Kolender Gets a Scolding in San Diego : Police Chief, Top Aide Reprimanded for ‘Technical’ Violations

City Manager John Lockwood on Tuesday reprimanded Police Chief Bill Kolender and his chief assistant for dismissing traffic tickets for friends and relatives and improperly using city employees and equipment for personal benefit.

The city manager, concluding a two-week administrative review, also found that Kolender failed to report gifts on conflict-of-interest forms and improperly used his position as police chief to help a friend purchase a handgun without waiting the mandatory 15-day “cooling-off” period.

Lockwood turned over the results of his review to the district attorney but said he saw nothing more than “technical” violations of the law.

Lockwood added that he did not seriously consider firing Kolender and Assistant Chief Bob Burgreen, because many of their actions were based on longstanding police practices and Kolender is an “outstanding” police chief.

“Chief Kolender is a gregarious and popular person who likes to do things for people,” Lockwood wrote in his 11-page report. “This is a strength. But it is also a weakness, as he is apt to assist individuals in instances where the chief of police should not.”

A grim-faced Kolender told a press conference Tuesday that he was “embarrassed” and regretted his actions. But he said he believed that the city manager’s review did not have “any serious implications” regarding his effectiveness as head of the 1,500-member Police Department.

“Needless to say, I am very pleased to see that the city manager’s investigation makes a distinction between a corrupt Police Department and some poor administrative practices,” Kolender said. “This is, despite everything that’s been said over the past several weeks, an honest, professional Police Department.”

Kolender said his department will announce new policies regarding ticket dismissals in a few days.

“Obviously, it’s embarrassing for a police chief to have a reprimand, but that’s the way it is and we’re going to go forward from here,” he said.

Lockwood began his inquiry after a Times investigation found that Kolender and his top aides had dismissed thousands of parking tickets and at least 30 moving citations since the beginning of last year, many for friends, relatives, former police officials, the news media and prominent San Diego citizens.

The Times had also found that police administrators used fabricated or flimsy excuses when dismissing tickets and failed to consult officers who had issued the citations.

Lockwood said in an interview Tuesday that his investigation was not a “whitewash” because Kolender and Burgreen will have to live with the stigma of a public rebuke.

The results of Lockwood’s investigation have been forwarded to Dist. Atty. Edwin L. Miller Jr.

Lockwood said City Atty. John Witt told him early Tuesday that Kolender may have violated state law in at least two areas: using his position to help a friend buy a gun without waiting the 15 days required by state law and not reporting a gift of San Diego Charger football tickets on his financial disclosure form.

Lockwood’s administrative review focused on five categories of allegations that surfaced in the past month. In all but one case, Lockwood concluded that Kolender and Burgreen were either wrong or violated city policy. They are:

- Kolender and Burgreen used then-Officer Jeanne Taylor almost daily to run personal errands, ranging from picking up Kolender’s laundry to driving his children to dental appointments. Taylor wore a police uniform and carried a handgun while she was assigned to the chief’s office between 1980 and 1982.

On two occasions, Burgreen used a city-owned video recorder and a camera to tape a fishing trip at Lake Powell. Lockwood said the tape was edited on city equipment and that old video tapes from the city were also apparently used.

- The Police Department accepted four season tickets from the Chargers--two for Kolender and two for Burgreen. Acceptance of such gifts is a violation of city policy, Lockwood said.

- Kolender and his top aides fabricated excuses in dismissing parking and moving citations for friends, family members and influential citizens. “While there is historical precedence for this conduct,” Lockwood wrote, “it is wrong.”

“As to the fabrication of excuses,” he added, “I believe it to have been generated from an expediency in processing the paper work rather than from an intentional desire to deceive anyone. However, in any event, the fabrication of any data on any official city form is wrong.”

- Kolender helped a friend, La Jolla businessman Jim Ciancimino, buy a gun in September, 1985. The action “was wrong,” Lockwood said. He said the gun sale was an example that Kolender has a “weakness” when it comes to doing favors for friends.

“I do not believe that it was Chief Kolender’s intent to, in a devious way, circumvent the law in order to avoid a criminal justice investigation of the purchaser. Chief Kolender had known the purchaser for some time, understood him to be of high moral character and did not consider him to be a threat to society,” Lockwood said.

- Lockwood investigated allegations that top police administrators occasionally took time off to attend afternoon ballgames or leave for an extended weekend vacation without filling out the proper paper work. But he said he found no wrongdoing.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor praised Lockwood’s handling of the administrative investigation.

“I think Mr. Lockwood, if he’s shown anything here, he’s shown that he is going to be a strong city manager,” she said.

“You could say . . . that Chief Kolender was very, very popular and some people didn’t want him disciplined at all,” O’Connor said. “They felt it was kind of witch hunt. (Lockwood) had anywhere from not disciplining him to firing him. He took a look at his record, and he chose the written reprimand.”

Wearing Mask

Lockwood denied that the written reprimand represents a double standard compared to stiffer disciplinary actions taken against rank-and-file officers for violating police rules. A review of Civil Service files by The Times showed that some officers have been scolded, demoted or suspended for such offenses as taking a cup of coffee, telling a dirty joke and wearing a mask to roll call.

Lockwood concluded his report by saying: “When this investigation began, I believed that San Diegans were blessed with one of this nation’s outstanding police departments and one of this nation’s outstanding police chiefs. I was willing to be persuaded differently, if the evidence developed during the course of my probe proved my belief to be wrong.

“The investigation is now complete. . . . In summary, we have an excellent Police Department, and I hope that we can now put this unfortunate episode behind us.”