MUSKEGON, MI -- A former gang crimes specialist from the Chicago suburbs has been offered the public safety director position in Muskegon.
Vincent Acevez, who most recently was police chief of a community college, was the sole finalist for the position that oversees Muskegon’s police, fire and building inspections department.
Muskegon City Manager Frank Peterson told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle he offered Acevez the position Wednesday afternoon, March 30.
Peterson said while Acevez has impressive leadership experience, he was most impressed with his ability to connect with others while he was in town meeting with community stakeholders.
“He has a great personality,” Peterson said. “It’s a refreshing personality. It’s not a suit coming in here, so to speak.”
Assuming Acevez takes the job, he will replace Jeff Lewis, who is retiring as the city’s public safety director on April 30.
When contacted by MLive Wednesday afternoon, Acevez said he had not yet seen the offer and would have to take time to consider it before deciding if he would accept it.
“I have a family, and we have to make that decision together,” he said.
The salary range for the public safety director position is $89,272 to $118,553, depending on relevant experience. Peterson said he expects the city will negotiate with Acevez on where he lands on that wage scale.
From the Western Springs suburb of Chicago, Acevez spent 18 years with the gang crimes division of the police department at Cicero, Illinois. While there, he was credited for significant reduction in gang activity, which Acevez attributed to the police department making connections within the community.
From 2000 through 2018, Acevez worked his way up from gang officer to sergeant and then commander of the 30-member Gang Crimes Tactical Unit. From 2019 to mid-2021, he was the deputy superintendent of the Cicero Police Department’s 130-member patrol division.
Cicero has a population of about 85,300 people, 89% of whom are Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The town’s population is about 4% Black and 7% white. The median household income is about $54,000, according to the census.
In comparison, Muskegon is significantly smaller, with about 38,300 people, and is 50% white, 32% Black and 11% Latino. The median household income in Muskegon is $35,323.
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After leaving the Cicero Police Department, Acevez was an investigator with the Illinois Department of Transportation from May to August 2021. He was police chief at Morton College, a community college in Cicero, from August 2021 to January.
In 2018, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recognized Cicero as a “Culture of Health” award winner. It was, according to the foundation, an example of a community improving its health by tackling gang violence – a community-driven effort that started in 2008, according to the foundation.
At that time, the foundation noted that gang-related homicides had dropped to one in 2017 from 14 in 2004.
“I tell people it wasn’t us,” Acevez told the foundation for a 2018 article. “It was the community becoming involved in our department.”
Acevez was among 14 people who applied to become Muskegon’s next public safety director. He and Grand Haven Public Safety Director Jeff Hawke, who oversees police, fire and building code departments in that community, were named as the two finalists.
However, Hawke earlier this week withdrew from consideration, citing “family reasons,” Peterson told MLive.
Peterson said that while Acevez has not had direct supervision of fire or police departments, he has “a significant amount of experience” working with them in his previous positions.
The job offer made to Acevez is one of the final decisions of Peterson, whose last day with the city is Thursday, March 31. Peterson has chosen to take a job in the private sector.
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