He has served 22 years with Waupaca force

By Angie Landsverk

After more than 20 years with the Waupaca Police Department, Brian Hoelzel is becoming its chief.

The city’s Police and Fire Commission offered him the position on Oct. 11, after interviewing him in closed session.

Hoelzel, who had been serving as the department’s interim police chief since last May, was the only person interviewed for it.

Last month, the commission voted to invoke its waiver provision, thus revising the application procedure from a nationwide one to an internal one.

“He’s done a great job. We feel, in a community like this, if you work here, you should be able to move up in the ranks. He’s been here 22 1/2 years,” Bryon Gyldenvand, chair of the Police and Fire Commission, told the Waupaca County Post after the meeting, when asked about the commission’s decision to hire from within the department.

Gyldenvand said he believes hiring the police chief from within the department will increase the city’s ability to hire officers.

Mayor Brian Smith agrees.

“It’s a great thing for our city to see you have an opportunity to move up in a department,” he said.

The mayor believes this helps retain employees.

Smith said he would normally propose going out and seeing if there are other potential candidates.

“I concur with Police and Fire that everything that they were looking for in a police chief, they found in Brian Hoelzel,” he said. “I’m looking forward to working with him. He’s got some great ideas.”

Smith said Hoelzel proved he was ready for the job after serving as the interim chief the past five months.

Hoezel was appointed interim chief last May, in preparation for the June 3 retirement of Tim Goke.

Hoelzel began his career with the Waupaca Police Department in 1994 as a patrol officer.

In 2002, he was promoted to detective sergeant.

Hoezel is a native of Menasha and a 1988 graduate of Menasha High School.

He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in December 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

The process for selecting someone to fill the department’s vacant detective sergeant position was on the agenda of a specially scheduled Police and Fire Commission meeting on Oct. 18.

Hoelzel was also scheduled to meet with the mayor and other city administrators on Oct. 18 to come to an agreement on his wage and benefits package.

The mayor noted the common council typically approves the police chief appointment.