Gilroy – Assistant Police Chief Lanny Brown’s abrupt departure
won’t upset move-in plans for the department’s new building,
project staff said, nor will it impact negotiations over the
building’s final price.
Gilroy – Assistant Police Chief Lanny Brown’s abrupt departure won’t upset move-in plans for the department’s new building, project staff said, nor will it impact negotiations over the building’s final price.
Brown resigned Tuesday after learning April 6 that his part-time employment contract unintentionally violated state pension regulations, which require a 60-day break in service before a retiree returns to work – if the retiree leaves before the highest “normal retirement age” for all the police agencies the employee has worked for. The 52-year-old assistant chief previously worked in Novato, where normal retirement age is 55.
In January, the assistant chief retired, then returned to the department on a part-time basis, one month after Police Chief Gregg Giusiana had done the same. The same regulation does not apply to Giusiana, said state officials, because he has only worked in Gilroy, where the retirement age is 50. Giusiana is 52.
“The shock … was to come up with a plan,” Brown said Tuesday. “The work loads and priorities had to be immediately reshuffled.”
As co-project manager of the department’s new Seventh Street headquarters, Brown played an integral role in designing and planning the building, said Bill Headley, his co-project manager. Brown estimated that for the last three months, 75 to 90 percent of his time has been dedicated to the building’s completion.
The building is now nearly finished, and computer technicians are installing workstations, network cabling and phones.
Move-in issues and final touches will be handled by Headley and Capt. Scot Smithee, who will replace Brown as the police department’s contact for the project. Smithee could not be reached before press time.
“We’re basically over the hump,” said Headley. “Capt. Smithee and I can more than handle the remaining issues.”
Brown was also involved in negotiations with contractor SJ Amoroso over the building’s cost. Construction errors and delays resulted in more than $900,000 of extra costs, which the city insisted that Amoroso pay.
Amoroso has already submitted a settlement offer, said Headley, on which City Council will vote on Monday night. Headley said he could not discuss details of the offer, which will be available Monday.
Overall, said Giusiana, the impact isn’t significant, “but the timing is sort of bad.”
“Lanny can be very proud of what he helped accomplish,” Headley said. “The only regrettable thing is that Lanny won’t be able to occupy his office while the building becomes occupied.”
