Union to Oppose Stamper as Next Chief : Police: Assistant chief is considered prime contender to replace Bob Burgreen when he retires in 1993.

The president of San Diego’s police union has told Assistant Chief Norm Stamper and City Manager Jack McGrory that he will use all of the union’s resources to prevent Stamper from becoming the next police chief.

Stamper confirmed he had such a conversation several months ago with Harry O. Eastus, the head of the Police Officers Assn. Stamper also noted that Eastus had reiterated to McGrory within the past few weeks his opposition to Stamper.

“His statement to me was something to the effect that the POA would be spending--I don’t remember the denomination--its last dollar, dime, penny--to make sure I didn’t become police chief,” Stamper said Thursday. “It boils down to a perception that I have a, quote-unquote, hidden agenda.”

Eastus declined to confirm the substance of his conversations with Stamper or McGrory.

“We have some real differences with” Stamper, he said. “We have some real and philosophical differences with him. But those kind of issues we will deal with in-house, just as we’ve always done.”

Likewise, McGrory, who has the sole hiring power for the chief of police, declined to comment on his discussions with Eastus.

Ever since Stamper embarked on a top-to-bottom assessment of the Police Department last fall, members of the union have regarded him warily and questioned his motives. The union represents 1,821 officers.

But when he published his recommendations--chief among them a change in the department’s paramilitary structure--he became even more unpopular. Eastus and others said they believed Stamper was using the audit to position himself as the next chief when Burgreen retires in late 1993. Stamper said Eastus also accused him of being “too secretive” with his audit.

One of Stamper’s suggestions in the audit involves a reorganization plan in which seven assistant chiefs would report to the chief. Stamper was to have become one of the seven assistants, but with the title of executive assistant chief, he would be responsible for managing the agency’s operations.

On Thursday, Stamper accepted a different assignment from Burgreen. Starting Monday, he will become the assistant chief for field operations, meaning he will have command of all of the patrol officers. He replaces Manny Guaderrama, who retired to take a job with the state Parole Board.

Stamper characterized the move as the first example of his reorganization plan, which eliminates the rank of commander and has captains reporting directly to assistant chiefs. Neither Guaderrama, a deputy chief, nor Cmdr. Jim Kennedy, who retires today after 33 years with the department, will be replaced. Stamper had recommended that 13 administrative positions be trimmed to eight.

Because Stamper’s audit is so sweeping and suggests radical changes in the way the Police Department does business, his ability to get along with the Police Officers Assn. while the changes take place is important.

Ever since Burgreen was named to succeed Bill Kolender in 1988, it has been assumed that Stamper is next in line. The assistant chief typically follows into the top spot at the department.

Reiterating Thursday that he will leave the department when he turns 55--in late 1993--Burgreen said it is premature to speculate on who will succeed him.

“My response is, ‘Gee, I’m not dead yet,’ ” he said. “How come someone is replacing me?”

Any attempt by the police union to discredit Stamper or his audit is misguided, Burgreen said.

“Norm has an intellect,” he said. “He may use words that are beyond the vocabulary of some people and that scares some folks. But he has been ahead of his time every step of the way. His ideas have not always been the most popular, but they have been provocative.”

The union, Burgreen said, “tries to get its hand in my management decisions as much as they can, and I don’t want its hand in my management decisions. They tend to speak for the traditionalist in the department. If Norm is one thing, he is not a traditionalist. That is a scary thought for people who want to keep the status quo.”

Proof of his trust in Stamper, Burgreen said, is his decision to place his assistant chief in charge of field operations, which he considers the most important management job in the department.

“I’m breaking with tradition,” he said. “I’m taking my No. 2 man, who was my paperwork funnel, and saying he’s too valuable to keep doing that. He is going to be out on the streets and riding with patrols.”

Often criticized that he is too much the academician and not enough of a cop, Stamper reluctantly agrees that such a perception has been strengthened over the years because he has been placed in charge of so many “office-bound, paper-bound positions behind the scenes.”

Stamper joined the department in January, 1966, and spent two years on patrol. He was chosen for two under-cover assignments in the vice squad and the intelligence unit. After three years in the department, he was promoted to sergeant, which he said “was a record and remains a record in the department.”

As sergeant, he headed patrol units in Southeast and East San Diego. Two years later, he was a lieutenant and developed the “community-profile development project,” which is now called “community-oriented policing” and emphasizes closer regular contact between officers and homeowners.

That proposal is the framework for the department Burgreen and Stamper are planning for the 1990s. In 1975, Stamper headed the police academy and was promoted to captain a year later.

Only 10 months into his assignment, Stamper resigned from the force to become the department’s ombudsman, a position some say he still unofficially holds. Between 1976 and 1982, Stamper was a senior adviser to Kolender, setting up programs to build morale, stronger communications and better work habits.

In 1982, he returned to a sworn position as deputy chief, eventually occupying all four jobs at that rank. In 1988, he became assistant chief after he and other in-house candidates were beaten out by Burgreen.

Burgreen assigned Stamper to audit the Metropolitan Homicide Task Force, a multi-agency law enforcement group probing the murders of 45 prostitutes and transients since 1985. The chief adopted Stamper’s recommendation that the task force be split into three areas and the state attorney general’s office be called in to investigate possible police corruption.

His second large assignment was to audit the department. It took eight months to complete, and suggests that the department trim its upper levels to improve communication between the top and bottom levels of the force.

The police union objected to two of the recommendations: doing away with the department’s paramilitary structure and changing the titles of captains, lieutenants and sergeants to distinguish the department from the military.

But association members, including Eastus, praised the rest of the audit, particularly the need to get more police officers on the street.

Stamper said he knows his reputation as the “bespectacled academic has become the jacket I have to wear the rest of my life,” but he rebuts critics who say he hasn’t spent enough time out on the street.

“I don’t pretend to be a cop’s cop. My patrol career was brief but distinguished. In the first few years, I got a couple of dozen commendations from inside the department. I was selected for sensitive under-cover work.”

If all his patrol work was to be condensed, Stamper said, it would total about eight of his 25 1/2 years with the department, including his civilian duty.

For his part, Eastus said the association respects Stamper and Burgreen.

“They know the association’s position on how we all feel,” he said. “We’re going to continue to meet with the chief and assistant chief and resolve our differences. Otherwise, we’ll move forward in another direction.”

In the meantime, Stamper said, he would like to get away from the “People magazine attitude” within the department and in the media, where everyone focuses on personalities rather than issues.

“I don’t sit around thinking about becoming police chief,” he said. “Maybe it’s necessary for others to draw that kind of conclusion, and because Bob said he would only stay five years it added fuel to the fire. What I care about is the policing that is going to take place in San Diego. It’s going to be a lot different than before.”