Bloomingdale police chief to transition into new role

Bloomingdale police Chief Frank Giammarese is retiring in October, but he isn't leaving the department.

Instead, he's following in the footsteps of several other suburban chiefs and rejoining the department to lead it as the village's director of public safety, a newly created civilian position.

While Giammarese will lose his power to arrest anyone, he will be responsible for the oversight of all police department functions in his new role. He'll also be able to collect his police pension and still earn a municipal paycheck.

Bloomingdale trustees voted unanimously this week to create the $132,918-a-year job in order to keep Giammarese.

"I was going to lose my police chief," Village President Franco Coladipietro said Wednesday. "It was his intent to retire."

Giammarese, who has been with the department since 1988, told Coladipietro about a year ago that he was planning to step down, collect his police pension and pursue opportunities in the private sector.

Coladipietro said he initially tried to talk Giammarese out of it.

He stressed that he didn't want Giammarese to leave because he's been "outstanding" during his seven years as chief. Giammarese also is very active in town and has become "a great leader for the community," Coladipietro said.

When he heard of other suburban communities creating civilian positions to keep popular police chiefs, Coladipietro decided to pursue that idea. Itasca and Addison are among the towns that have adopted the format.

The Bloomingdale village board took final action on Monday, and the transition will take place in October.

"I am ecstatic," Giammarese said. "I've had some opportunities to maybe move on. But I'm thrilled to be able to continue my working career here in the village of Bloomingdale. It's a wonderful place for me to work."

Giammarese, 52, is one year short of being fully vested in the police retirement program. When he retires, he can begin collecting a pension that will be roughly 72 percent of his final $156,374 salary.

His pay for the director's position will be frozen for two years.

"To me, it's a win-win," Coladipietro said. "I get to keep the chief in a leadership position. In addition, we get to save the community a few dollars."

As director of public safety, Giammarese won't participate in another pension system. Instead, he will make a contribution to a deferred-compensation retirement plan.

Giammarese said he decided to stay with Bloomingdale because he has a passion for the community.

"I would rather stay here and work with a tremendous police department in a tremendous community," he said.

Village officials said the director of public safety will be "the final department authority on all matters of policy and discipline." The director also will "monitor the planning, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling of all department functions and activities."

Coladipietro said Bloomingdale can always go back to having a police chief in the future. Village trustees would simply need to adopt an ordinance, he said.