Blue Island council adopts Board of Fire and Police Commissioners ordinance to allow lateral police hires

Blue Island’s City Council on Jan. 28 adopted an ordinance to replace parts of the city code with language establishing a Board of Fire and Police Commissioners, a change city officials said would let the police department use separate hiring lists and accept lateral-entry candidates.

Supporters told the council the change would allow the city to maintain an initial list for new hires and a separate lateral-entry list for applicants with prior law-enforcement academy experience who could then complete a field-training program. A presenter said the dual-list approach “would make getting our numbers back up to full staff a lot quicker.”

An alderman asked for clarity about the redlined draft and said the ordinance appeared to include broad new language; that alderman declined to vote for the measure as presented, saying they needed more time to compare the new text with the old code. Council members and staff said the draft largely reflects repeal of old, obsolete civil-service language and replacement with a new board structure that other non-home-rule communities have adopted.

The council approved the ordinance by roll call; an abstention was recorded by Alderman Rowe. The meeting record also shows the mayor intends to reappoint three people to serve on the new board — Jim Klinker, Kevin McKinney and Greg Robinson — with those reappointments to appear on the next meeting agenda.

The ordinance authorizes the new board structure and, according to staff comments during the meeting, is intended to give the department more flexibility in hiring and to speed restoration of full staffing levels. Council members pressed staff on whether statutory changes had been incorporated and asked that grammatical and obsolete position references be removed.

The council vote: motion carried (abstention recorded; roll-call details are in the meeting record).