State Budget Fight Influenced Several Local Police Chiefs to Retire

Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill certainly provided plenty of reasons for police and fire chiefs and other public employees to resign or retire over the last several months.

Topping the list was the law that called for those employees to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance premiums than ever before.

Since late December, however, only nine police or fire chiefs from Patch's 18 Milwaukee-area municipalities announced their retirements or resignations with reasons for the departure varied.

Greenfield loses both department heads

Both chiefs in Greenfield retired after lengthy careers. Former Police Chief Frank Springob made his announcement after Walker's budget-repair bill announcement and put the finishing touches on a 46 1/2-year career with the department June 30.

In addition to it being a "good time for him to retire and make way for his successor," Springob added the timing of his decision had a lot to do with Walker’s biennial budget proposal and the  come 2012.

"This is my attempt to in some small way provide a little bit of a cushion in the budget for 2011 and going into 2012," Springob said at the time.

Former Greenfield Fire Chief Russ Spahn, who had been a city employee for 39 years and with the fire department since 1981, cited public sentiment toward his profession and the loss of benefits as two major reasons for his decision to retire June 1.

He too decided to retire after the details of the budget-repair bill were announced.

"For the first time in my career, I feel offended by a lot of the media hype or people in general feeling that public employees are responsible for the debts that the state has," he told Greenfield Patch. "That’s certainly not true, but we’ve had some of our people booed at City Hall, some negative things.

"That, and ... I figure to lose a lot of the benefits that I’ve earned, and like a lot of other people in the city and school districts, they’re leaving as a result of that, too."

Former Deputy Inspector Brad Wentlandt has replaced Springob on a interim basis, and Former Battalion Chief Jon Cohn, a former chief in Greendale, has done the same for Spahn. Both interim appointees hope the position becomes permanent, but that likely depends on the futures of Greenfield's departments, as well as those of surrounding municipalities.

Some want to make consolidation a reality

Perhaps not coincidentally, five of the nine Patch-area retirements/resignations came from Milwaukee County suburbs who are in the thick of consolidation discussions.

In Oak Creek, , replacing Tom Bauer, who announced his retirement in July 2010. Oak Creek's Fire Chief Brian Satula  and was appointed by Walker to the position of emergency management administrator.

Oak Creek has decided to hold off on searching for a fire chief while consolidation talks continue. Tom Rosandich is the acting fire chief.

In Greendale, Robert Malasuk was named police chief six months after taking over on an interim basis for Robert Dams, who retired at the end of the year after a 37-year career.

Greendale and Greenfield already work closely together, especially their fire departments, along with Hales Corners and Franklin. Greenfield's Spahn .

"I think those (consolidation) conversations will be more serious because of what the governor is doing and where the economy is," Spahn said. "People are going to demand it."

Many members of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Council agree and

In most other Milwaukee-area Patch cities, the police and fire chiefs remain intact, and consolidation was likely not a factor where other changes at the top took place:

• In Caledonia, several months after former police chief Jeff Meier resigned, .
• Wauwatosa's former fire chief Dean Redman left his post abruptly in January and was replaced by Rob Ugaste a few months later. Police Chief Barry Weber was one of six candidates to fill the vacated Greendale chief opening .
• Port Washington's police chief Richard Thomas , including more than 5 with Port Washington. His last day is May 9, 2012. "I'm at a point where I  came here and completed what I was supposed to do," Thomas told Port Washington Patch. "It's really time for me to pass the torch to someone else."
• In Sussex, Fire Chief Colin Curtis  after retiring from the Brookfield Fire Department in order to collect on his contributions. He reapplied for Sussex's top job and should resume the post soon.