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Campbell reinstates police lieutenant position, promotes four men
CAMPBELL
It’s been more than 20 years since the Campbell Police Department had a lieutenant — the city chose in 1983 to phase out that rank, and the last lieutenant retired in 1993.
Campbell Police Chief Drew Rauzan said lieutenants usually are the chief’s “right-hand man” at departments.
This summer, Campbell decided to bring back that rank in the police department. The city promoted one of its police sergeants to the new lieutenant position at noon Thursday. The city also promoted three patrol officers to sergeant positions to fill recent vacancies.
Campbell promoted John Rusnak from sergeant to lieutenant; patrolman Joseph Pavlansky to sergeant; patrolman Kevin Sferra to sergeant; and patrolman Charles Butch to sergeant. Judith Clement, city administrator, said these new positions will be effective Sunday.
Campbell Mayor William VanSuch said the city decided to add a lieutenant with council’s permission to “take some pressure off the chief.”
“The arrest and transactions at our police department has increased immensely,” VanSuch said. “It is a lot of work. It was a benefit of the city that we got this job back on the books.”
Historically, Rauzan said, the city had a lieutenant position at the police department from 1915 to 1993. In the past, he said the role was a supervisor position. He said he wants the new lieutenant to be like an “assistant chief of police.”
“Managing 10 full-time patrolmen and 10 part-time patrolmen with only two sergeants available became problematic,” Rauzan said. “I would like to have the new lieutenant and myself never working at the same time so we are guaranteed 16 hours a day with a man there who can operate with autonomy. Or if either of us takes vacation, we can take on [each other’s] responsibilities.”
Six Campbell patrol officers and one sergeant took a physical exam Aug. 23 and a written examinations Aug. 25 in order to qualify for the promotions. VanSuch said the highest eligible scores on these two tests received the promotions.
“It was a very close call,” said Michael Maillis, a city commissioner who helped with the testing and promoting at the police department. “It was all within a few percentage points for the people who took the tests. The four highest scores were all within one to five points of each other.”
Rauzan said he thought all candidates for the promotion were fully qualified for the job.
“I wish [the police department] could have been part of the process to decide who to promote, but the mayor made the call, which he has a legal right to do.”
VanSuch said the new lieutenant will be paid $40,045 salary for the rest of 2014. He said he will receive a raise to $44,990 salary for 2015. He said all sergeants will be paid roughly $40,000.
The chief said it’s uncommon to have three to four promotions available at a smaller, suburban police department.
“In my experiences, every generation gets a wave of promotions,” he said. “There was a wave about seven or eight years ago because of retirements. Right now, we’re having a couple retirements, so there will be promotions.”
Depending on the age at which patrolmen or sergeants are promoted, he said it could change how long it takes for the next group of people to be promoted.
The chief said he hopes the lieutenant position and other promotions will boost morale at the department.
“Injecting another rank here between sergeant and chief gives staff another opportunity for advancement,” he said. “Morale is on the upswing right now, and hopefully that’ll put our retention rates on the upswing.”
Rauzan added that he is excited to work closer with Lt. Rusnak in his new position, as he has been working with Rusnak a long time.