Kent Safety Director to Retire in July

After 44 years, Kent Safety Director William Lillich will leave the city's safety forces in July.

Lillich announced his resignation in a brief letter sent to Kent City Manager Dave Ruller last month.

A former police chief, Lillich spent 27 years in the Kent Police Department and gradually worked his way up to chief — a position he held for 14 years before taking over as safety director.

Lillich said his plan to retire is due in part to changes in the state pension fund for police and fire personnel, and it’s partly due to his desire to avoid Ohio’s bitter winters.

“Because I feel it more now,” he said of the cold weather.

His last working day will be July 12, but his final day as a city employee will be July 14 — 44 years to the day he started as an officer with the police department.

Lillich not only served as Kent’s top safety official, but he also spent two brief periods as the city’s interim top employee. In 1997 when then city manager Priscilla Blanchard retired Lillich stepped in to serve as interim city manager. He filled that role again in 2005 when Lew Steinbrecher retired as the city conducted its search for its current manager, Dave Ruller.

Longtime Kent councilman Wayne Wilson said Lillich will be missed both for his institutional memory and his dedication to the city.

“I don’t think a lot of people know all that Bill Lillich did for the city,” Wilson said. “He served the city well as police chief and safety director. It’ll be a sad day, that’s for sure.”

Lillich said he’s confident in the city’s leadership to be able to spend his retirement comfortably in Florida and spending time with children and grandchildren. But he is hopeful to return to Kent during warmer months, and you may even see him this fall as the police department campaigns for the proposed 0.25 percent tax increase to pay for a new police station.

“We have good leadership,” he said. “There’s a lot of confidence in that.”

Ruller said he's unsure how, or if, the replacement process will work for Lillich's position.

He said talks with council in recent years about methods for cutting the city's expenses included whether or not the safety director position should be maintained.

"We will talk with council in the next couple of months about what we should do with the position," Ruller said