Marshfield committee recommends police rank restructure, cites clearer chain of command and roughly $65,000 annual savings

The City of Marshfield Finance, Budget & Personnel Committee recommended that the Common Council consider a restructuring of the police department rank system and an associated side letter to the collective bargaining agreement with the Marshall Professional Police Association.

Police Chief Jody Gearing told the committee the city has faced “inequalities and inefficiencies in our rank structure for a number of years” and said the proposal follows the upcoming retirement of the administrative services supervisor. “We can fix the inefficiencies and inequalities in our rank structure and have about $65,000 a year less draw on the general fund,” Gearing said.

Gearing described operational problems the committee cited as the core justification. “The lead officer should have more rank than a detective,” she said, noting that unclear titles made command recognition difficult in emergency incidents and when outside agencies interacted with Marshfield officers. She added that detectives have been a promoted position while lead officers were appointed, which contributed to recurring internal confusion about who outranks whom.

Gearing said the new rank would be set about 2% above the detective step to create a consistent pay progression and to provide “enough space for that compression” between sergeant and lieutenant. She emphasized that establishing the rank structure within the department, rather than leaving it to union negotiations, creates “a launching point to create that rank structure to then negotiate from in the future.”

Committee members raised concerns about timing and bargaining. Committee member Marshall said he was “a little concerned with this coming forward without having it involved in the negotiations,” calling the contract-negotiation period the appropriate time to address pay and rank adjustments. Committee member Mike asked when contract negotiations were scheduled; Gearing replied that the current contract runs through Dec. 31, 2026, and bargaining would begin in late 2026.

Committee member Giles moved to accept the revised range structure; the motion passed with one member recorded as opposed during the on-the-record vote.

The committee packet and discussion identified that the restructure would create five sergeant positions and reassign four lead-officer roles and one sergeant within the detective bureau to improve span of control. Gearing said the detective bureau previously had nine detectives with no second command, producing a span of control “way out of whack” and that the change would better align supervisory ratios.

The committee’s recommendation sends the restructure and an associated side letter to the collective bargaining agreement to the Common Council for final approval.

The committee did not approve any changes to the underlying labor contract during this meeting; Gearing noted any negotiated salary increases beyond the adopted range would be subject to future bargaining.