Timing, Sacrifices Called Key in Naming Calif. Chief

Hemet, Calif. -- Dave Brown, who has served as interim chief since the retirement of Richard Dana late last year, will be sworn in at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

City officials had previously indicated they would wait up to another year before making a decision on hiring a permanent police chief. But that process was expedited once interim Fire Chief Bill Whealan left for another job, citing a lack of departmental resources, Public Safety Director Andrew Hall said.

Fearing that both the police and fire departments could end up in flux, Hall made the recommendation to appoint Brown as soon as possible.

"Chief Whealan's resignation. It changed the system," Hall said. "We can't have destabilized public safety everywhere. That did trigger a sense of urgency to go ahead and stabilize the police side."

Brown will make $154,441 annually but, in becoming an at-will employee, will give up his lifetime medical insurance. Because he was hired in 1992, six years before Hemet stopped giving new hires lifetime medical, he could have negotiated it into his new contract. But city leaders said his willingness to forgo that option was a huge statement on his desire to be chief.

It is also a move that could save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars after Brown eventually retires.

"Who would give that up?" Vice Mayor Robert Youssef asked. "Dave has clearly shown his willingness to sacrifice for the Police Department. Whether his title is deputy chief, police chief or chief extraordinaire, what he has done is give up a big concession because he wanted that title."

Councilman Larry Smith said the council weighed several options, including retaining the status quo, looking outside or awarding the job to Brown.

"It wasn't a perfect consensus where we all nodded our heads," Smith said. "There were serious discussions about other options."

In the end, however, it became evident that Brown, a Hemet native, was the right choice at the right time.

"Dave was willing to wait," Hall said. "It was the intersection of all these things coming together at once that we decided to make the move.

"He could compete with anyone in the county for this job. What he lacks in experience, he makes up for in attitude."

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