Newport police chief suspends promotions

The promotion of a sergeant into a soon-to-be-vacated lieutenant position with Newport Beach police could proceed as normal if the city, with the blessing of the employee unions, would stop reviewing how officers are promoted, Police Chief John Klein said Monday.

“It doesn’t seem prudent to make a promotion out of a process the association is challenging,” Klein said.

By December, criticisms about how officers were selected for promotions in recent years and a lack of action by the city had come to a head, police said. The Police Management Assn. — which represents police sergeants and above — formally requested an investigation into the promotional process by the Civil Service Board.

In the last few weeks that review has begun under the stewardship of retired veteran police Commander James Blaylock, who was approved by the Civil Service Board despite the police union preferring the other candidate and the chief going along with it. When they are done, the panel will make recommendations to reform the promotion process.

With the review underway, Klein announced April 6 to department employees that he would suspend promoting anyone until the investigation into the process was complete. Blaylock said Monday his review will take months.

“I welcome this investigation, and I believe that the promotional process that has been in place for some time is fair and merit-based,” Klein’s memo to employees read.

In March, a jury disagreed with Klein’s assessment of the process, at least when it came to Sgt. Neil Harvey. Harvey was awarded $1.2 million after jurors found he had been discriminated against by his superiors and not promoted because of that discrimination. Depending on what the investigator finds, the city could be open to future lawsuits, officials said.

Harvey, who is still a sergeant with the department, is ranked first on the current list of promotion candidates for the next open lieutenant position. That will not matter, however, if Klein doesn’t promote anyone before the end of the review because the list becomes invalid Aug. 4 and the investigation will likely extend past that.

All candidates would have to go through the promotional process and be ranked again. To clarify, Harvey is not guaranteed the next lieutenant’s position. The chief has the option of selecting among the top three candidates. Promotions for sergeants and captains have also been suspended.

Klein said he would also not extend any of the lists, including the one with Harvey at the top, giving them life potentially through the end of the investigation.

“I prefer to test more often than not,” he said. “If it’s a faulty promotional process, does it make sense to extend it?”

In Klein’s memo to department employees, he said he did not anticipate any job openings coming up in the near future. A day later, Lt. Steve Shulman told superiors he would soon be retiring. That also has not changed Klein’s position on suspending advancement given a position is opening much earlier than he anticipated.

“I don’t want to promote someone under a cloud of whether it’s merit-based or not,” Klein told the Civil Service Board last week when he announced he would suspend all such promotions. He did not seek input from the Police Management Assn. or the Police Employees’ Assn., which represents officers and unsworn department staff, before making his decision, he said.

Officers argue there are a number of problems with the promotional process and question whether they were merit-based, including the chief’s, which violated a city ordinance. If officers want Shulman’s lieutenant position to be filled soon after he retires, Klein said, they’ll have to call off the investigation.

“If there was a resolution to this [investigation], then I would look at the list and I would make the appropriate promotion,” he said.

Reporter JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].