Interim Chief of Police at the Santa Rosa Junior College Police Station, Joseph Palla will keep the position until June 30. After that, the seat remains vacant.

The last couple years have been rough at the SRJC Police Station since Chief Terry Stewart retired from 34 years leading the force. His replacement, Christopher Wilkinson, resigned after only six months of service.
Palla, a former SRJC Board of Trustees member, took the position on a temporary basis to give the school time to select a replacement. Palla has served a combined 16 years as Chief of Police in Healdsburg, Cloverdale and San Bruno.

Unfortunately, due to AB1028, a bill passed by the California State Senate last year, Palla is not able to take the position without jeopardizing his retirement plan with California Public Employees’ Retirement System unless it is offered under a different program.

“We had a search firm who said we might be able to increase the pool of applicants if the job were [California State Teachers’ Retirement System] eligible. After we talked to the faculty involved, we decided not to offer that,” said Vice President of Business Services Doug Roberts.

Making the position CalSTRS eligible would mean that the Chief would have a more didactic role than that of his predecessor.

“I have not decided whether or not I will apply for the permanent position. I will review the material and make my decision accordingly,” said Palla in an email correspondence. “I am confident that the outreach recruitment process currently being used will attract several highly qualified individuals for the position.”
Now that the decision has been made that the position will not be CalSTRS eligible, the recruitment process will begin again. The school has ten weeks to fill Chief Stewart’s shoes.

“If there’s a good candidate out there, we should do everything we can to get them in to that position. I think everyone agrees that we cannot go without a chief of police,” said