Budget committee discusses vacant police captain post, department warns accreditation work requires prompt backfill

The Canby Budget Committee on May 29 took up a request from councilors about whether the city could leave a recently vacated police captain position unfilled and use the salary savings elsewhere in the budget.

The question came from Council President Tracy Hensley, who said an email had notified the committee that “we had a captain that has resigned slash retired,” and that the city had been operating without that position filled for roughly six months. Hensley asked whether the salary could be repurposed for other needs during the budget year.

Captain Gonzales of the police department responded that the vacancy has increased the workload for sergeants, the chief and himself and that upcoming accreditation work makes the post hard to leave vacant. Gonzales said the accreditation process is due in September and “it takes 1 person to concentrate on that work,” adding that the department has been covering tasks across multiple staff while the captain position was unfilled.

Committee members pressed on staffing scenarios. Committee member Dan Stearns asked whether the city could promote from within or whether an external hire would be required; Gonzales said the department intends to look internally first for promotion, then recruit externally if no internal candidate accepts. He said promoting to captain would be a “smooth transition” because the internal candidate would be familiar with procedures and could begin accreditation work immediately, but replacing the backfilled patrol officer could take months if filled by a lateral or more than a year for a recruit who must complete the academy and field training.

Members discussed the budgetary effect if the promotion/backfill sequence delayed the lower-level hire; Finance Director Scott Schlage later estimated a staffing-related savings of about $44,000 for a period while the department remains short-staffed. Councilors and the mayor treated that figure as a possible one-time saving to be applied elsewhere but several members — including Hensley — cautioned against counting on that money because overtime or other unexpected costs could quickly absorb it.

The committee did not take any formal action on the vacancy at the meeting. Members asked staff to account for the vacancy and possible short-term savings as they moved through the parking-lot list of budget items. Gonzales and the chief said they preferred the city to fill the captain slot promptly to avoid harming operations or accreditation readiness.

The committee’s discussion linked staffing choices to accreditation, overtime risk and recruitment timelines; staff said internal promotion would plug gaps fastest, while new recruits require academy and field training that extend the time before the officer is patrol-ready. The debate informed later budget reallocation votes but did not produce a separate motion about the captain post itself.

Looking ahead, committee members said they would monitor the department’s staffing and overtime expenses at midyear and recommended staff return with clearer numbers if the council wished to rely on any vacancy-generated savings.