New Chief of Simi Valley Police Will Take It One Step at a Time : Law Enforcement: Willard R. (Bill) Schlieter says he will study the issues before announcing plans. He spends first day meeting with top officials.

Simi Valley’s new police chief spent his first day at work Monday greeting the troops and boning up on issues ranging from earthquake damage to school violence.

Chief Willard R. (Bill) Schlieter, 53, settled in quickly in Simi Valley after driving in last week from his previous posting as police chief in Urbana, Ill.

By Monday afternoon, Schlieter (pronounced SHLY-ter) had met with City Manager Lin Koester, most of the city’s department heads and many of his new department’s top officers.

Also on Monday, Schlieter and his wife signed a lease on a house in Simi Valley’s Indian Hills neighborhood, where they plan to stay for up to three months while shopping for a permanent home.

Finally, he planned to attend Monday night’s meeting of the City Council, which was to vote on seeking consultants to study a new police headquarters to replace the existing earthquake-fractured building.

Schlieter said the quake damage in the department’s Cochran Street headquarters “looks somewhat depressing,” but he shied away from announcing any plans for the department until he learns more.

“I’m really trying to find out what are the needs and the primary issues in the department,” Schlieter said Monday between meetings. “Hopefully, I’ll have the opportunity to learn the organization and the culture here a bit before I have to make any decisions.”

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But he added: “Crises have a way of happening unannounced.”

Koester said he is pleased with the new chief’s cautious approach to taking control of the department.

“He’s the type of individual we were looking for,” said Koester, who hired Schlieter after Chief Lindsey Paul Miller’s retirement. “I think we’ve got a police chief here who, at least in my opinion, is cut out to do a real good job.”

Koester said he and Schlieter agreed that the chief will spend the first few weeks talking to all his officers, learning the department carefully and listening to people.

“I believe there’s people there that want to have an input to the new chief, and he should do a lot of listening and asking questions,” Koester said.

Capt. Jerry Boyce said he and the department staff dropped thick stacks of briefing papers on Schlieter’s desk Monday to help bring him up to speed.

Schlieter said he was already wading through them Monday afternoon, reading up on the proposed new police headquarters and the in-school Gang Understanding and Resistance Development program.

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He also met briefly with police union officials.

“He wasn’t willing to rush into things, and he said he wasn’t even willing to say things need to be changed yet,” said Sgt. Gary Collins, president of the Simi Valley Police Officers Assn. “He reacted the way I’d hope he would react--cautious.”

Collins added: “I told him we want him to succeed and we want to do what we can to help.”

Schlieter said he will be catching up on a number of issues as he settles in, including his own certification as a California peace officer.

Schlieter said his Peace Officers Standards and Training certification has expired since his last in-state job as Taft police chief ended in 1984. But he said he expects papers will be processed quickly for him to be recertified without having to repeat police academy training--a procedure allowed for chiefs of police.

Schlieter said he also met privately with Capts. Boyce and Richard Wright to let them know about “some of my panic buttons.”

“I don’t like surprises,” Schlieter said, explaining he expects his officers to keep him thoroughly abreast of department business. “I just feel that if it’s going to affect the department, I ought to know about it ahead of time.”

He left Illinois on Wednesday driving a small rented truck full of enough clothing and personal items for several weeks, while his wife drove his ice-gray Porsche 944 coupe.

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Along the way, they managed to sell their house in Urbana, consummating the deal by fax from Albuquerque, N.M., and later from Flagstaff, Ariz., Schlieter said.

Schlieter has three adult children from his first marriage. His wife has two children, ages 8 and 10. They will arrive from Urbana at the end of the month, Schlieter said.