Will Fresno residents have a chance to weigh in on police chief search? What to know
How residents will be involved in picking the next Fresno police chief remains unclear, but officials stressed the need for community input and the Mayor’s Office said Wednesday it’s part of the plan.
The Mayor’s Office began reviewing seven hiring firms that applied to head up the search for the chief of Fresno Police Department after the deadline to apply closed Aug. 2, according to spokesperson Sontaya Rose.
It is up to Mayor Jerry Dyer and City Manager Georgeanne White to hire the firm and ultimately the police chief. Rose said they expect to choose a firm in the next two weeks. The charter does not require a vote from the City Council for hiring the chief.
Rose said the firm that is chosen will conduct a survey of the community as part of what the city will require.
“Mayor Dyer and City Manager White have also been conducting one-on-one interviews with community leaders to determine what attributes and traits they would like to see in the next police chief, how the community can best be utilized in the process, etc.,” Rose said in an email.
Rose declined to share the list of who would take part in the interviews, but said there would be 30 to 40 from the faith community, community-based organizations, education leaders and labor unions, including those representing city employees and police.
The Fresno Police Officers Association did not return a request for comment.
The Bee also asked about town hall-style meetings, like those conducted during the last search. Rose said the Mayor’s Office had not finalized its plans and if those public meetings would be held.
“This is undecided,” she said in an email. “However, there will be community input.”
The Fresno Police Department has been under the purview of interim Chief Mindy Casto, who was a deputy chief until Chief Paco Balderrama announced he would be stepping down July 25 after his extramarital affair with another officer’s spouse became public.
The city did not include a timeline for the hiring process when asked by The Bee, but said Casto would remain the leader of the department throughout.
At least one council member said he estimated Casto would serve through the end of the year. Councilmember Mike Karbassi said he hoped she would apply for the full-time position.
“I’ve heard good things about Chief Casto,” he said. “I think all the different groups are pretty happy with her. That’s not easy to do, but I think it just comes down to her integrity as a person. People just respect her.”
Fresno Councilmembers weigh in on search
Bringing Fresno’s residents into the process would be important for gaining the trust of the community, and particularly communities of color who may have historically had a less favorable relationship with law enforcement, Councilmember Luis Chavez said.
Chavez said he’d like to see a chief that embraces “community-based policing” — what the U.S. Department of Justice defines as an approach to policing that uses partnerships and strategies to address conditions that cause public safety issues such as crime, social disorder and fear of crime.
“You can’t just go into a community and enforce and expect people are just going to work with you, because it doesn’t work like that,” he said. “So I would like to see our next chief be able to do that in uncomfortable situations and in communities that traditionally have not had the most collaborative relationship with the police department. Whether that’s Southwest, Southeast and then some of the pockets that we have across the city that are a little bit more challenging.”
Bringing in public input can boost the confidence in the process from the community, according to Diane Goldstein, a retired lieutenant of the Redondo Beach Police Department and executive director of Law Enforcement Action Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing drug policy and criminal justice solutions.
“I think it instills a lot of legitimacy if the community is involved in the process, because what we need in order to solve crime is we need police legitimacy, and what that requires is the trust of the people that we serve,” she said. “It’s a very complicated job.”
Members of the Fresno City Council said they expect to see a national search, and opening up the applicant pool is in part what a search firm should be able to provide the city.
Councilmember Miguel Arias said he and other city council members and community leaders were involved in the interview committee for the last chief.
“The council has been very clear that we want the community involved in a national search process,” he said.
The most recent police chief search
The last search for a full-time police chief was less than smooth, landing on Deputy Chief Andy Hall — a 40-year FPD veteran who did not apply for the top position — to be the next chief for about a year while the city continued to look and eventually hired Balderrama.
Hall was picked after months of public meetings and an interview process trimmed a dozen applicants into a final five that — again — did not include Hall.
Dyer had been chief for about 18 years and it was no secret he would be forced to retire under the city’s Deferred Retirement Option Program. He was required to retire in October 2019, and he told The Bee in May of that year he intended to run for mayor.
The retirement program also required Hall to retire about a year after he was given the job. The city swore in Balderrama at the beginning of 2021.
The short-term hire of Hall was a surprise to many residents and at least some of the city leaders, who expected a permanent chief.
Councilmember Nelson Esparza followed the decision in 2019 with a proposed ordinance that would have required input from the City Council, but he ultimately came to a compromise with then-Mayor Lee Brand.
Esparza, Arias and Karbassi were allowed to take part in the continued search.
Esparza said Wednesday he expected the city to ramp up its attempts to gather community input compared to the last search.
“I think the process that occurred last time is the baseline of what we expect,” he said. “It’s got to grow from that. We can and should do better.”
Councilmembers Annalisa Perea, Tyler Maxwell and Garry Bredefeld did not respond to requests for comment on the chief search.
Balderrama announced he would resign from the department following the end of an internal investigation that lasted several months. The Bee confirmed the investigation surrounded an extramarital affair he carried on for roughly two years with the spouse of officer Jordan Wamhoff, who is also a Madera County supervisor.
This story was originally published August 14, 2024 at 2:56 PM.
