SCHERERVILLE | Two Schererville councilmen have confirmed that Police Chief David Dowling has been asked to resign.

Dowling wouldn't comment on the matter, saying it's not appropriate to talk about anything right now.

"All I can tell you is that Hal (Town Council President Hal Slager) and I had a conversation," he said.

Slager said he can't comment because it is a personnel issue.

But Councilmen Rob Guetzloff and Tom Schmitt confirmed that Slager met with Dowling this week and asked him to resign.

Dowling, who was appointed police chief at the end of 2004, is chairman of the St. John Township Democrats.

The Schererville Town Council majority shifted from Democrat to Republican after November's election. Guetzloff and Schmitt are Democrats. Slager and Councilmen Perry Ferrini and Jerry Tippy are Republicans.

"Everybody knows Dave's a Democrat and close to the Democratic people, but the thing about it, he was doing a good job," Schmitt said. "We've made a lot of strides in the past few years."

The council has appeared to work well together, not divided by party affiliation.

"There's a lot of good things going on, so I don't understand why they'd be out there, shaking the cage," Guetzloff said. "As elected officials, when we put somebody in an office as high as police chief, I'd hope that we could get the finest person to run the department, and to keep the political aspect of it out of the Police Department."

At the beginning of the year, council members agreed to move forward as a team to work for the betterment of the town. Guetzloff said that this action goes against that effort.

"It was a facade, a way to fool the people, to deceive the public," he said. "If you want to keep things unified, I think you should sit down at the table, not just go for resignation."

If elected leaders want to remove Dowling from his position, the Police Commission needs to make the recommendation, and the Town Council needs to vote to accept the recommendation, Schmitt said.

If it comes to that, Schmitt and Guetzloff said they would vote against Dowling's removal, saying he has done great things for the town.

Last year, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies recognized the Schererville Police Department for meeting a set of policy and procedure standards. The town also recently took over the financial administration of the Lake County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, an anti-drug task force.

"With all the years I've been involved with the town, one thing I've learned is you really don't want to mess with public safety," Schmitt said. "For some reason, people want to pick the police and fire chief as items to change."

Guetzloff said three of the five police commissioners are new this year and aren't experienced enough to know how to make a recommendation like removing a chief.

"They've already become the experts?" he said.

Schmitt said he wants to hear from the Police Commission and fellow councilmen a reason why Dowling should be removed.