Screening Time (SB SUN 070506) Chief Candidates to be quizzed.

My real hope in all this is that The Rialto Police Department Hires a Chief that is good to the People of Rialto yet can say NO to the People and The City Council when it is such a Political Request that it will ultimately make them look good and the Police Department look like Idiots.

In the past Michael Meyers has worked for himself. He tried his hardest to make the Employee Quit or fire them if they didn't, if there was something that he didn't like about that person. He ran the Police Department like he and his side Kick was a some kind of person that was Above the Law.

His partner was a good example of this. He was a previously convicted rock cocaine user, that was caught with his hands in the cookie jar of the PAL Center that he was in charge of for his Division of the LASD. He was asked to Retire or get fired, he chose to Retire. His court case came later and he was convicted of a Felony and could not carry a gun, but when the prospect of working at Rialto in such a high position came about he Went to a judge friend of his in LA County and got his record reduced to a Misd for good behavior.

That allowed him to carry a gun and be a Police Under Chief again. Great huh? Now they allowed him to Retire from Rialto too, great huh. he has two retirements one from Pers, and One from the LACEBA.

So he has it made for the rest of his life and is laughing each month when his checks come.

And Ed wants to look at the lower Officers that were working for these two Stooges. Garcia, Makes three!! Owens makes four..After all there was Shemp.

BSRanch...

Screening time
Chief candidates to be quizzed

Robert Rogers, Staff Writer

RIALTO - An ambitious plan to rebuild the Police Department moves ahead Thursday as candidates for chief are screened by a panel of politicos, police and others.

Eight candidates vying to be Rialto's top cop will face an eight-member committee: Mayor Grace Vargas, Councilman Ed Scott, former Mayor Ray Farmer, City Administrator Henry Garcia, police union president Andrew Pilcher, resident Jerry Gutierrez, interim Police Chief Frank Scialdone and Redlands Police Chief Jim Bueermann.

The department's and the city's futures hinge to some degree on who takes the reins. The interviews begin at 9 a.m. Thursday and could stretch into the evening hours. The panel's job is to whittle the field from eight to three.

"The next chief will be getting a Police Department that's in the process of mending itself," said interim Deputy Chief Tim Ousley. "And that's why getting the right leadership is critically important in this case."

City leadership has stayed mum about the candidates' identities, saying that publicizing the names of applicants will taint the selection process and negatively impact the candidates, most of whom work in other police agencies.

At least two of the candidates occupy leadership positions in nearby departments.

Eighteen people applied and eight were selected to be interviewed, Scialdone said.

Garcia will interview the top three candidates emerging from Thursday's screening and make a recommendation to the City Council, which must give final approval.

Final selection for the $160,000-a-year post will also require background checks, a physical, drug screening and psychological examination.

While city officials say the process has been smooth, it is behind schedule. In an April 5 memorandum recommending organizational changes, qualities sought in the next chief and a transition plan, the interview process was expected to take place the week of June 19, with the new chief taking over in mid to late July.

"(A start date of) Aug. 1 would be nice, but it's pushing it a little bit," Ousley said.

After a rancorous battle that raged from September, when the council voted to disband the Police Department, to spring, when pro-department forces prevailed, all parties agree on the importance of the correct selection.

"The interviews Thursday are going to go all day," Councilman Scott said. "This is going to be as thorough and comprehensive a process as possible."

The council ordered a study by a Claremont College research institute that stirred anew the rumblings of discontent with the force among city leaders. The study, commissioned after the decision to preserve the Police Department, concluded that the city erred in that determination.

"By every metric, the proposed contract with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department would provide a higher level of police service at a lower cost," the 84-page Rose Institute report said.

But the Police Department will endure, thanks to an ordinance the council adopted last month that requires it be maintained.

Ousley said the Police Department is understaffed but capable of returning to premiere status.

"The next chief will be getting a department that has seen a lot of people move on but has a lot of good people left."