NEWS
5
Campus Security Director Tom Sonoff retiring
STORY BY LAURA CANIDA •
MANAGING EDITOR
Tom Sonoff, the director of college
safety at Clackamas Community College,
is retiring, and after multiple searches,
the school finally made a tentative offer
for a new hire to fill the position.
College safety officers are responsible
for maintaining a secure and protective
environment on college properties.
Responsibilities are to perform unarmed
patrols around college properties, enforce
campus policies and college security
rules, issue warning or citations for
violations, provide non-enforcement
assistance to community members,
respond to calls for service on campus,
and investigate incidents occurring on
campus.
As director of college safety, Sonoff is in
charge of hiring, training and scheduling
officers and maintaining relationships
with public safety organizations outside
o f the college. He is also responsible for
the Emergency Preparedness program,
and with ensuring compliance, with the
federal laws requiring certain /prime
statistics be tracked and rep o rted .7
A year ago, Sonoff announced his plan
to retire on Oct. 1 of last year. However, the
first recruitment process did not produce
any qualified candidates, so he agreed to
Stay on until a new director Was in place.
In December, die college conducted a
second recruitment process. A candidate
considered for the position needs to pass
a background check and psychological
evaluation (both required by the state
for the positiori). According to Sonoff,
there seemed to be a number of qualified
candidates.
On Jan . 31, the search committee held
a session on zoom that gave all CCC staff
an opportunity to ask questions o f the
two finalists: Cliff Carpenter and Dennis
Marks. Sonoff said the college has made
a tentative offer to a final candidate, but
that person is-currently completing the
background process and his name was
not available as of press time.
Sonoff said it’s hard to know if the
new hire will be in place before he
leaves. There may be a short , period of
time when Pete Kandratieff, the college
safety manager, will lead the department.,
Currently, Kandratieff manages day-to-'
day operations for the department. s
As of now, Sonoffs last day at CCC is
Tom Sonoff in his campus safety office. Sonoff is leaving CCC after four and a half years as head of the
College Safety Department. Photo by Joseph Lohmolder.
through 2018, before Sonoff was hired.
scheduled for Feb 27.
Sonoff attributes the turnover to a
Before becoming the director of college
safety for Clackamas Community College variety of reasons. He said some people
in 2018, Sonoff had a lo n g ’career of hired into the position didn’t quite
military and public service. He was in the understand thé mission of a college
Air Force for four years before spending safety , department compared to a law
the next 30 years as a police officer in enforcement organization.
“I like to say our job is 90% customer
California.
The lastsixyears of his law enforcement service and 10% enforcement, which is
career he served as chief of police for two quite different than law enforcement”
Sonoff said.
agencies in Southern California.
Sonoff said the most challenging task
Sonoff then served as the director of
college safety at Concordia University he has dealt with while at CCC has been
Irvine in California for four years before the pandemic. He is responsible for
moving to Oregon. His first job in Oregon COVID-19 reporting, contact fracing and
wasassisting in the establishment of the reporting to publie health, which proved
Student Threat Assessment program for to be quite stressful at times. Sonoff said in
the future, he would like to see the college
K-12 schools in Clackamas County.
Sonoff said he has truly enjoyed his consider hiring a part-time emergency
preparedness manager.
tim eatCCC.
“It would be a great opportunity to have
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with
some fantastic folks, who I consider not someone dedicated to developing a robust
only working peers but friends,” he said. program onour campuses,” he said.
Sonoff said that, strangely enough, the
I’ll still be in the area after retirement, so
if there is ever some way for me to help pandemic has also been one of the most
rewarding things that has happened to
the college community, give me a call!”
CCC has had some rough patches in him at CCC. He feels the college did an
retaining its director of safety. According excellent job responding to an issue that
to Lori Hall, executive director of cdllege presented many twists and turns and
relations and marketing, though the title lasted longer than anyone could have
has changed over the years, there have imagined.
“We had many students, faculty and
been five college safety directors since
2012. Four of those were from 2012 staff report positive cases, but to my
knowledge no; one could trace their
infection directly to an exposure on our
campuses,” Sonoff said.
Sonoff credits the custodial staff and
others for ensuring all classrooms and
work spaces were kept as clean and
sanitized as possible.
“Tom’s four and a half years here have
been nothing short of amazing,” said Jteff
Shaffer, interim vice president of finance
and operations. “When COVID broke
out and an emergency was declared,
Tom took command and helped provide
leadership throughout much of the initial
first two years of the pandemic.”
Even with the-pandemic, Sonoff said
he thinks things are going well in college
safety, and he feels good about what he
has accomplished at CCC.
Kate Barton, a student and a college
safety officer, said Sonoff is an amazing
director and leader, as well as an
incredible person all around.
“I’m very sad to see him leave but he
has wprked hard and is well deserving of
a break,’’ Barton said.
Barton was hired as a full-time college
safety officer in -October 2021, prior to
becoming a student. She takes classes at
CCC With a tuition waiver as a benefit of
employment and to further develop her
professional education.
Barton said Sonoff has a lot of
important responsibilities, many on the
administrative side, so she hasn’t had
many opportunities to work with him
directly. However, even though he has
a lot of other duties he has also helped
directly with planning and working
graduation events, fire/evacuation drills
and other incidents on campus.
. As far as plans after retirement, Sonoff
said he’s looking forward to. traveling
more with his wife, spending time with
his four grandkids and even “looking into
some volunteer opportunities and maybe
some part-time teaching.”
But before he gets to any of that, he has
plans to go fishing - a lo t
College Safety is currently located in
McLoughlin Hall, room 113. I f you witness a
crime, suspicious activity or have observed a
crime after the fact, contact the on-duty officer
a t 503-594-6650 or ext. 6650 from any campus
phone. Currently the college has a contract
with the Oregon City police department to
have an armed guard on campus. I f a crime is
in progress, call 9-1-1.
The Clackamas Print —------------------------- theclackamasprint.com ----------------------------------February 2CF23