Johnstown City Manager Arch Liston enacted the hiring freeze at the end of last week, just as the police department was in the process of hiring four new officers and potentially a new police chief. Now, that’s at a standstill.

“From what I was told, some revenue projections came up short of what they were projected to be. So, the city manager is taking a definitive step for the meantime which is freezing all hiring until the revenue projections can be reworked and we can see where we’re at,” said Jeff Janciga, the interim chief for the Johnstown Police Department.

Janciga said the department will have to manage with the 36 officers already on the force to fill in any gaps. However, that means overtime could tire out the officers.

“I think officers are being pushed. They’re being pushed. They have a very heavy load at this time and additional officers would lighten some of that,” Janciga said.

While city leaders haven’t said when the freeze will end, Janciga said he doesn’t think it will last very long.

“I don’t personally believe it’s going to be a long freeze. I think it’s sound financial management on the part of the city  manager. The worst case scenario is we rush into hiring people and they end up being laid off at the end of the year,” said Janciga. “They may be leaving a good job to come here. They may be moving their family to come here. To hire someone in June and lay them off in December after they’ve potentially given up the stability they had at another place, I think that’s unfair to people.”

Liston and the city’s finance director are meeting this week and next to crunch the numbers. Until then, Janciga plans to carry on with the hiring process by getting the list of applicants approved so he’s ready when the hiring freeze ends.