By Josh Staloch
Staff Writer
LAWRENCE – Hobart/Lawrence Police Chief Randy Bani is one step closer to having a second-in-command following the two community boards agreeing to look into funding a captain position as well as another officer in 2022.
The Lawrence Town Board and the Hobart Village Board discussed a police department study on staffing needs put together by Bani, at a joint meeting Tuesday, October 26.
The study recommended three options to meet the growing needs of the communities.
The two boards chose the least expensive of the three.
Bani said the addition of a road officer will allow the department to promote a current officer to sergeant.
He said the rank is in high demand, because the department currently has just one supervisor aside from the chief, and relies on other municipalities and Brown County for supervisory support.
Filling the captain’s position is currently budgeted at $83,000 while the new officer is expected to cost $59,885.
Bani said he’s happy with the decision to provide his department with more manpower, but he believes the police department’s hiring scope will have to broaden in the coming years.
“Are we going to get there? We’re going to have to take bigger steps to get there,” he said. “A bigger step would have been to go with option A, which would have also given us three additional officers a year for the next three years. I knew that was a far stretch, as far as the budget is concerned. But, I had to put it out there. They had to know that we want to move in that direction.”
Bani said having the captain’s position filled is of the utmost importance to him.
He said it’s vital to bring someone on as soon as possible.
“We need that captain’s position for many projects, including having someone that I can train that can steer the ship,” Bani said. “I’m not going to be around forever.”
The agreed upon plan also calls for the hiring of an additional officer in 2023 and one in 2024, with internal promotions to the rank of sergeant planned for both of those years.
The plan, which officially gained the approval of both boards, also calls for the hiring of one officer in 2025 and 2026, with no promotions scheduled.
“Our job here is to provide you with the money and the wherewithal to accomplish your mission,” Hobart Village Board President Richard Heidel said to Bani. “When it comes to HR (Human Resources) issues and personnel and so forth, politicians have no business sticking their finger in it.”