Bainbridge Island Police Chief Matthew Hamner had an emotional epiphany, in sort of a Sally Fields kind of way.

The island spoke, and he heard. “You like me, you really like me!”

Hamner, the island’s police chief for the past five years, was being courted for the police chief job for the University of Colorado Police Department in Boulder, Colorado.

And while the Bainbridge Island City Council had agreed last week to a new contract, Hamner, himself wasn’t convinced he would stay.

In a phone interview on his way back to Bainbridge this week, he said the sentiments he heard from islanders — in email messages, texts and posts on social media — convinced him he should stay on as Bainbridge’s top cop.

One email in particular, Hamner recalled.

It said: “It was with shock and disbelief that I read you might be considering a possible move in your career. I read that your decision is based on what’s best for your family and I applaud you for that but may I add one thought that indirectly impacts your family.”

“That is the level of respect, professionalism and love of community that their husband and father has here on Bainbridge Island. There are few public employees, whether city, county or state that have had such an impact on their community as you have had. Police departments are under siege and being looked at through a microscope all over the United States but what you have done for our police department and our community is immeasurable.”

Hamner got a little choked up when reading the email.

“The email gave me a different perspective on what I was doing here,” he said.

“I’m humbled by the outpouring of support and the desire for me to stay on the island,” Hamner said.

Hamner’s focus since joining the Bainbridge force in 2013 has centered on rebuilding trust with a community that had lost faith in its police department, and the leadership guiding it. Few dispute that the Bainbridge Island Police Department was an agency in crisis — cracking apart internally due to bad blood between the officers’ union and management, with its reputation in tatters following the fatal police shooting of a mentally ill Bainbridge man during a 911 call that led to a federal civil rights trial that prompted a $1 million judgment against the city.

By most accounts, the department has had a complete turnaround since.

Hamner visited Colorado to be interviewed for the job in May.

Last week, a retired police chief vetting the final five candidates for the Colorado job — Hamner was one — visited Bainbridge and talked to people inside and outside the force, and city hall.

Hamner recalled what the retired chief told him at the end of his visit.

“‘You undersold yourself. You don’t realize what you’ve created here.’”

The Bainbridge council took the extra step of making sure Hamner would stay on Bainbridge at a special meeting earlier this week, when it voted 6-1 Tuesday to offer the chief more money in a new employment contract than the employment agreement OK’d by the council last week.

Council members said it would be a big mistake to lose someone of Hamner’s caliber, and cast off concerns that it would set a precedent for other department heads when their employment contracts expire. Council members repeatedly noted the trust that the department has earned since Hamner took over the Bainbridge department.

A new contract was a surprise this week, as the council approved a new employment contract for Hamner at its meeting last week — his current five-year contract ends June 10. But the contract was revised following news that Hamner wasn’t satisfied with the new agreement, and City Manager Doug Schulze said he had misunderstood Hamner’s willingness to agree to the contract put before city decision-makers last Tuesday.

Last week’s contract included a base salary of $158,000.

The new employment agreement, however, includes an increase in base salary from $158,000 to $170,000.

Councilman Ron Peltier was the only vote against the new contract.

Unlike the previous agreement, the new contract does not carry a term limit, and includes incentive pay to keep Hamner in his post.

Hamner said he was excited to continue the progress that the department has made.

“I just want to let the community know how grateful I am that they brought me in as chief,” Hamner said, adding that it was an honor to be Bainbridge’s chief.

“I will continue to serve at my very best … and continue to build and strengthen that relationship of trust,” Hamner said.