Chief position opens today

The recruitment for Newport Beach’s permanent police chief begins today after the city’s civil service board approved the city manager moving forward with a search Monday night.

City officials will put out a posting for the job today. The position has been under interim leadership since John Klein left last summer after two years at the helm.

Newport Beach will accept applicants until April 2, tentatively. The new chief is expected to take over July 1, after a year under Robert Luman.

While the new chief’s hiring process will match past ones, city officials changed the requirements for the job and laid the groundwork to revamp future testing for the position.

Specifically, the new chief is required to have at least three years’ experience as a captain. The previous requirement was for three years of management experience and to be currently serving as a captain. Klein was promoted from lieutenant to chief in less than two years and was a captain for less than a year before his promotion.

The Police Department’s management testing and promotional practices are being changed after a city-backed investigation found there was room for improvement.

The board delayed on other civil service-related items, such as recommending the city modify the city Charter and create a deputy or assistant chief position. The idea is unrelated to criticisms of Klein’s time in the department, city officials said, though he was named deputy chief in 2007 when the position didn’t exist. The Fire Department has deputy chiefs, but it’s not clear they fall under the category city officials are looking to create, said City Atty. David Hunt.

Hunt said the position would be independent of the civil service system, not belong to a union and would enable the police or fire chiefs to have a second-in-command with an independent eye to some issues.

A majority of the board rebuked the notion that they have a diminished role within Newport Beach’s civil service system, such as approving promotions in certain departments. Board members also bristled at the question of whether the board should be dissolved for an alternative way for city employees to appeal disciplinary action or conduction investigations.

Hunt emphasized that he was not advocating that the board disappear. Rather, that they needed to officially state they weren’t going anywhere so leaders could move forward with streamlining the civil employee system in other ways.

The board voted to delay any changes to its duties or the civil employee system until they could study the recommendations further.