Norfolk leaders want police chief free to pick assistant

NORFOLK

While City Manager Marcus Jones and Mayor Paul Fraim would like the next police chief to have the power to pick at least one assistant from outside the department ranks, police are lining up against the proposal.

Jones addressed police leaders at a meeting Friday to make his pitch, but members of the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Brotherhood of Police Officers oppose the idea.

It previously came up in 2003 when the City Council passed a measure that would allow police chiefs to appoint their own top brass. The city needs the Virginia General Assembly to approve a change to the city charter, and the idea died in early 2004 when then-City Manager Regina V.K. Williams backed off because of a lack of support.

Those in favor of allowing a chief to appoint his assistants argue that the chief should be able to pick a management team. Opponents argue that such decisions open the door to corruption and political influence. They want top police jobs to go to people who moved through the ranks, not people outside the department.

"It's too easy to promote nepotism within the city and within the department," said Keith Winingear, president of FOP Lodge No. 3 in Norfolk. "I think we start sliding down that slippery slope with nepotism and political pressure of appointing someone that might not be best suited for that position."

Sharon Chamberlin has been the acting police chief since early March, when Jones forced the retirement of Bruce P. Marquis as the department dealt with the death of a police recruit, saying Marquis wasn't right for the job. Since then, the city has advertised the job and now has 64 applicants, including Chamberlin. The department currently has two assistant chiefs: Rhon Wright and Vernon R. Simmons.

Currently, a Norfolk police chief must promote from within the department.

Harry Twiford, a trustee and the past president of the local FOP, said members of the department are professional and would carry out the directives of any new chief.

"It's an insult to the people who have been promoted through the ranks of this department, to their credibility, to think that (a new chief) needs to bring in someone from the outside," Twiford said.

City spokeswoman Lori Crouch, speaking for Jones, said the manager believed his conversation with police on Friday was productive. Fraim said he backed Jones and said the move is not a reflection on police leadership.

"Anyone who wants to take a job of this sort of importance is going to want to hire people who they have faith and confidence in. And that may be somebody who's presently there, but it may be somebody who isn't," Fraim said. "I think you'd want to give that person flexibility to put in place the leadership team that he thinks can do the best job."

Vice Mayor Anthony L. Burfoot said he thinks the City Council will approve what Jones wants.

"I don't know how many jobs there are of this magnitude where you don't get to bring in someone to help you," he said. "I just think in order to get things going in the right direction, it's almost impossible to do, especially in a city this size, without some help. While you're learning the job and trying to figure out the politics and the problems, you need someone who can help you reach into the organization and find good people."

Randy Brann, president of the Norfolk police union, said he agrees with the FOP.

"I feel like when you already bring an outside chief, he's at the will of who hired him," he said.

"And sometimes when you bring in that second body, now you're going to have two people who are calling the shots that basically are at-will employees and are going to kind of dance to the city manager and the mayor's music and not always look out for the overall good of the department and the officers."

Pilot writer Harry Minium contributed to this report.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 222-3893, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com