Police department reorganizes staff to prepare for code enforcement division

In preparation for the establishment of the Newton Police Department’s code enforcement division, the city council approved the reorganization of supervisory staff in the police station, effectively promoting one officer from sergeant to lieutenant to oversee this new division as well as investigations.

The employee relations committee met with Newton Police Chief Rob Burdess prior to city council action on Dec. 19. Council member Randy Ervin, who serves on the committee, clarified the city is not adding any full-time equivalents, but it is removing a full-time position up one spot, an estimated $4,000 cost to do that.

Newton City Council made it a goal to create a code enforcement division in the police department in order to improve curb appeal.

“Obviously council is looking at quality of life issues in the community and that’s why (there’s) that focus on the code enforcement division,” Burdess said. “When we created the CSO (community service officer) position a few years ago, it didn’t really fit in terms of our organization with this specific division.”

For the time being, Burdess oversaw the CSO position. Then the police station added another CSO position. In July 2023, there are plans to add another CSO and an administrative position specifically for those officers. In total, four more positions added onto the six to seven Burdess is already overseeing.

“That gets a little out of hand,” he said. “So this provides an opportunity for a lieutenant to gain some experience over the next few years in preparation for some retirements. All of my lieutenants will be gone within five years. All of them were hired in the 1990s. That will leave only me that was hired in the 1990s.”

Preparing the police department’s future leadership is crucial, Burdess added.

Ervin said the police station will probably start looking to fill roles for the code enforcement division sometime in March or April, depending on when council wraps up the financial plan. Some of the things the city constantly looks at is succession planning, which Ervin said was considered for the reorganization.

“Chief Burdess showed us a very good three- to five-, seven- to 10-year plan for the police department where it should be structured, with an organizational chart in the future that should be a more traditional work chart for their operations,” Ervin said. “This also fits in line with the Back the Blue legislation.”

Signed last year by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, the Back the Blue Act prevents municipalities from taking finances away from their police departments.

“It was thought after a lot of discussion that this was a good plan to put these plans in place,” Ervin said. “It does, however, leave on their work chart one spot open. We will not fill that until the succession planning fills out in the end. The actual long-term goal is to actually lose two people to get us back to the one.”

The reorganization brings the police department’s authorized supervisory staff to four lieutenants and two sergeants.