3 Police Veterans Eager Candidates for Chief’s Chair

When San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender came close to being appointed federal Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner in 1981, then-City Manager Ray Blair was quoted as saying it would take him but a few minutes to promote Assistant Chief Bob Burgreen.

Today the door leading to the chief’s office is ajar once again. Kolender--whose 13 years of service exceeds that of any major-city police chief in the country--plans to retire within the next three years, possibly by next summer.

But this time Burgreen is no longer the clear front-runner to take over the reins of the Police Department.

Burgreen acknowledged in an interview that the written reprimand he and Kolender received 10 months ago from City Manager John Lockwood for fixing tickets and using city personnel and equipment for their own benefit has hurt his chances to become chief.

At the same time, two other police administrators have emerged as eager candidates to compete with Burgreen for the $83,000-a-year position. They are Deputy Chief Norm Stamper, who is often referred to as the “resident intellectual” of the Police Department, and Deputy Chief Manuel Guaderrama, the only minority police officer on Kolender’s management staff.

All three officials said in separate interviews last week that they are not interested in fueling speculation about Kolender leaving the department. Stamper, who served as special adviser to Kolender before being named deputy chief, said he would like to see Kolender remain as chief long enough to make people forget last year’s ticket-fixing scandal.

‘He Served His Sentence’

“He served his sentence,” said Stamper, referring to the reprimand and the negative publicity that followed. “More than anything else, my fervent hope is that he stay with this organization long enough for people to at least put it in a larger perspective and a larger context. He has done so much to make this organization much more open.”

None of the three candidates, however, is bashful about stating his ambition to become chief. This has triggered speculation among police insiders about how the three administrators will assert themselves in the coming years under Kolender.

For his part, Kolender, 52, said he is not concerned that his eventual departure could create friction among his top administrators.

“I have felt no back-room politics,” Kolender said. “I’m not saying they don’t have their feelings and their desires and their ambitions. I mean if they weren’t ambitious they wouldn’t be where they are. But I feel the loyalty and I don’t see anybody who’s saying: ‘I’m going to shoot at him and I want his job.’ ”

For the last year, Kolender has told friends and associates that he is considering retiring to work in private industry. According to one police source, Kolender has discussed a high-ranking position with officials at Copley Press.

Kolender said in an interview last week that he now plans to retire in July, 1990, but will leave if the right offer comes along after July of next year. He said he wants to stay at least until next summer so that he can work to restore police-community relations in the city’s minority neighborhoods.

Improving Relations

“I don’t look at the job saying, ‘Geez, I’ve got to make up for that or improve this,’ ” he said. “Obviously, as you look at the whole thing, I’d like to see that police-minority relations get back to where they were a couple of years ago.”

City Manager Lockwood said he does not want to see Kolender leave, and would try to talk Kolender out of retiring anytime soon.

“I’m not going to be able to improve on Bill no matter who the appointment is,” said Lockwood, who will choose the new chief, subject to ratification by the City Council. “I honestly feel that way. On balance, when you realize all of the things a chief has to be, Bill has done as good a job as anybody could.”

When Kolender does retire, Lockwood said, he believes it will be important to fill the chief’s position from within the Police Department. He said Kolender’s replacement would likely be the assistant chief or one of the deputy chiefs. Of the two other deputy chiefs, Don Davis has indicated he plans to retire next year and Mike Rice was promoted only recently.

That leaves Burgreen, Stamper and Guaderrama as the likely candidates to succeed Kolender.

Assistant Chief Robert W. Burgreen: While many police executives prefer to give reporters the runaround when confronted with controversial issues, Burgreen can be counted on to respond openly and candidly to many hard-hitting questions.

The cherubic Burgreen, 48, is similarly frank about his desire and his chances to become the city’s next police chief.

‘I Can Do the Job’

“I would like to be chief if and when Bill Kolender retires,” Burgreen said. “There’s no doubt in my mind I can do the job. You don’t work in one position all of your adult life and get as close as I have to the top without some aspirations for it. I’d like to see what I can do running this police department.”

As assistant chief for the last decade, Burgreen has been responsible under Kolender for the day-to-day operations of the Police Department and managing its 2,300 employees. For years, it was assumed within local law enforcement circles that when Kolender left, Burgreen would take over.

