‘A hiring crisis’
TOLEDO – Toledo Police Chief Dan Quigley and Lieutenant Nathan Wunn made a presentation to the city council at Monday night’s meeting to address some serious concerns — a hiring crisis, in the chief’s words. Currently, there are two open positions at the Toledo Police Department, which have remained open for some time. The Toledo […] Toledo Police Chief Dan Quigley and Lieutenant Nathan Wunn presented to the city council about a hiring crisis at the Toledo Police Department. The department has been actively advertising for nearly a year without any new recruits. Quigly highlighted the difficulty of finding a job in law enforcement due to flexible hours and increased workloads. He proposed a salary increase to compete with other departments, eliminating a second vacant position and using the salary from this position to fund the increase in wages. The city council approved this action, with only a dissenting vote from Duane Pansegrau. The council also approved a $1 an hour shift differential pay for night shift officers, and a $19,500 sprayer for a new mosquito sprayer. An IDOT federal-aid agreement was also approved.
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TOLEDO – Toledo Police Chief Dan Quigley and Lieutenant Nathan Wunn made a presentation to the city council at Monday night’s meeting to address some serious concerns — a hiring crisis, in the chief’s words.
Currently, there are two open positions at the Toledo Police Department, which have remained open for some time. The Toledo PD has been actively advertising for nearly a year with no new recruits.
Quigley spoke about the reasons why people haven’t applied for the position.
“Law enforcement is not an enticing career like it was in the past. People value their time off and prefer to have a stable work-life balance which is difficult to have in public safety. Younger generations hope for more flexible hours and guaranteed time off,” he said. “It takes a special person to want to do this job knowing you will be working nights, weekends, holidays on a rotating schedule. Adding in negative media attention (and) the concern of being publicly scrutinized. Additionally, the application and hiring processes turn some people away.”
During the presentation, Quigley talked about the Toledo PD compared to other local departments, especially when it came to salary and incentives. Larger departments are able to offer incentives, signing bonuses, and specialty positions (I.E. K9, swat, detective), whereas Toledo isn’t. When it came to money, the chief compared the city’s pay rates to others. Toledo’s starting wage for a non-certified officer was $21.50, whereas Tama’s patrol officers were paid $26 to $28 and Dysart Police $30.
He also mentioned Toledo’s policy of requiring officers to buy their own service weapon as opposed to the Tama Police Department and the Tama County Sheriff’s Office, which issue their weapons. The cost of a service weapon varies but can run close to $1,000.
The solution proposed by Chief Quigley to get more applicants for the open position and retain the officers currently employed by the department is mainly a salary increase — bumping the starting wage up from $21.50 to $25 to compete with the surrounding departments. It was also decided to eliminate the second vacant position at the department and have the salary from the eliminated position go to the increase in wages.
The Toledo Police Department will now only be looking to hire one new officer. This course of action was approved by the city council with the only nay vote coming from Duane Pansegrau. It was also approved to implement a salary step program.
Quigley also made it known that this would not be a quick solution, informing the council that if an officer was hired this week with all the training that has to be done, that officer wouldn’t be out on his own till this time next year. Every uncertified officer, once hired, has to go through the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, which is a 16-week program offered only a few times a year. After the academy, the officer must complete 12 weeks of field training, which is a standard in law enforcement but is not done at every department.
During his presentation, the chief reported that the Toledo PD’s reserve officers have been helping more during the officer shortage, as one reserve officer was reported to be putting in approximately 40 hours a week.
Quigley was asked if he had any other improvements or incentives that he wanted to bring to the table.
“There are others that I would like to do. These are ideas that I hope to work with our city council to implement. One that was recently approved was a $1 an hour shift differential pay for night shift officers. That will go into effect on July 1, 2024,” he said.
The county engineer stopped by the council meeting to get an IDOT federal-aid agreement approved. The agreement is between the city of Toledo and Tama County to replace the 300th Street bridge over Deer Creek at the edge of Toledo.
Salud Sanchez made his first appearance of the year before the council to discuss the annual Toledo Heights Park soccer contract. A few items were discussed between Sanchez and the council, and last year’s contract will have a few changes made before it’s ready to be signed and stamped.
Toledo Public Works employee Richard Jimenez passed his Wastewater 1 certification and was approved for a raise. The council approved the 2024 spring clean up to be on April 24 and 25.
It was also approved for the city clerks to attend the IMFOA spring conference. The purchase of a new mosquito sprayer was approved. The price of the sprayer is $19,500, which will be split between Toledo and Tama.
Kendall Jordan with the public works department reported that the city received seven inches of snow last week on the same morning a water main break needed fixing. Some of the projects up next for the public works department will be water main and sewer projects.
Quigley reported that from March 11-24, they received 120 calls to service and affected 11 arrests. The Durango is back in service after the engine oil cooler was replaced.
Officer Price attended an Interview Interrogation Case Law and Tactics training seminar. A list of 11 abandoned and vacant properties have been made, with three properties being high priority.