Simi Cites Need to Revamp Police Chief Search : Law enforcement: Officials say it must be broader and more professional than the one that found Schlieter, who is resigning.

Simi Valley’s next police chief must be a tough leader, a delicate diplomat and a forceful visionary, city and police officials say--someone who can both command and get along with the strong personalities in the department’s top officers.

And they admit that the search for a new chief must be broader, harder and more professional than the one that found Chief Willard R. (Bill) Schlieter, who quit last week amid charges he was a weak commander.

City and police officials agree: The city should hire a corporate headhunter and scrutinize candidates more closely this time before picking a new leader for the 113-officer department.

Schlieter, 54, was the product of a city-run talent search using want ads and invitation letters sent to 400 candidates across the country.

The three-time small-town police chief was touted last February as a consensus builder with a futuristic bent.

Schlieter--promised city officials and his former officers in Urbana, Ill., a city of about 36,000 residents--was someone who would hear all sides before solving a problem and use computers and community policing to plug Simi Valley police into the 21st Century.

By most accounts, however, Schlieter failed to develop a strong rapport with his commanders, solve nagging operational snafus or forge a clear vision for the Simi Valley department’s future.

And, insiders say, he failed to mesh with his tight-knit department or the community that his officers helped make the safest large city in the United States.

“Simi Valley is a little bit different type of community than most places,” City Councilman Bill Davis said. “It’s a very closed community that expects a tremendous amount out of our police chief. . . . They expect him to be very involved in community affairs.”

The trick in Simi Valley, many officers and council members said, is letting the staff of professional, experienced and strong-minded mid-rank officers help improve the department while still keeping a steady hand on the reins.

That, they say, was where Schlieter failed.

“You’ve got to be able to get that rapport and bonding between sergeants and patrolmen, and lieutenants and captains,” Davis said. “This is the way the machine works. If you put a bolt between the two gears, it’s going to lock them up.”

Street-level police work stayed strong under Schlieter, city and police officials said. But the department’s internal workings faltered, and in some cases stalled.

It all began last winter, when Police Chief Paul Miller announced he would retire from the force he had led for 12 1/2 years.

By last February, City Manager Lin Koester announced his nationwide search for a new chief had ended: Urbana Police Chief Willard Schlieter was to become the new top cop.

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Schlieter, then 53, had run police departments in Taft, Calif., and Los Alamos, N.M., before heading his 45-officer department in Illinois. But he had jumped from the rank of sergeant in Santa Clara to chief in Taft, bypassing the mid-level roles of lieutenant or captain.

Soon after his arrival last March 7, Schlieter huddled with lieutenants and captains who run the Simi Valley department’s divisions, from patrol and detectives to administration and dispatch.

Lt. Jon Ainsworth, now head of patrol, said he was impressed at first.

“When Chief Schlieter was hired, all of us were very optimistic,” said Ainsworth, a 23-year Simi Valley police veteran. “He asked us what our feelings were about issues in the department--what was working, what wasn’t--and he took notes. And at that point, I felt very good about what he was going to do.”

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Ainsworth said the lieutenants tried to counsel Schlieter on solving continuing internal problems. The biggest was the high turnover rate in the radio-dispatch center, where vacancies were plugged often and expensively with line officers on overtime.

But Schlieter virtually severed communication with the division lieutenants, working instead through his captains, officers said.

Schlieter also failed to take interest in vital affairs inside and outside the department, Ainsworth said. The new chief took little active role in the annual Simi Valley Days fair--one of the department’s biggest annual missions, Ainsworth said.

And when a patrolman shot and critically wounded a rifle-wielding man two weekends ago, Schlieter did not even come into the police station to talk to the shaken officer, Ainsworth said.

“Our chief has provided members of the staff with virtually no direction relative to mid-year budget preparation, expansion of the canine program, resolution of the dispatch problems, an evaluation of the police reserve program,” Ainsworth said. “Those are key project issues . . . areas in which there has been tremendous frustration because of lack of direction.”

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But Schlieter insists he has accomplished much in his short time as chief.

“It’s been kind of a busy and stressful time” for the department, he said last week.

Schlieter said he oversaw repairs to the earthquake-damaged station, helped debug the new dispatch computer, and won city funding to improve space for record-keeping and evidence storage.

He reorganized his command staff. He juggled the lieutenants to new positions (which most say they are pleased with) and promoted officers into two lieutenant slots left vacant since officers spurned them during Miller’s tenure.

And Schlieter blended the narcotics detectives with the special enforcement detail--two divisions that had clashed over conflicting assignments in the past.

The problem, Schlieter said, was that he was not getting enough support from some lieutenants, whom he declined to name.

“Some of the information that would come up to my level wouldn’t always be accurate,” he said.

