North Liberty police chief on paid leave pending investigation

The North Liberty police chief has been put on paid leave while the city investigates grievances expressed last week in a public letter from the North Liberty Officers Union and Sergeants Union.

The letter, released Friday, listed a number of grievances including poor communication, ambiguous time-off policies and not hiring or retaining enough officers. The two unions had met together a few days earlier, on March 24, and unanimously voted no-confidence in Chief Diane Venenga’s ability to lead the department.

The unions notified the city about their vote but did not provide an explanation until the release of the letter, according Nick Bergus, the city’s community relations director.

“The City of North Liberty takes employee concerns seriously while simultaneously making no presumption of their merit. Accountability is important for maintaining community trust and a disciplined police force,” Bergus said in an email.

The police chief reports to the city administrator, Ryan Heiar, who made the decision to put Venenga on leave. Venenga’s current annual salary is $147,430.44.

The city is working on arranging an independent investigation of the claims in the letter, but doesn’t have a timeline yet. Bergus said an organization has been selected to perform the investigation, but the city still is running conflict-of-interest checks and will release the name of the organization once the details are finalized.

Police Lt. Tyson Landsgard will be handling the daily operations of the department while Venenga is on leave. “This is not expected to impact service levels of the department to the community,” Bergus said.

The North Liberty Police Department now has 26 officers and sergeants.

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