By GLEN WERLING
Members of the Ossian Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners Tuesday night said goodbye to Police Chief David Rigney.
Rigney made it official Tuesday when he notified board members Caleb Chichester, Bob Miller and Stan Reed that his last day will be Saturday, Dec. 31.
Rigney, who was elected unopposed to the Lancaster Township Trustee’s position in November, cannot hold the trustee’s position and be police chief.
“Obviously this is a bittersweet night,” Miller said before presenting Rigney with a plaque and a special retirement badge for his service.
Rigney has been chief for 18 years, having served in law enforcement in both California and Texas prior to coming to Ossian.
“You’re going to be missed. We are extremely grateful for your time and dedication not only to the department, but to the citizens of the town,” Miller said. “You’ve made a lot of positive changes.”
Rigney had hinted earlier in the year that he might stay on the force, but not in the capacity as chief. However Tuesday he made it clear he was retiring from law enforcement.
A retirement party for Rigney is set for 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, at his residence in Bluffton.
The commissioners also accepted the resignation of Sgt. Stephanie Tucker.
“As many of you know I was recently elected to the Ossian Town Council,” Tucker reminded the commissioners in her letter of resignation.
“As a council member, I can no longer serve on the police department. This was not an easy choice to make, however I feel I can be more of an asset on council,” she added.
While Tucker is leaving the Ossian Police Department she signaled she may be continuing her career in law enforcement, but declined to elaborate.
Tucker’s resignation takes effect at 11:59 a.m. Jan. 1. After that point, the Ossian Police Department will have only one full-time employee — Officer Brian McClish.
In other business the commissioners learned from Tucker that the process of hiring a full-time officer to fill the vacancies on the force continues. There is one promising individual who passed the testing but has not turned in his application. He apparently had emailed his application but emailed it to the wrong address.
Tucker plans on starting a background investigation on him.
The second applicant still in the process has taken a polygraph test and passed it she said.
Regarding the new application process there are 11 pre-applications. Two of the applicants have applied with the department before. Tucker asked the commissioners to consider an executive session to discuss two of the applicants and whether or not it’s a good idea to invite them to the testing process.
The board members also discussed a Friday session planned to interview an interim chief of police candidate. There is currently only one application for that position but two applications have been received for the chief’s position.
The board also:
• Learned from Tucker that the part-time officers have been trained on the department’s new software. There are some features of the software she would like to tweak. She also said that she would like to schedule an executive session to go over the background checks of the part-time officers.
• Learned from Tucker that the new police vehicle — an unmarked vehicle — will be ready for pickup next week.
• Learned from Tucker that a conference has been scheduled with Motorola regarding getting the body cameras ready for operation.
• Agreed to approach the town council at its meeting next Monday to appropriate $50,000 in funds to cover the purchase of Watchguard in-car cameras so that all of the town’s police vehicles will have cameras. That is anticipated to cost $45,000. In addition with the appropriated funds the department is planning to replace the department’s desktop computers at a cost of $4,500.
• Learned from Rigney that the officers drove 3,558 miles during the month, of which 764 were commuter miles. The fuel expense for the month was $1,255.87 as of the Nov. 15 fuel statement. That is just within the department’s monthly fuel budget of $1,301.63.
• Learned from Rigney the department’s officers racked up 41 hours of overtime between Oct. 30 and Nov. 26. Rigney had the most overtime at 37.5 hours. McClish recorded three hours of overtime during the period and Tucker had a half an hour of overtime. Year-to-date the overtime expense is $10,385.95 and the amount spent on salaries has been $294,461.54. The 2022 budget for salaries is $319,000.
The next regular meeting of the board of commissioners is set for 6 :30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 3, at the Colliers Comfort building, 215 N. Jefferson St.
glenw@news-banner.com