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“I certainly don’t think all the captains and mid-level managers didn’t support me, because that’s not the case at all. Some of them have been very supportive,” he said. “But I think there’s been some foot-dragging on the information coming up.”

Ainsworth called the accusations of foot-dragging and bad information “blatantly erroneous.”

Rather, he said, Schlieter cut himself off from his best advisers by working mostly through Capt. Jerry Boyce. “And that wasn’t fair to Captain Boyce either,” Ainsworth said.

Replied Schlieter: “The chain of command works both ways.”

Boyce did not return calls seeking his comments.

Ainsworth and several others angrily denied Schlieter’s accusation that he was sabotaged by his own commanders.

“I personally have made every effort to support Chief Schlieter, as I did for Chief Miller and will do for the next chief,” Capt. Richard Wright said. “It’s my belief the managers that were working for me were also trying to support Chief Schlieter.”

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By last September, the lieutenants said, so little had been done that they had to pressure Schlieter into talking to them.

“On at least two separate occasions, the mid-managers basically called a staff meeting and insisted that we get together (with him) and talk about issues,” said Lt. Dick Thomas, head of the special enforcement section, which handles narcotics, gangs and other street crime.

The lieutenants asked their chief, “Where are you coming from? What do you want from us? Use us. Let’s go to work,” said Thomas, a 24-year department veteran. “Basically, we were going to the boss and saying, ‘Be the boss. Let’s go in a direction.’ ”

Schlieter spoke vaguely of community policing--something already in place, Ainsworth said--and nothing changed.

The mid-managers called a second meeting, Thomas said. They needed Schlieter to solve the dispatch staffing problem, which was about to worsen in January when two dispatchers went on maternity leave.

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Nothing happened after that meeting either, Thomas said.

Schlieter maintains that he recently launched a dispatcher-training program, took on five new trainees and won funding from the City Council to raise dispatcher salaries to stop the turnover.

But the problem remained untouched for too long, Councilwoman Sandi Webb said.

“Over a year ago, this problem was brought to my attention,” Webb said. “I thought Bill was getting things taken care of. I was a little disappointed to see the dispatch department was still having such problems.”

After meeting earlier this month with the lieutenants and captains, City Manager Koester met on Valentine’s Day with Schlieter. It was all part of the annual review process that every city department head undergoes, city officials said.

Two days later, Schlieter announced he would resign.

The chief declined to say whether Koester asked him to quit. Koester would not comment either.

“I just think it’s time,” Schlieter said last week, citing unspecified frustration with the job. “It’s time to move on.”

Schlieter said he and his wife, a physical therapist, have been considering opening a physical therapy office, but he added, “I really don’t have any firm plans.”

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Council members and officers say they wish Schlieter well.

But they said they will press Koester to find a tougher chief, someone who can find the best path and steer the strong-willed commanders down it.

“One of the things Bill is is a really nice guy,” Webb said. “And maybe we need somebody with a little stronger will and a louder voice.”

Some officers said the new chief will have to work hard to blend the differing management styles of the two captains; Boyce is a former beat cop who rose through the ranks, while Wright came to Simi Valley after running an investigative unit in the Los Angeles Police Department.

“There’s sort of an atmosphere where we have a bunch of people pulling in different directions,” said one source inside the Simi department. “One of (the chief’s) responsibilities is to ensure that everybody’s going in the same direction and working together as a team toward a common goal.”

Councilman Paul Miller, the ex-chief, agreed.

“What you have are bright, articulate, motivated individuals who have a strong sense of will,” he said. “And in order to pull a group like that together requires a lot of time and energy. . . . Sometimes riding herd on that bunch can be a real handful.”

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In the old days, Miller said, Simi Valley officers obeyed orders immediately.

“Nowadays, when you have educated individuals, they ask ‘why’ when it comes to doing certain things,” he said. “And logic and persuasion are necessary to get them to follow orders.” All five City Council members say Koester should consider using a corporate headhunter to find Simi Valley’s next chief instead of searching on the cheap like last time.

A professional headhunter can find a chief who perfectly fits the department’s quirks and needs, they said.

And good candidates often prefer to be recruited rather than risk being discovered answering want ads, said Assistant City Manager Mike Sedell. “It certainly gets them off the hook.”

A headhunter also will find a wider variety of candidates, but they still will be limited to three types, Mayor Greg Stratton said.

“You’re either going to get a police chief from a smaller department, a lieutenant out of a larger department or a deputy out of a humongous department,” Stratton said. “The question is, can they leap the gap to be the police chief?”

Koester will weigh all his chief-hunting options next week when he returns from an out-of-town conference, Sedell said. And, he added, Koester plans to appoint an acting chief by Friday, Schlieter’s last day.