Bid for Say in Hiring Police Chief Defeated

A city councilwoman’s plan to give residents a voice in hiring the next police chief has been defeated by her colleagues.

Laura Flores Espinosa suggested the city create a citizen advisory panel to interview candidates with City Manager Peter Cosentini. But the council rejected the idea 4 to 1 at its Monday meeting.

“It is quite an insult to the residents that their opinions hold no value with the council,” Espinosa said.

The city is looking to replace Chief Walter Adair, who plans to retire April 30 from the post he has held since 1986. Candidates for the job, which pays between $68,261 and $82,971 annually, have until Jan. 8 to apply.

Cosentini said he would have three human resources professionals review applications and submit lists of their top 15 candidates in order of preference.

From those lists, Cosentini will select up to 10 candidates to be interviewed by a professional panel of police chiefs or similar law enforcement officials locally or from nearby counties.

With questions prepared by Cosentini, the panel would rank the candidates. Cosentini would then interview the top scorers and make the final selection.

Councilman Rick Cook, a retired Santa Paula police officer, said that while he would like to be on a committee to hire the next chief, he still voted against the citizen panel. Cook said he felt such a panel would violate the city manager form of government the council adopted in November 1996.