Alhambra Police Chief Named to Glendale Job

The Glendale City Council, by a 3-2 vote, Wednesday named Alhambra Police Chief Russell Siverling as Glendale’s newest chief of police.

“I feel very strongly that Mr. Siverling will make an excellent chief,” Mayor Larry Zarian said.

Siverling, recommended for the job by Acting City Manager Bob McFall after weeks of intense debate in and out of City Hall, was one of three finalists for the position.

“From what I know, he’s a very able chief,” said James Anthony, Glendale’s outgoing police chief, who announced his retirement earlier this year but agreed to stay until a successor was found.

Siverling completed months of exams and interviews with the city’s Civil Service Commission and went before a community advisory panel before McFall named him as the first choice to replace Anthony.

While a few residents, who had favored a local applicant for the position, claimed irregularities in the selection process, a second Civil Service Commission hearing and a review of hiring practices by the commission determined there was nothing inappropriate about Siverling’s selection as the front-runner.

“Everything was aboveboard,” said Jack Hoffman, Glendale’s director of personnel and employee relations. “Some people thought we weren’t fair, that we deliberately didn’t include the weights of various tests, and that made the process unfair. But it was a fair process.”

Siverling, chief for nine years in Alhambra, beat out candidates from the Los Angeles and Modesto police departments, according to those involved in the selection process.

Anthony will leave office after nearly six years as the city’s top cop. He is widely credited with helping keep crime rates low in Glendale, Los Angeles County’s third-largest city with a population of about 180,000. Money magazine named Glendale the nation’s 26th safest city in 1997.

While Siverling comes to Glendale highly recommended by the city officials who hired him, critics questioned his tenure in Alhambra.

“People said the same thing about me when I was first coming in,” Anthony said. “Some people just like to make a stink. But they’re off base.”