‘Rocky Road’ for New Chief

Two days after Bob Gonzales was named police chief, his own officers posted this sign along one of the city’s busiest streets: “Now Entering a High Crime Area.”

The sign was prompted by a labor dispute between officers and city officials--one of the many challenges facing the city’s new police chief.

Last year violent crime jumped 38% in the city. The department, meanwhile, has had the same number of sworn officers--29--since 1972. And Santa Paula officers are among the lowest-paid in the county, according to union officials.

“It’s going to be a rocky road,” acknowledges Gonzales, looking at the job ahead of him. He is among the first to admit that when he officially succeeds retiring Chief Walt Adair on May 1, he will have his work cut out for him. “It’s not easy taking over like this.”

Still, Gonzales is happy to take on the top cop slot--a position the 26-year department veteran almost didn’t get.

City Manager Peter Cosentini offered the job initially to two other candidates outside the department. Both turned down the $82,971-a-year post.

As candidate No. 3, Gonzales should have been offered the job next, many said. But Cosentini, reasoning he wanted someone with experience as a chief, suggested a $12,000 salary increase to recruit new candidates.

But when council members rejected the salary hike, Cosentini asked Gonzales to take the job. Gonzales signed papers Thursday, making the deal official. Part of the package, however, includes an “at will” clause that gives the city manager the right to fire Gonzales at any time, without warning and without reason.

Cosentini refused to comment on his initial lack of enthusiasm for Gonzales as chief.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to get into any conversation that could be construed as negative or critical to my new chief,” he said. “I’ve selected Bob Gonzales and I’ve supported him 100%. We are truly bonded by a common purpose, a common goal to ensure the safety of our city.”

With the apparent reluctance to give him the post, combined with a financially strapped department in the midst of a labor conflict, why does Gonzales still want the position?

He answers with a tale of his freshman year in high school when his football coach told him he would never play because he was not very good. By his senior year he was an All-American with more than 100 scholarship offers, he said.

“That’s my work ethic,” said the 48-year-old father of three and grandfather of one. “I can be told I can’t do it, and I’m going to prove people wrong.”

A graduate of the University of La Verne with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, Gonzales said he won’t try to hide from the challenges before him. He is well aware that while the rest of the county has seen a dip in rape, homicides and assaults, his community of 27,000 has had an increase.

To reverse that trend, Gonzales believes his department needs at least six more officers. The increase would keep his force from simply running from one police call to another.

“We are a response agency,” Gonzales said. “Right now, we go from call to call, putting Band-Aids on situations. It’s a big change from when I first got hired. We had time then to stop and talk to people, go out onto the streets and visit. It’s not that way any more.”

It’s an issue that is at the center of a debate between city officials and the police union.

Union officials want money for more officers and newer resources. And, they add, a raise is needed to keep talented officers from moving to neighboring departments, where calls for service are fewer and the pay is higher.

City officials, however, say there is no money in the general fund to meet the officers’ demands. So contract negotiations have been stalled for the past 18 months.

Gonzales will very likely find himself at the center of the dispute, trying to bridge a compromise between the two sides. As a former president of the police officers’ union--from 1980 to 1985--he is already empathetic to his officers’ plight.

“But now I’m on the other side of the table,” Gonzales said. “I’m management. From that side, I understand there is only so much money to go around. Money is difficult. I wish I had a magic wand and could make things better. But I don’t.”

Union officials, however, say most officers supported Gonzales’ candidacy and are looking forward to healing some old wounds. In 1997, 92% of the department’s unionized personnel cast a no confidence vote for Adair over allegations of mismanagement.

Union board member Michelle Velasco, a Santa Paula police officer for 11 years, said the “roller coaster ride” Gonzales was forced to take before his hiring actually helped bring the department together.

“When he was bypassed for the position we just all pulled together and said, ‘That’s not right. That’s a fellow officer being treated like that. We’re not going to stand for it,’ ” Velasco said.

Velasco said officers were looking forward to a change in leadership and called Gonzales “a cop’s cop.”

“He’ll get out there and work patrol with us. If he’s driving by and sees us working a traffic stop alone, he’ll stop and say, ‘Hey, do you need backup?’ That’s the type of person we were looking for,” Velasco said.

Gonzales said part of his dedication to the department stems from his love of the Santa Paula community, where he was born and raised. He attended Santa Paula High School, where on career day back in the ‘60s he was named honorary police chief. He graduated from the school, and later handed the diplomas to his children as they graduated.

He left the city briefly to pursue a football scholarship at the University of Washington. He later transferred to Long Beach State, also on a football scholarship. But while lifting weights one afternoon, Gonzales chipped vertebrae in his back, ending his football career.

He returned to Santa Paula and in 1972 became a reserve officer for the city’s Police Department. He was officially hired onto the department a few months later.

“I’ve lived here all my life,” Gonzales said. “It’s a safe community, a good community, and I really have enjoyed it. So I want to continue to serve here but take it to a different level.”

As inspiration, Gonzales looks back to the time three years ago when, after several hours in a standoff situation, he was able to keep a 22-year-old man from shooting himself in the head. For that, Gonzales won a Medal of Honor from the city.

A year ago Gonzales was walking out of the post office when someone approached him. It was the one-time suicidal young man. He had a job. He was enrolled in college. And he thanked the soon-to-be chief for saving his life.

“It was great,” Gonzales said with a wide smile. “That’s why I’m here.”