PUT-IN-BAY — Police Chief Mike Frank, who took over the position last year to replace the island’s scandal-embroiled chief, has announced his resignation to village officials, Mayor Bernard McCann said.

Village council appointed him interim chief in April, 2015 after placing Ric Lampela on paid administrative leave. In an email to village officials this weekend, Chief Frank said that he had accomplished what he had set out to do and would leave at the end of the month, Mayor McCann said.

The village will now have to look at its options to find a replacement, the mayor said. As for what led to the departure, Mayor McCann said the chief said the department was in disorder when he came in, that he wanted to reorganize it and establish a sound base, and that he has done that.

“I am going to say that the town was certainly quieter this year,” Mayor McCann said. ”I think his officers had good public relations with the people.”

Before coming to Put-in-Bay Mr.Frank was a part-time chief in Rocky Ridge, Ohio, and program manager for the Erie County Adult Probation Department's residential enforcement division. 

He retired in 2007 as a lieutenant with the Sandusky Police Department, where he also worked as a commander of the special response team, oversaw patrol shifts, oversaw the Sandusky Police Academy, and was the administrative lieutenant of the services division.

Mr. Lampela was removed from the department after state authorities filed four misdemeanor charges against him in Ottawa County Municipal Court. He was charged with aggravated menacing, dereliction of duty, and two counts of falsification stemming from incidents going back to 2003 when Mr. Lampela allegedly refused to investigate or allow a police report to be filed “after two employees reported another employee allegedly sexually assaulted them,” according to a statement by the attorney general's office.

He also was accused of threatening an employee with a firearm during a 2012 incident and making false statements to a sheriff's investigator.

The village council fired him in August, 2015, though he has appealed that decision. Mr. Lampela was found guilty of disorderly conduct, but acquitted of dereliction of duty and falsification in an October, 2015 trial. The disorderly conduct charge was down from the original aggravated menacing charge.

First Published September 19, 2016, 4:08 p.m.