The Paso Robles police chief will soon be stepping into a new role in the city.
The Paso Robles City Council Tuesday night will confirm the appointment of Ty Lewis as city manager.
Lewis, who has worked for the city for the last 20 years, says he loves the community and is excited to take on the challenges of this new role.
“For me, I think it’s a natural progression to be able to take what I’ve done as the police chief and hopefully translate those leadership skills and my knowledge of the community and the organization and take my skill set to a different level,” Lewis told KSBY.
Lewis says he had several conversations with community members over the past few months who encouraged him to apply for the position of city manager. He says there was mutual interest between himself and the City before he decided to apply.
“It’s not that I don’t enjoy my job, I love being police chief, but I think that this is a unique opportunity for me and so it will be an opportunity to challenge myself, to work for the community that I’ve grown up in and as I’ve said, kind of take things from a new perspective,” Lewis said.
His last official day as chief is Sunday with his first workday as city manager set for Tuesday.
“I’ve grown so attached to so many of the people that I’ve worked with for years here. Having been in the police department here for 20 years, developed some friendships that are like family, so I think that for me, that I’m gonna miss a lot of the people in this organization. Of course, keeping the community safe and building that trust is what my whole career as the police chief has been defined by, but it’s not like I’m abandoning those principals or those opportunities, as I said, I just get an opportunity to expand those in a different position now,” Lewis added.
Commander Steve Lampe will take over as interim chief until a new chief is named. Lewis says one of his first tasks as city manager will be to find a permanent replacement.
