5 of 7 Chief Candidates Are From L.A. County

The police chiefs of Sacramento and Salt Lake City are among the seven semifinalists for the Los Angeles police chief’s job and are the only two non-Los Angeles County contenders, sources said Thursday.

Sources said the seven candidates--who will be interviewed in July by a citizen’s screening committee--are LAPD Deputy Chiefs Bernard Parks, Mark Kroeker and David Gascon; LAPD Cmdr. Art Lopez; Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Chief Lee D. Baca; Sacramento Police Chief Arturo Venegas Jr.; and Salt Lake City Police Chief Ruben Ortega.

If the candidates’ interviews with the screening committee go well, all seven names will be forwarded to the Los Angeles Police Commission for its consideration. The commission will choose three finalists, in order of preference, and present the list to the mayor, who will make the final selection.

Of the seven contenders selected by the committee, five are Latinos, one is African American and one is white. They were among 32 applicants for the job whose resumes the committee reviewed at a closed-door session Friday.

William Fujioka, who heads the city’s Personnel Department, declined to identify the candidates because the review process is ongoing.

Although the local candidates are fairly well known to residents and city policymakers, the two non-Los Angeles County chiefs are less so.

Venegas, who has been the chief in Sacramento since 1993, presides over a department of about 600 officers. A strong supporter of community policing, Venegas, 49, has recently come under attack from police union leaders there for his strong discipline of some officers and his methods of carrying out affirmative action plans. Venegas declined to comment Thursday on his interest in the Los Angeles job.

In a prepared statement, Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr. said: “Art Venegas is a really fine police chief. We support the Los Angeles Police Department in hiring from within.”

Ortega, former chief of police in Phoenix, has headed the Salt Lake City Police Department since 1992. He is the first member of an ethnic minority to head that department.

In Salt Lake City, Ortega has moved to expand community policing and diversify the force. He has also moved to increase citizen involvement on internal review boards concerning police pursuits and use of force issues. Like Venegas, he has had recent trouble with his city’s police union--the turmoil stemming from his dissolution of a popular drug-fighting squad at the department.

Ortega could not be reached for comment.

Many LAPD observers say the outside candidates will probably face long odds in their quest for the chief’s job. Some observers suggest that the Police Commission’s displeasure with the leadership of former Police Chief Willie L. Williams may have soured the panel on the idea of hiring another outsider.

Additionally, during all eight of the Police Commission’s recent community forums to elicit public input on how to select the next chief, many residents said the job should go to someone within the department.

“It was a theme that was voiced by the majority of people who were before us,” said Police Commission President Raymond C. Fisher. He added, however, that the five-member panel is committed to ensuring that the selection process remains open to all candidates regardless of where they work.

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Perhaps even more daunting for outside contenders, as well as most of the other candidates, is that, according to sources, the mayor is said already to be leaning toward tapping Deputy Chief Parks for the job.

The Police Commission has promised to submit its list of three candidates to the mayor July 29. The mayor’s selection, which requires the approval of the City Council, is expected to occur within weeks of his receiving the list.