Facing the imminent retirement of Village Police Chief Lloyd Perkins and being unable to create an “officer in charge” position to replace him, the Skaneateles Village Board of Trustees agreed last week to keep Perkins on as interim chief at least until next June.

The board’s decision came after it met with Perkins in an executive session last Thursday, Sept. 27, after its regular board meeting.

“We want to work something out with Lloyd … [and] make the best of a bad situation,” said Mayor Marty Hubbard.

The bad situation is the fact that the state attorney general’s office recently opined that the village could not hire an “officer in charge” to run the police department instead of hiring a new police chief. With that decision in place, the board can either strike a deal with Perkins or hire someone off the county list of certified police chiefs, since no officers currently in the Skaneateles Police Department have passed the county certification.

“We don’t have a lot of options,” Hubbard said. “If not Lloyd then we bring a stranger in” — and the village board does not want to hire someone from outside the village who has no knowledge of or connection to the community.

Four current members of the Skaneateles Police Department, including second-in-command Sgt. Marty Stevens, intend to take the county police chief test next June, Hubbard said. If one or more of those officers pass the test, then the village board will “have more options,” Hubbard said.

In the meantime, the village board has decided to keep Perkins on after his Oct. 25 retirement as the interim police chief, or the police chief of record.

Perkins previously announced his intention to spend time in Florida after his retirement, but Hubbard said Perkins is not moving there permanently, and any extended periods of time during which he is out of state he will be considered on an unpaid leave of absence, although he will be available via telephone and email.

Perkins rate of pay and job duties as the interim chief are currently being negotiated with him by trustees Mary Sennett and Marc Angelillo, the village board’s liaisons to the police department and labor unions, respectively. Those details are expected to be worked out before Perkins’ official retirement at the end of this month.

Jason Emerson is editor of the Skaneateles Press. He can be reached at [email protected].