Former police chief did consulting work for city of Naperville
By David Sharos For The Sun November 10, 2012 4:34PM
Naperville City Manager Doug Krieger speaks during the annual State of the City address at Tellabs in Naperville on Monday, January 24, 2011. | Brian Powers~Sun-Times Media
Updated: December 12, 2012 6:48AM
Naperville’s city manager says the move to keep former Naperville Police Chief David Dial on the payroll as a consultant after his retirement was the right call.
Dial retired May 18 after 22 years as Naperville’s chief of police. He was replaced as chief by Naperville Assistant City Manager Robert Marshall. Marshall served for 27 with the Naperville Police Department, and retired with the rank of captain to accept the assistant city manager position in 2005.
The city paid Dial to be a consultant during the transitional period of the new chief. He began working less than a week after leaving office at the same pay grade he had when he retired.
Dial was paid approximately $50,000 for work that focused on the Police Department’s accreditation process as well as transitioning his replacement and working on contract issues for officers and their superiors.
Friday afternoon, City Manager Doug Krieger confirmed that he acted alone on the decision to retain Dial as a consultant and said “if I was to do it again, I would.”
“In my opinion, having David work with us added tremendous value during this transition period due to his knowledge of operations and personnel, as well as his input regarding our accreditation, and I would do it again,” Krieger said. “It was my decision and was done within the authority of our spending limits and the costs within the Police Department’s budget.”
Krieger noted that Dial announced his retirement in January. When that happened, Krieger said he thought of the idea to use him as a consultant during the impending transition period.
Krieger said as city manager, he “has spending authority and is allowed to spend up to $100,000 within the budget approved by the City Council.”
Krieger said “it would have been impossible to find an outside consultant who would have been as qualified.”
“As we looked at the turnover that was coming, my feeling was it would be valuable to keep him and help us with the transition of the new chief,” he said. “The chief worked within this department for over 22 years and no one knew it like he did or had the history. I think he was uniquely situated to provide the information we needed.”
