BETHESDA — A Bethesda councilman and two police officers resigned during a special meeting where a new sitting council also appointed its former police chief and former Belmont County sheriff as its interim police chief.

Longtime councilman Brian Bee resigned 10 minutes into a meeting Monday night that originally was called to appoint an interim chief to temporarily replace Chief Eric Smith. Bee, who serves as the chaplain of the village’s police department, said he was stepping down from council because of a conflict of interest between his his two roles.

Nearly three hours later, a new board — one that had sworn in Jay Van Horn to replace outgoing Bee — voted unanimously to name Fred Thompson its interim chief. Thompson, who resigned as Bethesda’s police chief in 2015 and served as Belmont County sheriff from 2005-2013, will be acting in that position as an administrator only and without pay, according to the council.

Meanwhile, village police officers Jeff Stephens and Julie Bilyeu resigned after the board appointed Thompson. While Stephens said his resignation was effective immediately, Bilyeu gave her two weeks notice.

Councilman Charles Little responded to the officers’ decisions to leave their posts with a tone of regret.

“We are losing our police department,” said Little. “If we lose it, we lose it. We’ll start over again.

“This is very disturbing,” he said later.

Bee said that as chaplain of the police department, he would be obliged to either recuse himself from a hearing for embattled Smith, abstain from voting on the interim chief or resign his position as a councilman. He said he determined that resignation was the only fair option to council and Smith.

“I have served as a village councilman for over nine years, starting my third term,” said Bee. “I want to thank the residents who have confidence in me and voted for me three times. I’ve always tried to do my best and make decisions that are in the best interests of the village.”

Village administrator Dirk Davis said that even though the law did not require council to advertise for the position, he believed council members should have done so anyway. Nevertheless, Austin Lucas, Carroll A. Merritt and president Paul Fitch voted to appoint Van Horn. Little and Jordan Castello cast dissenting votes.

“I think we need to take a little bit of time to think about this,” said Little who also said the council had 30 days to make an appointment.

Council voted April 3 to suspend Smith with pay pending the outcome of allegations made against him. During previous meetings, attendees have said Smith has demonstrated flares of temper, insubordination and open disrespect to Mayor Martin Lucas, along with belligerent, disruptive behavior. Others have criticized Smith’s behavior on social media.

Thompson also had said Smith may be in violation of state statutes because he lives outside Bethesda and does some work in other villages. A former village police officer, Jack Sall, also alleged that Smith improperly stored evidence, which led to an altercation with Davis.

The mayor and special council are researching possible offenses to bring against Smith in a hearing to determine if he will be removed from office permanently. A hearing date for Smith has not yet been set.

Prior to Bee’s resignation, the board unanimous approved retiring badge number 5501 that had been used by late police Chief Tim Zdanski. During the April 3 meeting, there had been some contention about Smith’s use of the call sign through the Belmont County 911 system.