Gilroy – The city plans to start recruiting a new police chief
this June, disregarding the police union’s urgings in March to
start recruitment immediately.
Gilroy – The city plans to start recruiting a new police chief this June, disregarding the police union’s urgings in March to start recruitment immediately.
Human Resources Director LeeAnn McPhillips said the entire process is expected to take six or seven months. After recruitment opens in June, the city will screen applications in August, interview top candidates in September, complete background checks in October, make an offer in November, and hire its new chief in December 2007 or January 2008. The timeline is considerably quicker than that originally estimated by City Administrator Jay Baksa, who previously said that the hiring process could take nine months to a year.
Gilroy’s Police Officers Association pressed for speedy recruitment after this spring’s retirement scandal, which damaged trust and morale in the department.
Officers learned in February that Police Chief Gregg Giusiana and Assistant Chief Lanny Brown retired late last year, then returned to work, collecting both their pensions and their regular pay. Baksa has said the plan is legal and saves the city more than $100,000, but the arrangement vexed some councilmen and police officers, who felt the decisions should have been shared. In an official statement, the union decried the quiet retirements and asked that a new chief be recruited ASAP.
“We see no benefit in delaying commencement,” wrote Gilroy Cpl. Jim Callahan, union president.
Brown recently resigned, after learning that his retirement unintentionally violated state pension regulations; Giusiana is still working as the department’s chief, but can only work a limited number of hours per fiscal year. To keep the chief working full-time, Baksa and Giusiana planned to split his post-retirement hours over two fiscal years, avoiding the restriction. In January, Baksa explained that if a chief couldn’t be recruited by December, Giusiana would stay on until his replacement was found.
