Assistant chief hired

Portland police got a new chief less than two months ago.

A new assistant chief is set to join him.

Portland Board of Works on Thursday approved bringing Steve Schlechty back to the city’s police force.

Schlechty, who retired from Portland Police Department just six months ago, has been working as a security officer at Jay County Courthouse.

Portland Police Chief Mitch Sutton plans to install Schlechty as assistant chief Monday.

“One of the things that I discussed with the mayor when I agreed to take this job is that I would like to bring my own assistant chief in,” he said. “And I wanted somebody … that knew this department and knew the inter-workings of the department because I did not.”

Sutton was hired July 13 to replace former chief Josh Stephenson, who resigned from his post the same day. Schlechty and Sutton had worked together at the courthouse.

Erica Post had been serving as assistant chief under Stephenson.

Also Thursday, the board approved the hiring of Cameron Clark to handle information technology services for the police department. (Stephenson had previously served as the department’s IT manager.) Sutton explained that he had worked with Clark while at Jay County Sheriff’s Office and was happy with his performance.

Clark will handle IT issues on an as-needed basis at a rate of $85 per hour with a $45 trip fee.

Board of works members Jerry Leonhard, Steve McIntosh and Mayor John Boggs also briefly discussed Enterprise Fleet Management’s proposal to take over management of the city’s vehicles. The company uses an “open-end” lease program to eliminate upfront costs and recycles vehicles an average of every three years in order to save money on maintenance and gas.

Boggs said he and his fellow board of works members will be contacting counties and municipalities — they include Kokomo, Logansport and Columbia City, and Delaware, Madison, Howard and Noble counties — that already contract with Enterprise for the service before discussing the proposal more in depth.