New police chief

The City of Odessa's currently accepting applications for its vacated Odessa police chief job, and Interim Chief John Blanco isn't one of the applicants.

Odessa City Manager Richard Morton said he's had 20 people fill out an application for the vacant police chief job.

"We have two internal candidates' resumes from the Odessa Police Department," he said. "We've had people from as far away as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Colorado apply also."

Morton wouldn't release which two members of OPD applied, but he did note that Blanco wasn't one of the internal candidates as of yet.

"John Blanco has not applied for the position, and I don't think he's going to apply," he said.

Andrea Goodson, the city's public information officer, said Blanco declined to comment because "he's a very busy person."

Meanwhile, Morton said he's still accepting applications for the chief job until it's filled.

"I'd like to narrow the list down to five or seven in the next couple of weeks," he said. "Even when we have finalists, we're still going to accept applications until the actual job is filled."

Morton said the job could be filled by late April or early June but didn't have an exact timetable.