Valley Residents Push to Promote Deputy Chief

A growing group of San Fernando Valley residents is papering Los Angeles City Hall with letters and petitions promoting Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker as a candidate for police chief, which several lawmakers say is inappropriate because the job is not vacant.

Kroeker, an LAPD veteran of 32 years who currently runs the department’s South Bureau, is widely considered a top candidate to succeed Chief Willie L. Williams if the Police Commission decides not to renew Williams’ contract for a second five years.

Kroeker, who was the Valley’s top officer for 2 1/2 years, and several of the letter writers denied that he was involved in the grass-roots campaign.

“It’s kind of distressing,” Kroeker said when asked about the letters. “I feel [like] a victim of people’s good will. Letter writing is not in order right now. It’s not something that I’d want people to do. That time may come, but it’s not now.”

Several council members said the lobbying borders on insubordination.

“It’s in poor taste,” said Councilman Nate Holden, a strong supporter of Williams. “The position isn’t open. . . . It undermines the police chief. This is one of his top staff guys who’s out there campaigning for the job.”

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has had rocky relations with Kroeker, called it “both inappropriate and impolitic.”

“The question is whether or not this is orchestrated,” Ridley-Thomas said. “If it isn’t, he should make sure all such persons stop it, because it doesn’t reflect well on him. How could people be doing it without his being involved?”

Other lawmakers who received letters simply pointed out that it is not up to them to select the chief. Voters in 1992 granted that power to the mayor’s Police Commission, though the chief can appeal any commission decision to the council.

“The City Council has very little jurisdiction over the selection or reappointment of the chief of police,” Laura Chick, who heads the council’s Public Safety Committee, wrote to the letter writers. “I have confidence that the commission will conduct its review in a manner that serves the best interest of the citizens of the city of Los Angeles.”

In an interview about the pro-Kroeker letters, Public Safety Committee member Mike Feuer was more blunt.

“People can write to me about whomever they want,” he said. “[But] the Police Commission should do its job unfettered by politics, period.”

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Williams, who became chief in June 1992, said last week that he wants a second five-year term, though he has yet to file the official application. He has until Jan. 7 to do so.

But the Kroeker campaign began as long ago as September, when some business owners in the Valley formed Safe and Friendly Environment in L.A., a group whose sole purpose is to write letters and circulate petitions pushing Kroeker as police chief. Most letter writers didn’t mention the group in their correspondence, but confirmed in interviews that they are members.

“I’m not very political. I don’t really understand all the political implications of what council members are doing,” said Evelyn Greene, a Northridge resident. “He’s a great guy. He’s done such great stuff in the Valley and South-Central, and he should be chief.”

In their letters, residents praise Kroeker for being multilingual and sensitive to the diverse cultures of Los Angeles, and for his work spreading community policing in the Valley. Several mention the anti-graffiti program Operation Sparkle he started, and laud his managerial skills inside the department.

“I never felt safer than when he was here in the Valley,” Sherman Oaks apartment owner Horace Heidt said in an interview.

Among the boosters is Superior Court Judge Michael Hoff, who worked with Kroeker in the LAPD and called him in his letter “a catalyst for positive change” whose “courage, leadership and management virtues are of the highest caliber.”

Williams declined to comment through his spokesman, LAPD Cmdr. Tim McBride. “It’s not surprising,” McBride acknowledged. “Kroeker has a big following. . . . people are starting to hypothesize.”