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Warren Police Department hiring, promoting officers
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Warren Police Department is in the midst of a small hiring and promotion boom, as a result of several recent and upcoming retirements.
On Wednesday, the Warren Civil Service Commission certified a list from which the department can hire three replacements at the patrol-officer level. The department is ready to hire three to return its staffing level to 65 officers.
And over the next year, the department will replace four upper-level officers, including Chief Tim Bowers and Capt. Joseph Marhulik. Those retirements will result in a lot of promotions.
Three retirements are expected by the end of this year, meaning three additional entry-level police officers are likely to be hired.
The Warren Fire Department also is hiring, but those jobs may end up being short-term as the department attempts to keep its staffing level at 75 firefighters to meet the requirements of the department’s federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program grant.
The Civil Service Commission administered a test Saturday at Warren G. Harding High School for which 23 applicants had signed up to take the entry-level firefighter test.
The two-year, $5 million grant expires Nov. 26, but Ken Nussle, Warren fire chief, says he believes the federal government will allow him to extend the grant for several months to use up the last of the grant money.
The result will be that the two firefighters to be hired right away and additional firefighters expected to be added as additional openings become available this year may not get to keep the jobs very long.
Nussle said he’s hoping the city will come up with enough money to keep some of the 23 firefighters brought on board with the grant, but that will be up to the city administration and council.
The recent announcement that RG Steel will lay off its 1,135 Warren-area workers later this month, reducing the city’s annual income-tax collections by $275,000, most likely will reduce his budget, Nussle noted.
Even though the fire-fighting jobs may not be permanent, the people taking the test realize there is value in the experience to be gained even from being a Warren firefighter for a few months, Nussle said.
Meanwhile, the lieutenant promotional test is expected to be certified next month for the Warren Police Department. One lieutenant is likely to be promoted right away, and a second lieutenant position will be vacant in December.
Additional positions at the top will be vacant when Marhulik retires next spring and Bowers retires in June 2013.
The top level in the police department is chief followed by captain, lieutenant and sergeant.
The 2011 police department annual report says two management employees received extra training last year to prepare for future promotions.
Sgts. Dan Mason and Jeff Cole each spent three weeks at an intensive training program at the Police Executive Leadership College.
Bowers said the training is designed to increase an officer’s professionalism and help prepare them for top-level leadership positions. Mason, who had the top score on the recent lieutenant promotional test, will get the training this year.
The police department annual report, released recently, says homicides rose back up to nine in 2011 after being at nine in 2009 and four in 2010.
Bowers said the best deterrent to homicide is the type of cooperation that has been evident in the Mahoning Valley in recent years with the use of the U.S. attorney’s V-GRIP program, which has taken guns and criminals off the street.
When lower-level criminals are taken off the street through programs such as V-GRIP, they are less likely to become victims of homicides committed by higher- level criminals, Bowers said.