That was before last November.

Kolender and Burgreen were issued formal reprimands after an investigation by Lockwood confirmed newspaper reports that the department’s top two administrators had fixed tickets for friends and used a uniformed officer to run personal errands on a daily basis. In addition, Burgreen used a city-owned videocassette recorder and camera to film fishing trips at Lake Powell. The footage, which was to be used for a proposed cable television program on fishing, was edited on city equipment, Lockwood said at the time.

Burgreen said last week that he came close to resigning during the city manager’s investigation to pursue other opportunities in law enforcement and private industry.

“I talked to everyone who I could consider a close friend or associate about what I should do,” he said. “All that would have had to have been said by someone like a Lockwood or Bill Kolender is that it would be in the best interests of the department for you to leave, and I would have been gone. But that wasn’t said by any of those people.”

No One to Blame But Himself

Unlike other police officials who have criticized the press for uncovering the allegations last fall, Burgreen said he has no one to blame but himself.

“I shouldn’t have put myself in the position of being vulnerable,” he said. “I should have followed my initial thinking on every one of those little issues, from recommending the dismissal of a ticket for someone I knew to using a department video camera because a bunch of cops were going on a fishing trip.

“I knew better. I did it anyway. I got caught. I paid a heavy price. I had it coming.”

Burgreen says he realizes that the negative publicity stemming from the reprimand will follow him to his grave.

“If I die in San Diego, it will be in my obituary. That’s the way it works these days,” he said. “It is simply something I’ve got to learn to live with. There’s no question that my career was set back. The extent to which it was set back and whether I can recover remains to be seen.”

Lockwood said he feels that the reprimand will have little bearing on whether Burgreen succeeds Kolender.

“If I felt that Bob was the best candidate, I wouldn’t hesitate to make that appointment in a minute,” Lockwood said. “That reprimand on a scale of 1 to 100 is maybe a 1, if that. It’s not going to make any difference.”

When he was promoted to assistant chief 10 years ago, Burgreen said he had a difficult time getting adjusted to his new role as chief of staff. Instead of being a visible leader to police supervisors, Burgreen became Kolender’s right-hand man who was counted on to handle numerous mundane tasks such as planning budgets, submitting reports to the City Council and purchasing vehicles.

‘I Want to Be Calling the Plays’

After quietly serving as a loyal administrator to Kolender for so long, Burgreen does not want city officials to forget about his leadership qualities.

“I am by nature a leader,” he said. “If we’re going to be playing ball, I want to be coach. My nature is I want to be calling the plays. I want to be out front. I’m not shy of the media. I’m not afraid of giving a speech. If a media camera is turned on, I’m not shy at all. In fact, I kind of relish getting before it.”

Deputy Chief Norman H. Stamper: Between 4 and 5 a.m. daily, Stamper rises in his Golden Hill home minutes away from police headquarters and spends a couple of hours attending to his full-time studies as a Ph.D. candidate at United States International University. After putting in a full day at the Police Department, Stamper exercises three or four days a week before attending classes at USIU in the evening. At night, he usually stays up until 1 or 2 a.m. researching and writing his thesis on how police leaders spend their time.

At 43, Stamper’s schedule for the next year will afford him an average of four hours’ sleep a night. Stamper, who is divorced, says he recently cut back on his activities, including outside consulting work, to concentrate exclusively on his job as deputy chief and his Ph.D. program on leadership and human behavior.

“I feel very confident that in the last three months I have really engaged myself with the organization,” Stamper said. “I’m feeling very confident that I know what is going on in this Police Department and I certainly know what’s going on in my own shop.”

Perhaps no one in the San Diego Police Department is more knowledgeable or educated about law enforcement issues than Stamper. His consulting services on police management and organization are in constant demand across the country. Since 1972, he has served as a consultant to 32 police agencies in 10 states.

Stamper is quick to point out that he has never sought a consulting job. Police chiefs ask him to solve a specific managerial problem or conduct a team-building workshop.

“I don’t apologize for the fact that I see myself as a professional in the law enforcement community and I see that nationally,” he says.

Little Time or Energy for Staff

In the eyes of some officers and supervisors who work under Stamper, his compulsive devotion to law enforcement, his studies and personal consulting work have not left enough room for his responsibilities as a top administrator in the San Diego Police Department. They say Stamper has little time or energy to manage his own staff because he is too busy tackling everyone else’s problems.

