Ironwood parts way with Klecker as IPSD director

By RALPH ANSAMI

and RICHARD JENKINS

[email protected]

Ironwood — The city of Ironwood parted ways with its public safety director, Greg Klecker, Wednesday.

A short news release Thursday from Ironwood City Manager Scott Erickson said the city had “separated its employment agreement” with Klecker after less than a year on the job to “improve departmental operations and employee morale.”

Erickson told the Daily Globe there was no single incident that led to the decision.

“It’s just basically a change of direction … sometimes there’s just not a perfect fit with a position,” he said. “There were a lot of things he accomplished for us, but then there were other things we wanted to go in a little different direction on.”

Sgts. Adam Clemens and Matt Sterbenz have been appointed on an interim basis to handle the administrative duties of the department, according to the release.

While the city will move forward with filling the position permanently, there is no set date to hire a new director.

“It’s not a rush; we have two very capable individuals that are handling the administrative end in the mean-time. I’m very confident with their ability to do that well,” Erickson said.

The Ironwood Public Safety Department’s day-to-day operations should continue without interruption, he added.

While Klecker was escorted from the public safety building, Erickson said that was simply procedure.

“That’s fairly standard protocol when you’re in an administrative position,” Erickson said. “So people don’t read too much into that, that’s just protocol for anyone who is at an administrative level because they have a lot of access to a lot of stuff — not that we had any concerns.”

Previously, an Ironwood citizen, Jeff Ramme, was denied a request by the Ironwood City Commission asking whether there have been any internal or external complaints filed against Klecker and what the results might be.

Ramme told the Daily Globe previously that Klecker had responded to only one complaint since he was hired less than a year ago and there were conflicts with officers.

City officials said personnel files of a law enforcement agency are exempt from disclosure.

Klecker attended most city commission meetings, but he was not at Monday’s session when commissioners decided to make the Lowell Street-McLeod Avenue intersection into a four-way stop from the present two-stop sign set-up. There was no mention of his absence at that meeting.

A recent incident in which beer was dumped out at Depot Park during a volleyball game also was a topic of discussion by the city commission. That drew a public complaint at a commission meeting from former city manager Keith Johnson, who said the strict interpretation of the no alcohol in parks rule was driving volleyball tournaments away from the city.

Klecker started a “Coffee with a Cop” series and publicized a bicycle patrol this summer after he took over as IPSD director in December. Former IPSD director Andrew DiGiorgio resigned to take a teaching job at Gogebic Community College, but has been working with the IPSD part-time this summer.

Before coming to Ironwood, Klecker had worked for five years as senior commander with the Buena Vista Public Safety Department near Saginaw.

He was a 20-year veteran of law enforcement, working as a road patrol officer, detective and supervising sergeant in both rural and urban settings.

Klecker was selected for the job from several candidates, including three officers from the IPSD. He came to Ironwood in late October for a second interview as one of four final candidates.

A call to Klecker’s cell phone indicated the voice mailbox was full.