Mandeville Mayor Edward “Bubby” Lyons has whittled down the list of 42 applicants for the position of chief of police to a reasonable list of 23 qualified candidates.

Lyons said he will begin interviewing all of the candidates Monday and is still set on nominating someone to fill the position at the Jan. 14 City Council meeting.

“The number is about what I expected,” Lyons said. Prior to receiving a list of candidates, Lyons asked Human Resources Director Gretchen McKinney to form a committee made up of herself and her counterparts from Slidell and Covington and to review the applicants and weed out anyone who did not meet the minimum requirements.

Sixteen of the applicants did not make the cut. Three more pulled themselves from consideration.

Of the 23, 10 list their homes addresses inside St. Tammany Parish, and six more reside outside of the parish but in Louisiana.

The most locally recognizable of those being acting police chief Ron Ruple, Harahan Police Chief Peter Dale and Donald Sharp, deputy chief of operations for the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Ruple was a corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps and a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force.

He began his tenure with Mandeville Police in 1990 as a patrol office and has worked his way up through the ranks. He now holds the rank of captain and has been serving as acting chief since former chief Tom Buell was forced to retire at the end of last year.

Sharp’s total career has been with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office. He started with the department as patrol deputy in 1977, and he too, has progressed through the ranks.

Dale was elected as police chief in Harahan in 2002. Prior to that, he was an elected councilman for the city. He was appointed as director of parks and recreation for the city, and served in that capacity from 1983-1985. Before that, he was an officer for Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and the New Orleans Police Department. He also owns National Investigative and Protection Agency.

In addition to Ruple, two other applicants have Mandeville addresses. James Elmore is a lieutenant with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office. He retired in 2008 after serving as a special agent for the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations. He has also worked as a polygraph examiner and did an earlier stint in the 1980s with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office when he was a captain and supervisor of personnel, budget and internal affairs.

Richard Percy, the only applicant who lives inside the Mandeville city limits, is a special agent with the FBI. He worked for two years as a state trooper and was also a security police officer with the U.S. Air Force.

Three applicants live in the Madisonville area. Frank Tridico is currently a lecturer for SLU. He retired in 2007 as a lieutenant colonel with state police and prior to that served as a deputy sheriff for Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves.

Paul Bolian retired in 2000 after 21 years with New Orleans Police. After his retirement he worked as a field manager for Reliable Reports Inc. until he was laid off in 2008.

Robert Bruno retired in 2005 after 20 years with U.S. Marshal’s Service. He is also retired from the U.S. Army Reserves, where he was a lt. colonel.

Applicant Dennis Dufour lives in the Abita Springs area. He is currently working as an investigator for Medicare fraud and prior to that has worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, where he was chief criminal deputy.

Applicants Donald Curole and Sigmund Swenson live in Slidell.

Curole is a 35-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department. He retired in 2006 at the rank of captain. Swenson retired in 2005 after 24 years with Slidell Police. His rank at retirement was chief of detectives.

Steven Wilson commutes from his home in Hammond to the Washington, D.C. area, where he is employed by Northrop Grumman Cooperation supporting Joint Forces Command as a military analyst.

He was deputy director of the state’s Homeland Security in Baton Rouge from October 2006to March 2008 and prior to that worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a chief information interrogator. His early law enforcement experience includes stints with both Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and the New Orleans Police Department.

David Peralta of Meraux is a major with the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office. Prior to that he was the chief administrative officer for St. Bernard Parish. He also did 15 years with the New Orleans Police Department and another 13 years with the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office. During this tenure he was employed as warden.

Rudolph Babin lives in Greenwell Springs. He has been employed as a Baton Rouge police officer for 28 years and currently holds the rank of captain in the criminal investigations bureau.

April Overman and Christopher Williams both live in New Orleans. Overman is a captain with New Orleans Police Department. She has been with the department for 25 years. More than 18 of those have been in supervisory or command positions. She is also a member of the adjunct faculty for the University of Phoenix, teaching undergraduate courses in criminal justice ad psychology research.

Williams works for the U.S. Department of Veterans as chief of police services. He oversees the law enforcement activities for the Southeast Region of the Louisiana Health Care System. He is also an adjunct professor of criminology at Delgado Community College.

Another seven applicants reside out of state.

Christopher Canaski hails from Alaska, where he is currently serving as chief of police for the city of Cordova. Prior to that he worked for both the Jefferson Parish and St. Charles Parish sheriff’s offices as well as serving as a military policeman in the U.S. Army. In his cover letter, Canaski states that he is looking to move back home and that while in Alaska he was charged with rebuilding Cardova’s police department after it received unfavorable reviews in an audit.

Lawrence Cavallaro lives in Lakeland, Fla. He most recently served as Police Chief for the city of Mulberry, Fla.

Until June 2009, when the city disbanded its police force and began contracting with the county. He has also worked in law enforcement for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Barton, Fla., and the City of Frost Proof, Fla.

John Kearin list his address as Benicia, Calif., where is employed as a private investigator. His law enforcement experience includes serving as chief for the Highwood Police Department in Illinois and the Davidson Police Department in North Carolina.

Harold Todd lives in Kentucky but is a graduate of Ponchatoula High School and Southeastern Louisiana University. He served as a Louisiana State trooper and as assistant chief for the SLU police department.

He has served as police chief for North Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Ky., since 2004.

Robert Patton, who lives in Bowie, Md., is currently the chief for the Capitol Heights Police Department in Maryland. He has also served as chief for the Walls Police Department in Mississippi and as chief deputy of operations for the Tunica Sheriff’s Office.

Gerald Mines is currently employed as a police expert consultant in New York. He retired in 2005 after 32 years with the New York Police Department.

Richard Moss recently left his post as chief of police for the city of Woodstock in Georgia. Prior to that he served as commander for the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Florida.

The job description requires applicants to hold a college degree in police science, law enforcement, criminal justice, public administration or a related field.

But exempts the college degree requirement for individuals who have graduated from the Federal Bureau of Investigations National Academy.

Applicants must also have 10 years of prior law enforcement experience. They must possess or be able to obtain a state driver’s license without a record of suspensions or revocations in any state and may not have any felony convictions.

They must also be a U.S. citizen, but it is not required that they live in the Mandeville city limits or in St. Tammany Parish.