Who’s actually running police-chief search is anyone’s guess
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
May 19, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — If there were any more leaks inside the San Francisco Police Department, the top brass at the Hall of Justice would probably have to build an ark in order to survive.
That will explain how the names of the finalists to be the next police chief have been gushing from all corners these days, some of them making their way into a local newspaper and the rest wagging from tongues throughout town.
Out of respect for the Police Commission, which is handling the search, I’m not going to print the list of candidates, some of whom could possibly lose their jobs if their identities were revealed. But I will openly wonder why the commission, so publicly concerned about transparency, would not see the obvious problem that has ballooned at the very center of its national search.
That mission was originally handed to Bob Murray and Associates, a widely respected head-hunting firm near Sacramento. But as part of the search, the company subcontracted with the Police Executive Research Forum in Washington, D.C., an independent national organization whose membership is made up of many of the nation’s big-city police chiefs.
Around these parts, PERF is primarily know as the agency that undertook a long, comprehensive study of the San Francisco Police Department that was published last year. The report recommended broad reforms, including changing how the investigations unit operates, how station boundaries should be altered and even how the police chief is appointed.
You would think that an agency with that kind of expertise would understand the potential for conflicts of interest, considering that it’s funded through the paying dues of some 1,300 members — most of them police executives from the largest city and county law enforcement agencies. And, unfortunately, if you believed that, you’d be wrong.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of PERF, has been involved in helping to select the finalists. I’ve been told by sources with knowledge of the agreement that he was invited to sit in on some or all of the interviews that were scheduled to start later this week.
Yet, as it turns out, at least five of the candidates from outside the department are PERF members, including one who apparently sits on the organization’s board of directors and another who formerly did.
So how could the head of an agency that helped select the finalists from among his dues-paying colleagues have such a direct hand in determining what names would be forwarded to Mayor Gavin Newsom to be the next police chief? That’s a question a lot of people are asking these days, including some of the candidates themselves, and there are murmurs someone may have filed a complaint.
I tried to talk to Wexler, but he dodged my questions, and a spokesman for PERF would only say in an e-mail that he was “assisting the search process.” From the commission’s standpoint, it makes sense that PERF would be involved in helping to find someone to execute the dozens of recommendations outlined in its 313-page report. But at the same time, it should also understand the need for a firewall in the selection process.
Theresa Sparks, president of the Police Commission, was so upset about the publication of many of the names of the candidates last week that on Friday she instructed her fellow panel members to not talk to the media about anything related to the search.
“It’s possible that the whole process has been compromised,” Sparks told me.
But did she realize that the whole process may have been compromised by the nature of the search? To that she declined an invitation to respond.
“I certainly understand the concerns,” said Tony Ribera, director of the International Institute of Criminal Justice Leadership at the University of San Francisco and a former San Francisco police chief who is also a member of PERF. “It looks like it could have the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
This is no intentional knock on PERF, which is nationally recognized for its executive-management training, and it’s not intended to cast doubt on any of the finalists, since they form an impressive group with big-time credentials. Yet, it does look like the cozy relationship between the agency’s chief and some of the external dues-paying candidates should have at least been considered before reaching this point.
One of the ironies of PERF’s involvement in the search is that the agency was asked to lay out a clear direction for the Police Department that Chief Heather Fong, a 30-year veteran, could not come up with herself.
What direction the search for her replacement takes now is anyone’s guess. But just as it’s supposed to be nearing its carefully planned conclusion, it appears to be off to a very rocky start.
Ken Garcia appears Tuesdays and Fridays in The Examiner. Check out his blog at sfexaminer.com/opinion or e-mail him at kgarcia@sfexaminer.com.
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