Council Approves $11,896 Human Capital Review of Police Department

Article Summary: The Litchfield City Council on Aug. 6, 2026, unanimously approved an $11,896 proposal from MGT Impact Solutions, LLC to conduct a human capital review of the police department — the first of what Alderperson Joshua Hughes described as a department-by-department examination of the city’s human resources practices.

Police Human Capital Review Key Points:

The not-to-exceed figure of $11,896 covers three tasks, including an optional leadership and supervisor training assessment priced at $1,611.

The police department was chosen to go first because the city recently onboarded a new police chief.

General funds are available; the engagement is proposed as remote, with in-person work billed at actual travel cost plus $500 per day per consultant.

LITCHFIELD — The Litchfield City Council on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, unanimously approved a proposal from MGT Impact Solutions, LLC for a Police Department Human Capital Review at a cost not to exceed $11,896.

Alderperson Joshua Hughes made the motion, seconded by Alderperson Marilyn Sisson.

Hughes, who serves as the council’s administration liaison, told colleagues the review is the opening move in a broader effort. “One of the things we hope to do is, as we look through over the city, to go through each of the departments to make sure that all of our human resources stuff is all buttoned up,” he said. “We know in the past there’s been procedural concerns and issues that we’ve had to deal with over time.”

He described the goal as putting guard rails in place. “Hopefully, if this goes well, we can kind of start looking at each department,” Hughes said. “We thought it’d be great to start with police department since chief hasn’t been there very long. So it’s a nice kind of open place to begin.”

City Administrator Breann Vazquez thanked Hughes for helping vet the proposals. Mayor Jacob Fleming framed the exercise in similar terms. “I want the city to be clean,” he said. “I want to make sure that our employees and our staff and all the things that we have are running the very best that they can, and things are on the up and up, and all the hands are open and we show everybody what we’re doing.”

What the Review Covers

The July 15, 2026, proposal in the council packet breaks the work into three tasks. Task 1.0, priced at $7,006, reviews police department human capital documents, processes, procedures and protocols — including organizational charts, promotional and recruitment processes, classification and compensation, performance management, discipline, and recordkeeping — and delivers a summary of findings and prioritized recommendations.

Task 2.0, at $3,279, covers succession planning and professional development, including identifying critical positions where the department may be vulnerable to retirement eligibility, turnover or limited bench strength, and building a talent review process.

Task 3.0, listed as optional at $1,611, is a leadership and supervisor training assessment. The three tasks total $11,896.

MGT’s timeline chart projects Task 1.0 running roughly 10 weeks, with Tasks 2.0 and 3.0 overlapping in the final weeks.

The proposal describes the City of Litchfield as a small municipality operating with an adopted 2027 annual budget of roughly $41.4 million and a workforce of about 68 full-time employees, structured under a city administrator who also performs internal functions including human resources.

The firm’s cover letter, addressed to Vazquez and Hughes and signed by Lawrence Cowan, chief operations officer for revenue operations, states that “the City has onboarded a new Police Chief” and that the review is intended to improve recruitment, retention and career advancement practices and build a succession framework.

The staff memo lists general funds as available and carries the recommendation of the city administrator, the alderman liaison and the police chief.