Since January, 1985, Stamper has spent 2 1/2 days a week for at least 18 weeks teaching police management and personnel courses at the San Diego Regional Training Center in Sorrento Valley. Through a special arrangement with Kolender and Burgreen, Stamper has worked weekends and nights to make up for his teaching time away from the office.

Stamper acknowledged criticism within the department that he has not paid enough attention to police business in San Diego and that, by working weekends and nights, his services and expertise were not available to his superiors and his staff.

Earlier this year, Stamper said, he decided to stop his consulting work and cut four days a year off his teaching time at the training center. He also resigned his board memberships with the Urban League and the Neighborhood House Assn. In the last three months, he said, he has turned down consulting offers from the Newport Beach Police Department, the San Clemente Police Department and the Los Angeles County Marshal’s Office.

“I had some discussions with my own staff on my leadership style and one of the things that did surface is that they wanted more of my time,” he said. “And I reluctantly came to the conclusion that they were right. I say reluctantly because I did not want to reduce the commitment I had made to this profession.”

Stamper’s consulting and teaching receive the strong support of Kolender.

“I think the work he does is important for this department and this community,” Kolender said. “He helps set a standard for law enforcement in this state. He has been involved in training most of the police middle managers in California.”

Unusual Rise Through Ranks

Stamper credits Kolender for his successful, albeit unusual, rise through the upper ranks of the Police Department.

“Some have called my career checkered. It has been a strange career . . . in most police departments that wouldn’t be accommodated or tolerated and it certainly wouldn’t be supported,” he said. “So I’m deeply appreciative of what he has done for me.”

Stamper became an officer in 1966 and reached the rank of captain within a decade. He has initiated many major changes in the Police Department, including designing the concept of Community-Oriented Policing, a system that evaluates officers based on how well they learn about the people and problems on their beat, not on how many tickets they write.

In 1977, Stamper quit his sworn position as a captain to become a special adviser to Kolender.

“I was at a point where I was willing to trade what I saw as a considerable amount of authority as a captain in a police department the size of San Diego for influence in the law enforcement field generally,” he said.

Stamper’s first job title was police ombudsman, or “paid troublemaker,” as he called it back then. Long regarded as the “department liberal,” Stamper grew a beard and wore his hair at shoulder length.

Without the limitations and restrictions of a paramilitary bureaucracy, he was free to evaluate the Police Department and suggest whatever reforms he felt were necessary. He did not endear himself to many hardened police officers who believed in traditional law enforcement principles.

Move Causes Resentment

In 1983, Kolender appointed Stamper deputy chief in charge of field operations, a move that caused resentment among some police supervisors who were unhappy that Stamper had gone from the sworn rank of captain to deputy chief without ever serving as a commander.

Today, Stamper says his goal is to have a significant impact on improving the image and effectiveness of law enforcement and to make policing a “respected and respectable” institution.

“For me, I am at a point where I have crystallized what it is I want to do for the rest of my life,” he said. “And that is very simply to do what I can to make my vision of American law enforcement a reality.”

Until a couple of years ago, Stamper said, he had no interest in becoming chief of police, mostly because he valued his privacy.

“I am a very painfully shy person who has learned to communicate, to get along, and to be in the limelight,” he said. “To have every thought and feeling monitored, inspected and subjected to public scrutiny does not appeal to my private side.”

Stamper said his feelings about the chief’s job changed after he was appointed deputy chief in charge of field operations, a high-profile position that forced him to interact with community leaders and play a leadership role for the rank and file.

“I said to myself: ‘Look, if you really want to make change, if this stuff really counts to you, then go for it.’ And so, against my own instincts, I developed an interest for the position,” he said.

Deputy Chief Manuel C. Guaderrama: As he leans back in a chair in his spacious seventh-floor office atop the new police headquarters, Guaderrama sometimes stops and marvels at the posh surroundings.

“Some days when I drive into my parking stall downstairs with my name over it, I say, ‘Wow, this is mine,’ ” says Guaderrama, 48. “Everybody else is out there trying to find a parking spot.”

