After 34 Years, Santa Paula’s Police Chief Should Retire

This is a time of new beginnings for Santa Paula. A new mayor, a new city manager and, in time, a refurbished downtown.

It is time for a new police chief as well.

Chief Walt Adair has served his native city for 34 years as a police officer and, for the past decade, as chief. For at least a year he has been publicly anticipating his coming retirement. We believe it would be a commendable final act of public service for him to begin it soon.

There are some jobs you can walk through with one eye on retirement, but police chief isn’t one of them.

Today more than ever, it takes 100% commitment, superhuman energy and a flair for innovation to lead any city’s battle against crime. In Santa Paula, which has the county’s second-smallest police department, lowest-paid officers and second-highest crime rate, the challenges are especially daunting.

In recent years, the rank and file have increasingly voiced dissatisfaction with Chief Adair’s performance. In August, 92% of the city’s unionized officers gave him a vote of no confidence, accusing him of poor leadership, of hindering investigations and even of putting officers’ “lives in danger due to his failure to maintain an up-to-date knowledge of law enforcement tactics.” Adair has long dismissed those complaints as a labor dispute.

The Ventura County Grand Jury looked into the matter and, two weeks ago, urged the City Council to resolve this long-festering problem. It recommended that the city establish a process for choosing Adair’s successor.

Like the grand jury, we share some of the union’s concerns. One example: Adair disbanded the units that once specialized in investigating gang activity and drug sales; both of those areas continue to be major problems in Santa Paula. Another: Hampered by the city’s ongoing financial problems, Adair has not effectively sought out alternative funding sources as the sheriff and some other police chiefs have done.

In other cases, we find the union’s complaints to be nit-picking. Yet we believe it is time for this issue to be resolved.

What the department needs right now is fresh blood, unity, renewed vigor and the confidence of every officer that his chief is 100% engaged in the demands of the office.

There are talented managers in the department who could serve as interim chief until newly hired City Manager Peter Cosentini arrives in February. As a first order of business, Cosentini and the City Council should select a new permanent chief--or reconsider whether, at this point, it makes more sense to disband the department and contract with the Sheriff’s Department, as many Ventura County cities do.

At 54, Chief Adair has earned his community’s gratitude many times over. He can do so one more time by accepting his city’s thank-you salute and devoting himself full time to his avocation and sideline career as a pilot.