Davenport City Civil Service Commission approves waiver to expand candidate pool for police major

The Davenport City Civil Service Commission on an affirmative vote approved a waiver to Rule 2.2 and updated the minimum qualifications for the Police Major promotion, allowing candidates to test from either Police Captain with at least one year in rank or Police Lieutenant with at least five years in rank.

The change, brought forward by HR staff, is intended to align police promotion rules with the Fire Department’s structure and expand the candidate pool for succession planning. HR staff told the commission the Police Department currently has three captains and nine lieutenants; under the previous rule only the three captains would have been eligible to test for the major position.

HR staff said the waiver will remain in effect until the commission approves any different written qualification in a future rule change. HR staff also described the waiver as aimed at succession planning and creating a competitive testing process for a position that prepares potential future chiefs.

The Police chief (unnamed) discussed how the differing duties of captains and lieutenants factor into candidate readiness, saying, "I would look at it as a different position altogether." The chief added that some captains have expressed they do not wish to move into the major role, and that opening eligibility helps tap into the department’s management pool: "This gives us an opportunity to tap into our management pool, tap into... all of our managers and utilize that talent and also give more opportunities for those who seek to succeed to potentially be, a candidate for, chief of police as that progresses." The chief also confirmed the department has nine lieutenants.

Commissioners asked whether promoting a lieutenant over a captain would be disruptive; the Police chief responded that candidate viability and desire to take the succession step would determine fitness for the role. The commission approved two related motions: first, to grant the waiver to Rule 2.2; second, to adopt the updated minimum qualifications as described in the meeting materials.

The formal approvals were taken by motion and voice vote; the motions carried with unanimous "Aye" votes. No specific vote tallies by member name were recorded in the transcript. The commission was advised that without approval of the waiver the proposed minimum-qualification change could not proceed.

The commission did not adopt additional procedural changes to the test itself during this meeting. Staff said supporting documents and a memo describing the proposal were in the meeting packet and offered to answer follow-up questions and provide more detail if commissioners requested it.