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Police Chief of Monterey Park Quits After Vote

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

One week shy of completing his first year as police chief of Monterey Park, Kenneth G. Hickman resigned Tuesday after a vote of no-confidence that members of the Police Officers Assn. unanimously cast Monday night.

Recently embroiled in disputes with the Monterey Park Police Officers Assn. over weapons, work schedules and department morale, Hickman said he had been thinking of leaving for weeks.

“All the association’s vote did was push my timetable up a few days,” said Hickman, 49, adding that he had originally planned to wait until after the April 10 election because he did not want his departure to become a political issue.

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Hickman, who retired as a commander in the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Bureau, became chief in Monterey Park last March. He was chosen over a popular in-house candidate, Capt. Joseph Santoro, who later became police chief in Monrovia.

“When I came here I made it very clear to the city manager that I came here to do the best job I could,” Hickman said. “I told him when it stopped being fun I’d leave. It stopped being fun.”

City Manager Mark Lewis said he was “sorry to see the situation develop the way it did, but I agree with him that it’s the appropriate action to take.”

The Police Officers Assn. voted 55 to 0 on a no-confidence motion to demonstrate to city officials that its members do not support the chief. They blame Hickman for a rash of resignations of officers.

Association President Wes Clair said Hickman was unpopular in part because of his opposition to a 10-hour, four-day workweek and his wishes that officers carry nine-millimeter pistols. The nine-millimeter weapon, used by the Los Angeles Police Department, fires a smaller cartridge than the 10-millimeter weapon favored by the Police Officers Assn.

Hickman’s last working day is Friday. Robert Collins, the former chief whose retirement last year created Hickman’s opening, was appointed interim chief.

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Hickman said he was frustrated by some decisions Lewis made overturning him on issues ranging from promotions to work schedules to the selection of a standard-issue gun for the department.

But Lewis said he intervened only when necessary. “I didn’t get involved until the frustrations had reached such a level that I felt I had to step in,” he said.

Mayor Pat Reichenberger said most of the City Council’s members support Lewis. “We have the best police chief in the entire world, but if you don’t have patrolmen who are happy on the street, what good does that do you?” Reichenberger asked.

One council member who dissented was former Mayor Barry Hatch, who praised Hickman’s record. “He has taken our city, a little town, and turned it into a high-tech city,” Hatch said.

Morale in the 67-officer department has plummeted since Hickman’s appointment, said William Reynolds, a police association board member. Since then, more than a dozen officers have left for other law enforcement agencies, he said.

Hickman said most of those who left “had already applied to leave when I got there.”

“When you do the right thing, it isn’t always the popular thing,” Hickman said. “I have never ranked popularity as my top priority.”

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Unless the city gives its police chief more authority, other police professionals won’t be interested in the job, Hickman said.

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