The second-in-command for the Marseilles Police Department, Captain James Buckingham, will now be addressed as Deputy Chief Buckingham.

At the Wednesday, June 17, meeting of the Marseilles City Council, an agreement was made to rename the position of captain to deputy chief.

“We’re just changing the wording in the current ordinance because what we currently have isn’t recognized by the state anymore,” Commissioner of Public Health and Safety Melissa Small said. “That way, that follows in line with all of the proper protocol that’s established by the state.”

In addition to the semantic reason for this change, Bobby Kaminski pointed out another reason that (fingers crossed) will never come to pass.

“This was brought to our attention for redundancy purposes,” Kaminski, the Commissioner of Accounts and Finance, said. “If our chief was incapacitated and we didn’t have time to appoint somebody, this is the automatic fill-in. Nobody could challenge the city on not having the right police chief involved, so this is protecting the city.”

Kaminski, who was acting mayor at this meeting in Mayor Jim Hollenbeck’s absence, emphasized that this is not a significant change.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of this since I’ve been on the board, but as long as we’re making progress to fix some things, I’m very happy,” he said. “I think this is pretty much a no-brainer for us. There’s no additional pay when it comes to this, it simply replaces the title.”