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A Police Chief: An Old Issue for a New Council
By
Benedict Dimapindan
November 9, 2004
The election has swept in two new councilmen to help lead the
City of East Palo Alto, and already that new-look council faces
a pressing residual issue – the hiring of a new police
chief.
Ruben Abrica and A. Peter Evans formally inherit their seats
on the council on December 7, the first meeting of the month.
And in addition to filling those two seats, they, along with
returning members Mayor Donna Rutherford, Patricia Foster and
David Woods, must now address the issue of finding a permanent
chief of police.
Wesley Bowling retired as East Palo Alto’s top cop in
July after a 10-year tenure. The following month, the city hired
55-year-old Steve Belcher, a retired head of the Santa Cruz Police
Department, as interim chief.
Since then, the hunt has been on for a permanent one.
Rutherford said the city has contracted Teri Black-Brann of
CPS Executive Search, a consulting firm, “to put together
a profile of the type of person we’re looking for.” Black-Brann
has already met with all of the current council members to find
out what characteristics they would like to see in their next
chief, Rutherford added.
“I would like to see someone who is a self-starter, who
can step right in and take on the task at hand,” the mayor
said. “The person should be sensitive to this community,
visible, can bring the community together and hire experienced
policemen. I also feel it should be a person with experience
working in a community of color, someone who’s worked around
different cultural groups.”
Rutherford said she hopes the next chief will exude one more
critical quality – a sense of humor.
“There are times when things can get really tough, and
humor makes it a lot easier,” she said.
Lt. Tom Alipio, 14-year veteran of the East Palo Police Department,
said he would be open to the idea of a female chief, because
she would offer a “different view.” Alipio also said
that if the city were to hire someone from out of state, the
individual should already be a police chief and nothing lower,
because California and its training are “certainly different
from most other states.”
Because of the exhaustive selection process, Rutherford said
that a hire will be made within at least a six- to nine-month
period.
“The consultant will get the information compiled, we’ll
look at it, OK it, and then she’ll send it out for advertising,” Rutherford
said.
Along with the hiring of a permanent chief, Alipio said, he
is also looking forward to the possible appointment of a police
captain. According to Alipio, the captain replaces the chief
in his absence and the position was actually intended to groom
someone to be “the next chief. Because if budget constraints,
the department hasn’t had a captain since 1995.
“Everybody’s going to get hit with different budget
items, and everybody’s going to make cuts or some things
you’ll have to freeze,” Alipio said. “And the
captain’s position, because it hasn’t been filled,
has been frozen a couple of times. We’ve also frozen police
officer positions too.”
The number of sworn personnel has been frozen at 42. And every
one of Alipio’s sergeants tells him every day how they
wish they had more officers, he said.
“It all depends on how the pie is divided up and a lot
of that is going to fall on the council,” Alipio said. “It’s
up to them to approve the funding.”
The funding has risen significantly for the police department.
This fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005,
the total budget approved by the city council for the department
is $8,694,000, according to City Finance Director Sandy Salerno.
That amount is about $700,000 more than last year’s budget – a
result of additional financing from San Mateo County for dispatch
and investigative services and staffing and salary increases,
Salerno said.
And although the need for more officers, vehicles and equipment
remains, Alipio said, the city council has over the years provided
steady support, which has led to incremental progress.
“When I came here in ’90, we didn’t have what
we have here now,” Alipio said. “There’s so
much that can be done and they (the city council) are doing it.
It just takes time.”
“My team has five officers and a sergeant and a traffic
unit, so we’re doing pretty good – I can’t
complain. Before, when I first came here, we were just four patrol
teams, and that was it. I remember nights when it was just two
of us and a sergeant. With what we have now…I’m
doing great.”
Contact Benedict Dimapindan at bend1@stanford.edu
