2 of 4 Newport Chief Finalists Are From O.C. : Police: Buena Park and Woodland chiefs are joined by the county undersheriff and an assistant sheriff in San Diego.

The four finalists to take over the city’s beleaguered Police Department are two Orange County law enforcement leaders, the chief of a small Northern California force and an assistant sheriff in San Diego County.

Among the candidates are Buena Park Police Chief Richard M. Tefank, 47, and Orange County Undersheriff Raul A. Ramos, 62, who is the department’s No. 2 man and runs its day-to-day operations. The others are Melvin Nichols, 52, a 30-year member of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department who oversees administrative services and Chief Robert J. MacDonald, 45, of the Woodland Police Department.

Newport Beach City Manager Kevin J. Murphy declined to disclose any information about the finalists other than to say that the four are male Californians and that two are police chiefs and two are not. Murphy plans to select a chief next week.

The new chief will replace Arb Campbell, who was fired in December, then rehired and immediately retired last week amid a sexual harassment scandal that has left the 250-member department with its lowest morale in years.

Campbell and former Capt. Anthony Villa are the subjects of a lawsuit filed last fall by 10 current and former female employees that describes the department as “a hotbed of sexually offensive conduct” and accuses the two men of raping a dispatcher at a police party in 1981. Both men have denied the charges.

“I really haven’t come down to one of the four,” Murphy said Thursday. “I obviously have my own thoughts as to who to this point is the strongest candidate, but I really want to find out about these individuals.”

The four men were culled from a field of 52 applicants for the job, which will pay between $84,000 and $103,000.

Tefank, who declined to comment about the Newport job until Murphy makes a decision, was graduated from Cal State Los Angeles in 1975 and took his first law enforcement job in Montclair. As Buena Park chief for the past 3 1/2 years, he has run a 135-member department that includes 87 sworn officers and patrols a city of about 70,000 people.

He earns $90,000 a year.

The bulk of Tefank’s career was in Pomona, where he served 17 years, the last 3 1/2 as chief. He was fired in Pomona during a time of political turmoil when six department heads and the city administrator were ousted in one swoop.

“He’s somebody who stands by what he believes in; he doesn’t compromise his principles, so I really respect him,” said Orange Police Chief John R. Robertson, guessing that the Pomona experience made Tefank a better leader.

“He takes a real active role in the county--he’s always there if you need him,” Robertson added, describing his colleague as “real personable” and “real professional.”

Since Tefank has been in Buena Park, the city has lost two sexual harassment lawsuits filed by former Police Department employees. One of the suits concerned actions that occurred before Tefank arrived in Buena Park, but the other named him as a defendant because he fired the plaintiff, Victoria A. Chaney.

In that suit, Chaney alleged that Tefank fired her because she had complained of harassment. But Tefank testified that he fired Chaney because she failed to return to work after a two-month stress leave.

“He’s a great chief; he’s really done wonders for the department,” said Buena Park Mayor Arthur C. Brown, who spent 26 years as a sheriff’s deputy in Los Angeles County. “I’d love to work for the man if I was still in the field. He really stands by you.”

As Orange County undersheriff, Ramos earns $89,000 a year and oversees the day-to-day operations of the department’s 2,100 employees. He often appears in public on behalf of Sheriff Brad Gates and filled in as sheriff for a month in 1991 when Gates had hernia surgery.

If Ramos gets the Newport job, “it would be like losing my right arm,” Gates said Thursday. “He’s a great guy and he’d do a great job. . . . He is like a brother to me.”

Ramos could not be reached for comment Thursday because he was out of town on vacation.

A Ventura County native who attended California Lutheran University, Ramos spent 18 years as a sheriff’s deputy in Ventura County before coming to Orange County as chief deputy in charge of special services in 1975. He was promoted to assistant sheriff in charge of operations three years later and named undersheriff when that job was created in 1984.

In 1986, the Lake Forest resident was named Outstanding Hispanic in Law Enforcement by the League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest Latino organization in the nation.

“They’re both very fine and capable and proven police managers,” Laguna Beach Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. said of the two Orange County candidates.

Nichols, who lives in Escondido, grew up in San Diego, graduated from San Diego State University in 1963 and has spent his career in the Sheriff’s Department. He earns $75,500 a year.

During three decades on the force, he has worked in the jail system, run the sheriff’s stations in Encinitas and Poway, served on the drug task force, and now oversees the 1,400-member department’s administrative services division, including training and personnel.

“This is a real opportunity to kind of expand my career,” Nichols said in a telephone interview Thursday. “It’s a good city; it’s got a good reputation.”

Regarding the scandal that has raced through the Newport department over the past year, Nichols said he is not too worried.

“It’s not that I have an oversized fix-it gene or anything,” he said, laughing. “Every department has its problems. That’s something that will pass. They’ve got a pretty solid organization there, and I’d like to work with them to get on the road and do business.”

San Diego County Sheriff Jim Roache described Nichols as “a level-headed, intelligent, hard-working guy who deals well with people and the community.

“He doesn’t tend to reach rash decisions; he’s very thoughtful and meticulous and methodical,” Roache said. “I tend to think that’s good.”

MacDonald, who worked in San Clemente before becoming Woodland’s chief in 1986, earns about $65,000 a year. His police force of 71 includes 50 sworn officers and patrols a city of 42,000 in the Sacramento area.

“He’s brought a lot of good organization to the department, identifying the needs of the department and trying to get the resources it needs,” Woodland City Manager Kris Kristensen said. “He’s a solidly respected individual in the community.”

MacDonald was away for a long weekend and could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Huntington Beach Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg, who knew MacDonald when he worked in San Clemente, said: “He’s a class act.”

Times staff writers Eric Bailey and Kevin Johnson contributed to this report.