[ back ]
POMPTON LAKES - Struyk is new Police Chief
(by Leslie Scott - Staff Writer - September 10, 2008)
POMPTON LAKES - The Borough Council voted 5-to-1 to promote David Struyk to be the new police chief. Struyk will replace Acting Chief William Smith, who officially retired on Sept. 4.
Struyk has been with the department for past 20 years. He started working in the borough shortly after graduating from the police academy in 1988, and he is excited about his new position.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, but I think that we have a good department. I hope to make the department a little better when I get it, just like Smith made it better when he got it. So if I can do that, then I will be happy about it,” he said.
At the council meeting on Sept. 3, Councilwoman Lisa Riggiola voted against this promotion because the council only had one candidate from which to choose.
“I would have preferred to have more candidates. We have a lot of officers that have many years of service in Pompton Lakes. I’m sure there would have been others that would have been more qualified,” said Riggiola.
This police force is a Civil Service department, which only allows promotions from within its ranks.
Councilman and Department Liaison Mike Simone explained that three members of the department – Struyk, Smith and Capt. William Baig, who was on terminal leave at the time – were asked to take the chief’s test. Smith and Struyk took the test and only Struyk passed. So what the council had before it was the result of the promotion process, Simone explained.
“If we did not choose him, we would have to have a whole new exam and that would have delayed this (promotion) until the spring,” said Simone.
The borough could not have appointed a new acting chief. Simone explained that Smith was promoted from lieutenant to acting chief when former Chief Albert Ekkers retired last summer because no one had taken the chief’s exam at the time.
Since someone had passed the chief’s test by the time Smith chose to resign, the department is prohibited in naming someone an acting chief, Simone explained.
“With the current list we could not have had an acting chief. So with the current department, we would have had a lieutenant in charge of the department for six or eight months,” said Simone.
Councilman Ed Meakem is supportive of Struyk taking over the position.
“I gave Chief Struyk the vote of confidence. I believe he was the right person for the job,” he said.
With Smith’s retirement, the department is down to 20 members. Struyk said he would like to get four additional members on staff.
“We probably won’t get that until next year. They promoted (Sgt. Moises) Agosto (to lieutenant) so he will take over some of the duties I was doing. He was the traffic officer, so I will be asking for promotions in the future to fill some of the spots that we have,” said Struyk.
Council members said that they are aware that the department needs more people.
“That’s for another time, for us to fill these positions. Basically the only action we discussed was the promotion of the chief and promotion of the lieutenant,” said Meakem.
The council did place funds in the 2008 municipal budget to hire two officers.
Currently the department is managing well, Simone said.
“We realize that they are short and we are going to fix that. We did talk to the chief about staffing and managing. Until we can resolve it, he’s confident that this could be done for the short term,” said Simone.
Simone said that he has confidence in Struyk’s leadership.
“I find him to be a very up-front and straightforward kind of officer. He seems to have a very good command of rules and regulations, and I have confidence that he will do fine and I hope the department supports him 100 percent,” Simone said.
Simone said one thing Struyk will have to work on is improving morale. Once Ekkers left, there was a lot of uncertainty as to what would happen in the department. Also, a lawsuit was filed and other officers were making headlines in the news.
Former officers Robert Palianto, Dennis DePrima and Michael Megna were ordered by the state Superior Court in Passaic County to resign from the department after a 2004 undercover investigation into the sale of steroid painkillers.
All of these officers were charged with conspiracy to commit official misconduct, official misconduct, hindering apprehension and conspiracy to possess drugs.
In a separate matter, Agosto filed a lawsuit against the municipality alleging he was unfairly passed-over for a lieutenant’s position.
“When Chief Ekkers retired and we appointed Smith as acting chief, everyone knew there had to be promotional tests so there was about a year of uncertainty as to when and how,” said Simone. “So when the test results came out and Acting Chief Smith did not pass, there was another whole series of, 'What are they going to do now?'”
Simone said morale was low when Ekkers retired but he could not say for a fact that the department’s other issues had hurt morale.
The council is expected to vote on Struyk’s salary during the Sept. 10 meeting, which will begin 7:30 p.m. in Borough Hall.
[ back ]
