WAVELAND — The Board of Aldermen voted 4-0 today to confirm the termination of Police Chief James Varnell before standing-room-only crowd at this afternoon's meeting.

Although the board did not take public comments, one person in the audience approached the board to speak with them. Varnell was police chief for 29 years.

The vote came as the second order of business, coming after accepting an audit report from 2009.

"This termination was swift. If I had been handling this, I would have done it differently," said Alderwoman LilLi Stahler.

Aldermen will take up the issue of whether to disband the police department later in the meeting.

Sunherald.com will update this story as details become available. Read more in Wednesday's Sun Herald.