National search would ensure political insiders don’t get job
By Columnists Phillip Matier & Andrew Ross, San Francisco Chronicle
After two weeks of police backbiting and over-the-top lobbying by various factions and their supporters, San Francisco Mayor-elect Gavin Newsom has decided that enough is enough: He’s launching a national search for a new police chief.
“This isn’t going to be something that goes on and on,” said one source close to the process. “We want to have this done by April.”
The decision to take a serious look outside the department was triggered by the mayor-elect’s growing belief that the department’s brass has become too political for its own good.
“It doesn’t surprise me a bit -- they are really playing hardball down there,” said Wayne Friday, one of five mayoral-appointed police commissioners who oversee the department. “It’s gotten to the point where everyone is just watching their backs.”
Newsom may even ask current Chief Alex Fagan to step aside in the interim. He’s already decided that, despite a full-court press by the chief’s supporters since the election, Fagan needs to go, our source tells us. “It’s the right thing for him and the department.”
And Fagan isn’t the only one at the top of the department who has overplayed his hand.
“In the last week, it’s just become increasingly clear just how dysfunctional the department brass and their various factions of supporters have become,” the source said.
While Newsom hasn’t ruled out picking a new chief from within the department, word is the campaigns by supporters of Fagan, Deputy Chief Mindy Pengel, Capts. Ron Roth and Kevin Dillon and San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer (a former S.F. cop) have backfired on all of them.
“It’s time for them all to knock it off and get back to work,” our source said. “The rank-and-file deserve leadership, not politics. It’s getting to the point where it could affect public safety.”
Interestingly enough, the one person who seems to have emerged from all the fighting unscathed so far is the one candidate who has made no effort to grab the chief’s ring -- Assistant Chief Heather Fong.
For decades, San Francisco has been one of the most politicized police forces in the country. Just about all the captains and commanders -- be they straight, gay, old-boy, new-girl or minority -- have their own constituencies within the department.
It’s not uncommon for captains, who are virtual chiefs in their respective district stations, to work their areas like politicians -- helping the neighborhood merchants, attending community meetings and political clubs, catering to the downtown VIPs and even helping put together fund- raisers for mayoral candidates.
The Police Officers Association is also up to its ears in local politics, routinely providing favored candidates with money and precinct walkers.
And when it’s time to pick a new chief, the chits are called in. Because along with a new chief, there are usually shakeups from the command staff all the way down to station houses, with friends of the winners promoted and enemies banished to the department’s various Siberias.
Newsom knows that calling for an outside search won’t go over well with a lot of his supporters. But nonetheless, that’s the plan.
Party hangover: If there weren’t enough problems down at the San Francisco Police Department, now comes word that a captain who helped investigate the Fajitagate scandal -- who himself has eyes on becoming police chief -- is in hot water over allegedly off-color and racially tinged humor at an office Christmas party.
Paul Chignell -- a former aide to Mayor Art Agnos who also doubles as the mayor of San Anselmo -- has long had a reputation for defending women and minorities in the department. But he is also known for his biting sense of humor, and during the holiday gathering a couple of Fridays ago at Alfred’s Restaurant, he may have bitten off more than he intended.
Word is, spirits were running high among the 30 or 40 guests when Chignell and Inspector John Monroe -- a driver for former Chief Earl Sanders who was recently transferred to the auto detail -- started trading some friendly verbal shots.
According to witnesses, Chignell ribbed Monroe about the transfer, prompting the inspector to remark: “Yes, I worked in the chief’s office and made more money than the chief, and I spent all my time f -- over you white boys.”
Chignell reportedly shot back, “Johnny, now you’re the highest-ranking black guy in the auto detail -- in fact, you’re the only black guy. ... We haven’t had a black guy in the auto detail since we called you Negroes.”
It didn’t take long for word of the exchange to get back to the Hall of Justice, and by Monday an anonymous complaint had been filed with the department’s civil rights unit, apparently alleging that Chignell’s remarks were contributing to a hostile work environment.
And now everyone who attended the party is being hauled in to give a sworn statement.
“This is the latest attempt by people to assassinate my character,” Chignell said. “And I think it’s being done because we’ve got a new mayor coming in and a whole change of administration. There is nothing that was said there (at the party) that would rise to the level of slurs.”
Friends of Chignell (and he has many) say the probe is nothing short of a political witch-hunt aimed at destroying his career.
And it’s not just Chignell who’s in trouble -- Capt. Marsha Ashe, who also helped direct the Fajitagate investigation, is accused of failing to intervene to stop Chignell’s supposedly inappropriate behavior.
Nobody around the department has forgotten the roles of Chignell and Ashe in the Fajitagate probe -- particularly their support of an expanded investigation into the Union Street brawl, which involved then-Assistant Chief Alex Fagan’s son and two other off-duty cops.
Fagan said he has nothing to do with the confidential party probe -- in fact, he says he’s been kept out of the loop by the civil rights unit, which is run by Assistant Chief Heather Fong.
As for Ashe -- who is being investigated as the highest-ranking person attending the office party -- she called the probe “an example of the dim- witted mentality that has held us hostage for a while. . . . I heard nothing in that room that night that I would have construed as offensive.”
Still, one ranking officer told us that Chignell -- whether he was joking around or not -- is getting his just desserts for going after Fagan and other higher-ups during Fajitagate.
“For me,” he said, “this is like poetic justice.”