As a 19-year-old Southeast San Diego native fresh out of high school, Guaderrama was working as a carpenter with no plans to attend college when he decided he did not want to hammer nails for a living. So one day in 1958 he walked into an Army recruiter’s office on an impulse and joined the military.

Patrolled in San Ysidro

After a stint in the military police, Guaderrama returned to San Diego and thought about becoming a policeman. Within three months, he was wearing a badge and a gun, patrolling the streets of San Ysidro.

“I thought that was it, I had reached the peak,” Guaderrama recalled. Later, he decided to attend school part time at Southwestern College.

“Education was a big thing then. Everybody was going to school, so I kind of got sucked up into going. I ended up liking it. For the first time in my life I really tried in school.”

Guaderrama went on to earn an associate degree in political science at Southwestern College and a master’s degree in human behavior at USIU. But in his first attempt at climbing the ladder at the Police Department, he flunked the sergeant’s exam. He passed the test on his second try and was quickly promoted.

“I did really well up there with guys who are really sharp,” he said. “I amazed myself that I was up there with them.”

Story of an Overachiever

Thus began the story of an overachiever who never imagined that one day he would become the deputy chief in charge of the city’s 1,200 patrol officers.

Guaderrama is not shy about his next goal--to become the city’s next police chief.

“I don’t want to become stagnant and finish out my career as deputy chief,” he said. “I would like to be chief here in San Diego. I make no bones about it. It’s no secret to Bill, but I wouldn’t want to do anything to him because he’s given me an awful lot.

“When it comes time for him to leave, I would aggressively seek the job.”

Guaderrama turned down an offer several years ago to become chief of police of Albuquerque, N.M. He said he frequently rejects invitations to apply for police chief vacancies in U.S. cities with large Latino populations.

“I’m not ready to leave yet,” he said. “I still have a few years I want to spend in San Diego.”

As the only minority to hold a high-ranking position in the department, Guaderrama knows he would receive strong backing from the city’s minority leaders.

“I think Manny has the potential for being a good police chief,” said Irma Castro, executive director of the Chicano Federation of San Diego County. “I find him a very pleasant person, someone who is very loyal to the Police Department. I think he has concerns about the community, but he certainly comes from a very law enforcement viewpoint. In that way, he represents the Police Department very well.”

Criticized for His Reactions

As deputy chief in charge of field operations, Guaderrama has been criticized both by police officers and Latino leaders for his reactions to investigations of recent complaints alleging police brutality against minorities. Some officers say he has been too swift and arbitrary in responding to complaints and disagree with his orders forbidding any use of profanity. Some minority leaders say he is too ingrained in police work to understand their concerns about abusive officers.

“All I can do is be fair and we do that,” Guaderrama said. “When you make those kinds of decisions, you call it one way or another. You’re going to make the community unhappy or the officers unhappy. There’s just no middle ground. You can’t do that balancing act. That is impossible.”

Many officers remain upset that Guaderrama went out of his way to contact reporters individually in February and inform them that one officer had used excessive force during a bloody Jan. 16 melee when two members of a Linda Vista family were injured after a violent confrontation with 11 officers.

Although the investigation of a complaint by the Antonio Pena family had not been completed, Guaderrama told reporters that police had concluded that one officer used excessive force when he beat and arrested Pena’s 32-year-old son, Francisco.

Police administrators usually do not comment on internal investigations, citing confidentiality laws regarding personnel matters. Guaderrama’s remarks upset many officers--and fellow administrators--because he disclosed the results before the investigation was complete.

“I was anxious to talk to the media on that because I had so many inquiries,” he said. “I knew a lot of people on the department were not going to look on it favorably. I got a lot of heat up here for doing that. I just thought the public had a right to know. . . . Why not put it to rest? If we’re wrong and say we’re wrong, what else could they do to us?”

Guaderrama said he did not wait until the investigation was finished because the outcome of the complaint would not have changed.

Several officers suggested in interviews that Guaderrama announced the results to enhance his image with the minority community. They said that, in recent months, Guaderrama has openly courted media coverage of his speeches and appearances in the city’s minority community and churches.

Guaderrama denied reports that he has solicited support of minority leaders to become the city’s next police chief.

“It’s come up a number of times where people say: ‘Hey, we’re behind you, we’d like to see you become police chief.’ But I’ve never asked anybody to support me,” he said.