, internationally,” he said. “In my career, I’ve learned that the presence of money does not necessarily guarantee success and the absence of money does not guarantee failure.”

“It’s about right sizing strategies, right sizing partnerships and right sizing your vision,” Clark said. “And you have to right size your applications so everyone can come along to accomplish the vision.”

Clark said he appreciates being considered but understands if the trustees feel it is too late in the process to interview him for the job.

The other five candidates include Austintown Police Lt. William Hoelzel and Lt. Valerie Delmont, supervisors in the patrol division, as well as Kathy Dina, the director of security for Austintown Local School District and a former detective sergeant with the police department.

The two other candidates are 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.

Austintown police Capt. Tom Collins also was among the applicants, but withdrew earlier this month when he notified trustees that he would be retiring in March instead.

Police Chief Robert Gavalier announced in December that he would retire at the end of February, bringing an end to his 44-year career, all of which he spent in Austintown.

Trustees are expected to announce the new police chief at their Monday staff meeting.