Chief Lowenberg makes his exit

Jose Paul Corona

Outgoing Police Chief Ron Lowenberg was given a big send-off

Wednesday morning with a reception at the Police Department to thank

him for his 13 years of service.

Police officers, city staff and residents all took part in the

ceremony.

While Lowenberg had anticipated taking a few months off to relax

before starting as director of the Golden West College Police

Academy, he will instead jump right into a role he’s very familiar

with.

Lowenberg has been appointed interim police chief in Pomona.

He expects to serve as chief for about four months while city

officials conduct a search and hire a permanent replacement for

outgoing Pomona Police Chief Fred Sanchez.

Pomona city officials have said that Lowenberg will not be one of

the candidates to replace Sanchez.

Pomona City Manager Doug Dunlap called Lowenberg a few weeks ago

and offered him the temporary job, Lowenberg said, adding that it

wasn’t part of his retirement plan.

“On discussing the issue further, we thought it might be a good

thing for them and me,” Lowenberg said.

Although he says the cities are vastly different, he does have a

familiarity with Pomona, from when he was a lieutenant in neighboring

Baldwin Park in the 1970s. He worked in a multi-agency gang unit that

did some work in Pomona, he said.

Lowenberg said he’s looking forward to the short-term position.

“Delivering quality police service is a task in every community,”

he said.

Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff believes that Pomona city officials

did well in choosing Lowenberg.

“In this interim period he’ll do superior work,” she said. “They

couldn’t have selected a better person.”

Once they have found a replacement, Lowenberg will head over to

Golden West.

“I’m really excited about that,” he said. “Training young people

to be good police officers is a very exciting idea for me.”

Lowenberg will take over duties at Golden West sometime in March.

He’ll begin his tenure as interim chief in Pomona Oct. 28.