When the City of Sturgeon Bay didn’t rush to fill the Lieutenant vacancy with the Sturgeon Bay Police Department left by Chief Clint Henry’s promotion, it wasn’t because of a lack of options. Discussions around the creation of an Assistant Chief of Police position are ongoing and recently went through the Personnel Committee. The Chair of that committee, Dan Williams says that while there hasn’t been an Assistant Chief of Police position in Sturgeon Bay before, the Captain Position does similar duties to typical Assistant Chief tasks. Adding such a position will help evaluate the department’s wages and positions compared to other departments, says Williams. 

There has been a collaboration between the city and the department, as Williams remembers Chief Henry accepting his new position and suggesting a restructure of staff titles. With that idea in mind, the Lieutenant position was strategically left open and will likely be eliminated. The Captain title would be retained in this restructuring. Williams says that not filling the Lieutenant position did cause a bit of sacrifice, as jobs in the department got a little more tedious and some had to take on extra work. He says it was important though, to figure out what a restructure looks like. Williams feels that aligning staff roles with other departments will improve efficiency.

The restructure will be discussed by the common council on Tuesday and Williams predicts that it will not have trouble passing.