By Christopher Williams,Staff Writer

AUBURN – After he resigned as the city’s top cop, Richard Small grabbed his golf clubs and headed for the links.

He had entered a tournament that day. But after a few holes, he walked off the course.

“My mind was elsewhere,” he said.

After 27 years on the job, the past seven as chief, Small turned in his badge Friday.

“It’s just time to move on,” he said.

During an interview Monday, he was at home dressed in shorts and a polo shirt, the TV turned on. He is using up some accrued vacation time before June 30, officially his last day on duty.

He had met with City Manager Pat Finnigan on Friday morning. They agreed on his resignation.

“She knows I wanted to retire,” Small said Monday. It was something he’d been talking about for a year or so.

“It’s my decision not to be a police officer any longer.”

Finnigan confirmed that account Monday.

“It was a retirement of his own choosing,” she said. She cited among his many accomplishments an effort to earn accreditation for the Auburn Police Department. He also stepped up training for officers.

“He’s leaving the department in excellent shape,” Finnigan said.

He didn’t offer to stick around while the city found a replacement. That wasn’t his style, he said. He would have felt guilty hanging around just collecting a paycheck, doing nothing.

“It was time to move on,” he said.

Besides, he said, Deputy Chief Phil Crowell was perfectly capable of stepping into the role of acting chief until the city hires a permanent replacement. He had groomed Crowell for the role.

At 48, Small said his years as a marketable commodity are on the wane. It was time to change careers. He’s thinking about teaching, maybe become a florist. He’s been approached by a couple of people about jobs. He’s not saying what kind of work they involved. But it wasn’t law enforcement, he said.

He has completed the FBI Academy course and he’s got a criminal justice degree from the University of Maine at Augusta, just a few credits short of a bachelor’s. He likely won’t go back to school for that, he said.

His children and step-children are grown.

One day, he hopes to retire to his house in Eustis to “fish and hunt and not listen to the phone ring all night long.”

With no new job in sight but some prospects, he’s content to simply work in the garden and mow the lawn these days, he said.

Having put in his 25 years, Small is expected to get half of his roughly $68,000 salary for a pension. That will give him a chance to pursue a second career based less on finances than passion.

In the meantime, Finnigan said the city will launch a national search for Small’s replacement. The last search turned up 100 applicants, including Small. She hired him.

“I think I made the right decision,” she said.

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