The city of Philomath finalized its plans for Chief of Police Ken Rueben’s successor during Monday night’s City Council meeting with the approval of Lt. David Gurski to take over the department’s leadership position.
Rueben is in his final weeks leading Philomath Police with his retirement to become effective April 2.
City Manager Chris Workman recommended Gurski’s promotion but the council has the authority to approve appointments or dismissals when it comes to department heads. The vote was unanimous.
“Having had experience working with Lt. Gurski on the Police Committee, it’s been a joy,” City Councilor Teresa Nielson said. “He’s very informative and courteous and respectful and really very skilled at his job as a lieutenant in our department. I’m looking forward to him taking over the position and hopefully he will be there for a long time.”
A few of the other councilors also had positive comments on the appointment, including Diane Crocker.
“I want to support the concept of you being the person because everybody knows you in town and respects you and a new person coming in wouldn’t have that and may not ever have that,” Crocker said, adding that the appointment is “so ideal on so many levels.”
Gurski has been with the Philomath Police Department since he was hired as a recruit in 2004. A year later, he was installed as a basic officer and moved up to intermediate officer in 2010 and senior officer in 2013. Then in 2015, Gurski was promoted to sergeant and in 2021, he earned the rank of lieutenant.
“Lt. Gurski has been with the department a long time; he’s very well respected … I’m just thrilled that Lt. Gurski is interested in the position,” Workman said.
The change at the top will impact the police department’s overall staff configuration in terms of how its resources are utilized.
“With this, we would look to restructure our organization a little bit with regard to supervision,” Gurski said. “Rather than have one lieutenant’s position, we would have two sergeant positions — one for graveyard so there’s more oversight during the evening hours as well as one sergeant position for the day shift crew.”
Workman said the new structure allows the city to also promote from within for both of the sergeant positions as opposed to trying to bring in someone else to serve as a lieutenant.
“I don’t feel like we’re quite there with personnel yet and the benefit of having a sergeant around night and day will be huge for the department all the way around,” Workman said.
Rueben has spent his law enforcement life in California, Corvallis, the Department of Justice and for the past 11 years, the Philomath Police Department.
“It’s a long time coming, he’s been a great chief,” Workman said. “The only good part about losing Ken is that we get David. I say that with all sincerity — we’re really fortunate to have David staying on.”
Another department head on the staff, Kevin Fear of Public Works, voiced his approval as well.
“He’s always been a team player with Public Works … he’s got 100% support,” Fear said. “We’re all glad to see it’s an internal move, somebody coming from inside the city moving up.”
A formal ceremony to install Gurski in the position will be announced at a later date.
