C.R. police captains to fill chief’s role

CEDAR RAPIDS - It may take up to six months to find a new police chief, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said Tuesday, and he didn't seem in any particular rush to fill the job.

Interim Chief Richard Stephens, is retiring on March 31, and Pomeranz said he intends to rotate the Police Department's three captains - Tom Jonker, Steve O'Konek and Bernie Walther - into the interim chief's job for 60 days each. Jonker will go first, then O'Konek and then Walther, Pomeranz said.

“It gives each of these captains an opportunity to lead our department,” said the city manager, adding that it could take less than 180 days to name a new permanent chief.

O'Konek and Walther were among five finalists for the chief's job in 2008 when then-City Manager Jim Prosser and the City Council named Greg Graham, a deputy police chief in Ocala, Fla., to be Cedar Rapids' new police chief.

Graham resigned in January to return to Ocala and become chief there.

Pomeranz said he has hired The Mercer Group Inc. of Santa Fe, N.M., to help in the search for a new police chief.

President/CEO James Mercer was in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday talking to council members, Police Department employees and local residents, asking them what kind of chief they want, Pomeranz said.