Police Department Restructuring May Be Left to New Chief

Plans to restructure the may be on hold until after long-time Chief Paul Bunten retires in 2012.

Bunten, who has been chief for 17 years, and City Manager Todd Campbell have been working on restructuring the department for months, hoping to trim the budget of the $1.5 million department.

Part of the plan called for replacing the deputy police chief position, recently vacated by the, with a lieutenant who would make $74,000. Ceo made $86,000 in his final year. Sgts. Jay Basso and Kevin Murphy interviewed for the position and the department was a day away announcing a decision when the city put a stop to the process.

Mayor Gretchen Driskell said she thinks the task of restructuring should be left to a new chief.

“We’re losing a lot of leadership with the retirement of Paul and Jack. They've done a wonderful job and served the city. We're going to have a new leadership team in the department, so the new chief should be able to choose that team,” said Driskell.

Bunten said the reason he gave 10 months notice of his retirement was so that he would have ample time train a number two officer who would then help the new chief transition into the job.

“The plan was to work with the lieutenant until the new chief was in place,” Bunten said.

Council member Brian Marl said he thought it was important to put someone in place now, whether it was as deputy chief or lieutenant.

“It’s a vacancy and it needs to be filled for the stability of the department. I am in favor of hiring someone sooner rather than later, although the majority of council appears to feel differently,” Marl said. “We have an organizational structure and I think we should put someone in that number two position, even on an interim basis, and then a new chief can make the ultimate determination.”

Earlier this year, a plan to outsource the was under investigation but in the Saline Police Officers’ Association contract.

During the discussion, some in the public and on council questioned the need for the deputy chief’s position.

Bunten said it was important to have a number-two officer who wasn’t part of the union, because of grievance procedures and other management issues. Sergeants are unionized.

Council will discuss this issue again at a work session Nov. 7.