FRANKFORT -- The Frankfort Police Department will remain the same for now after city leaders couldn't agree on how to cut an officer from the force.
The city council voted to make probationary officer Jason Wolfe a permanent member of the department at a special meeting Friday. Wolfe narrowly kept his job after a proposal to reduce the department from three full-time officers to two failed by a 3-2 margin at a meeting on Thursday.
Wolfe will complete his first year of service with the department Monday, but council members Fred Stransky and JoAnn Holwerda favored letting him go before his probationary status ended.
Chief Keith Redder said he was "kept in the dark" about the council's deliberations on the issue. Some council members said citizens complained about Wolfe but they refused to give details, Redder said. He wasn't sure if the council wanted to get rid of Wolfe because of the alleged complaints or for budgetary reasons.
"That's what I'm still trying to figure out," he said.
Mayor Norma Elias did not return repeated calls for comment. Stransky and Holwerda also didn't return calls.
The city had as many as five full-time officers only a few years ago, and Redder said losing another would hamper the department.
"It would have seriously affected how we provide law enforcement to the city," he said. "Right now, with it being a busy time of year, we need everybody we can get."
The decision to keep Wolfe comes less than a month after a judge ordered Frankfort to rehire former officer Tim Cavric, who was laid off for budgetary reasons in 2003. An arbitrator eventually ruled in Cavric's favor, and Benzie Judge James Batzer upheld the ruling.
The council is appealing the decision. Elias previously said the city would have to make budget cuts if Cavric was brought back.
Redder said he wasn't sure if the move to eliminate Wolfe was connected to the Cavric issue.
Print this story
E-mail this story
