CAMPBELL — City officials have approved placing an ordinance on the Nov. 4 general election ballot that will add new language to a section of the city charter.

Specifically, the amended language will add a layer of protection to police Chief Kevin Sferra’s position, as well as future chiefs, by having the selection and removal processes done at the suggestion of the mayor and by a majority vote of city council, not just the mayor.

The amendment also states that the chief will be accountable to the mayor and director of administration.

Currently, Sferra’s is an appointed position named solely by the mayor.

“It’s checks and balances; that’s all it is, and how it should be,” Sferra said after Wednesday’s regular city council meeting.

The change in language will allow him and future police chiefs to perform their duties without fear of political or personal retaliation or retribution such as being fired if, for example, the chief does something the mayor views as unfavorable, said Sferra, who was appointed in November 2022 by the late Mayor Bryan K. Tedesco.

Sferra said he has a positive relationship with Mayor George Levendis, but added that such a change to the city charter is necessary because some previous elected officials have had “axes to grind.”

The new wording takes on added importance for Sferra, in part because he has investigated several previous top city officials, including a former police chief, law director and mayor, he added.

“This is to eliminate any kind of nepotism and add a second layer of protection,” Levendis said.

In November 2016, the city’s Charter Review Commission placed an amendment on the ballot that proposed changing the police chief’s position from civil service oversight. Up to that point, that position was filled via civil service testing “by qualified city of Campbell police officers who had obtained and held the position of detective sergeant or higher for at least two years within the Campbell Police Department,” the proposed ordinance reads in part.

At that time, the position was filled solely when an existing police chief retired, resigned or was removed by the Civil Service Board because of legal actions related to law violations, the ordinance states.

A key advantage of such a system was that it provided a high level of job security to the police chief. A downside to that approach, however, was that it granted too much protection to the position via making it nearly impossible to remove a chief who was ineffective, yet did not break any laws in the performance of duties, according to the ordinance.

This system changed in 2016, though, when such a high layer of protection was stripped from the position and the position of police chief became an appointed one named by the mayor only.

In essence, the current charter amendment that also includes a majority city council vote strikes a balance between the two extremes, Sferra and Lavendis noted.