“I just didn’t think, frankly, it was a good time to have that kind of unsettledness go on,” he said. “That’s why all I can say is it remains to be seen. We are not there yet to make a conclusion.”
When Starbird appointed De Pompa, he advised the City Council that the city would be in a budget crunch for a while.
“We had to confront the budget and significantly change in sort of an operational philosophy,” Starbird said. “We are going to give it some time to kind of stabilize before we launch into a recruitment, if we do a recruitment.”
If all three cities were to recruit at the same time, they could draw out the same candidates, Starbird said.
“I don’t imagine there has ever been a time that we have had interim positions, and essentially the positions open and in some state of flux, in all three cities at the same time,” he said.
Finding police chiefs is a challenge because other police departments are also recruiting, and some qualified candidates who are nearing retirement often stay within their own organization, officials said.
There has already been talk of giving the permanent spot to De Pompa, Glendale Mayor Frank Quintero said.
“I would say there is a lot of interest in a candidate that knows the Glendale [Police Department],” he said.
‘We’re going to be thoughtful and thorough’
Pasadena is already well into the public outreach process for selecting its new police chief since Bernard Melekian left the post to take a job with the Justice Department.
