City begins process to fill police department vacancies

The Medford Police and Fire Commission at a meeting on December 30 began the process of filling an upcoming vacancy in the police department.

Chief of police Chad Liske told the commission Lt. Robert Horenberger will be retiring on February 28 after more than 15 years with the Medford Police Department and asked the commission for permission to start the promotional process for the position. He said he had spoken to Horenberger who thought it would take two weeks to train his replacement and that he would like to complete the interview process by the first or second week in February. Liske said he thought there were three and possibly four people in the department who might be interested in applying for the promotion.

Liske said in the event there was a promotion within the department, he also wanted permission from the commission to establish an eligibility list for a further vacancy to fill the patrol officer position that would be open after the promotion. He said the steps in the process include accepting applications, testing the candidates and initial interviews to rank the applicants for the commission. When asked if Medford could be short a patrol officer after February 28, Liske said it was possible they could temporarily be short an officer due to the time it would take to hire a replacement if someone within the department was promoted to the lieutenant position.

Following a very brief question and answer session, the commission approved both of Liske’s requests. The commission also scheduled the interviews of applicants for the lieutenant position for January 20 and 27.