Will a new city manager change the police culture in Newport Beach?
The so-called jewel of Orange County might not want to recognize it, but elected officials in Newport Beach have decided to clean up their messy house before it got too dirty.
They are retiring City Manager Homer Bludau earlier than expected, and are bringing new blood –sort of— to City Hall. Assistant Manager Dave Kiff is getting promoted.
So far Kiff has shown that he is a hard worker, since he got his Assistant City Manager assignment in 1998 –I’m sure he’ll be fine as City Manager—, but can he do the big job: help provide a major systemic overhaul in the Police Department, and in his office?
Such changes usually don’t happen from someone coming from the inside, but rather from the outside. The Los Angeles Police Department offers a great example. A new Chief of Police, William Bratton, was brought in to clean up a corrupt department. After a few years, not only did he get rid of the bad weeds, he also restructured the system.
As we know Bludau didn’t trigger the problem. The problem developed inside the Newport Beach Police Department, where a police officer, Neil Harvey, sued the city because he felt an unfair system was working against him. Sergeant Harvey had been in the department for 27 years, and despite doing an outstanding job, building strong academic background and scoring high in promotion exams, he couldn’t be a lieutenant. He got snubbed many times. The department felt he was gay.
Former Police Chief Bob McDonell had never promoted anyone perceived to be gay, and his successor, John Klein did little, if any, to derail from such pernicious prejudice. He never attempted to change the system.
In the end, an Orange County jury awarded $1.2 million in damages to Harvey. However, to this day his promotion is still in the air.
Bludau got in the mud after newspapers reported that he had promoted Klein illegally, bypassing the City Council’s consent and violating just about every transparent process for hiring a high-ranking official.
Did anyone know about the ongoing problems hanging in the Police Department? Administrative officials, including Kliff, will surely say NO. However, most of them were fully aware of the rules of the game. It took a brave sergeant to bring it to the public eye.
Has the City Council made a mistake by appointing an insider? Time will tell. In the meantime, Kliff has all the advantages to make all necessary changes to reshape a system where discrimination has no place.
Humberto Caspa
The following is a quote from the Daily Pilot in a recent article regarding Kiff’s appointment:
“Kiff lives in Laguna Beach with his partner of 16 years, Tom Lochner, a Newport Beach doctor.
He and Lochner have already made an offer on a house in Newport Beach near Irvine Avenue. The couple have two mixed-breed dogs, Macey and Ben.”
If there is, as has been alleged, a problem with homophobia in the Newport Beach Police Department, I find myself wondering if Kiff’s sexual orientation will help or hinder his quest for a solution to the problem.
Dear Pot Stirrer, “removedor” for those of you who would like to learn a word in Spanish, as stated in the article, Mr. Kliff will find a lot of enemies in the NPD when trying to push for systemic changes. It isn’t impossible, it’s difficult, specially given the fact that he’s an insider. His sexual orientation, I’m sure, is shocking for a pervasive environment like that of the NPD. It’s just another challenge for Kliff. The problem is inside the Police Department. That’s where all started, and that’s where the City should focus on. Getting Kline and Bladau out only cool things down. It didn’t solve the problem.