Costa Mesa’s police chief calls for unity as he ends tenure

In his last days on the job, Costa Mesa’s outgoing police chief warned that the city needs a new sense of unity if it wants to rebuild a Police Department that has scrambled to hire officers but still struggles with attrition and nagging vacancies.

“A house divided will not stand,” Chief Tom Gazsi said during an interview with the Pilot last week. “It is time for leadership at all levels of the city organization to step up, truly ... to move forward in a conciliatory and respectful way.”

After more than three years at the department’s helm, Gazsi plans to retire Sunday. The next day, he’ll start work for the Los Angeles Port Police, where he’s accepted a position as deputy chief.

During his term, CMPD staffing became a hot-button issue in the city, with factions arguing loudly over whether cost-cutting had hobbled the force.

Gazsi arrived at the department to plaudits from all sides and remained a well-respected figure, but tension simmered behind the scenes with some City Council members who spearheaded the police reductions.

At Gazsi’s final City Council meeting Tuesday, any acrimony was put aside when outgoing Mayor Jim Righeimer presented him with a proclamation.

“A highlight of my career has been serving as your chief,” Gazsi told the crowd after a standing ovation.

But as Gazsi told the Pilot last week, his term wasn’t without bumps.

“I came knowing [Costa Mesa] was very challenging organizationally and politically,” he said.

Shortly before Gazsi came on board, an interim police chief walked out after accusing some City Council members of manufacturing a fiscal crisis as an excuse to make cuts at the Police Department.

Months earlier, the department’s permanent chief resigned after allegations surfaced that he was expensing personal trips to Arizona.

In November, police staffing levels became a campaign issue in Costa Mesa’s City Council elections.

Opponents of the Righeimer-led City Council majority seized on the 2011 vote to reduce staffing at the department through attrition, arguing it caused officers to flee the department and created a shortage of police in the city.

Righeimer and his supporters countered that the city is moving quickly to fill any police vacancies.

Ultimately, Righeimer and former school board Trustee Katrina Foley, who was backed by the mayor’s opposition, each won seats on the council.

Gazsi advised that the two — and the rest of city government — work together if they want to maintain their Police Department.

“Decision-making models need to be driven by what’s in the best interest of the community,” he said. “It can’t be driven by national politics or a one-sided ideology.”

That unity must coalesce if the city wants to move beyond the turnover that has recently marked the department.

Gazsi estimated that 20% of the CMPD’s current rank-and-file were recruited and trained in the past two years. That’s on top almost 100% turnover in the department’s command staff, he said.

Dozens of vacancies remain at the department, where 136 officers is considered full capacity.

Costa Mesa is now competing with departments across the state that are rushing to refill their ranks from a small pool of qualified candidates after many agencies tightened their belts during the recession, Gazsi has said in the past.

Some Costa Mesa officers have complained that the city’s political environment is an added burden that drives away desirable recruits.

“It’s imperative the city stays on track to rebuild this organization as quickly and effectively as possible with the best possible candidates to restore those levels of services for the abatement of crime and continued quality of life in Costa Mesa into the future,” Gazsi said.

In a memo announcing his departure to staff, Gazsi tempered his clear excitement for a new opportunity by acknowledging the challenges he’s leaving behind.

He writes that it could take two years for staffing levels at the department to stabilize.

Nevertheless, he explains, the chance to lock in a retirement for him and his family as well as take a newly created job at the Los Angeles Port Police was too good to pass up. Gazsi’s pension from the Costa Mesa job and compensation for the new port position were not immediately available.

“Such an opportunity to define a new command, in an exceptional organization, with a remarkable staff is not likely again in my career,” Gazsi wrote.

During a short farewell speech Tuesday, Gazsi became visibly emotional when he started listing off achievements of individual officers under his watch.

He commended them for pulling a drowning child from a swimming pool and six times preventing suicide attempts from freeway overpasses.

“It was a privilege to oversee this,” Gazsi told the Pilot.

Beyond a temporary replacement, it’s undecided who will take over for Gazsi.

Costa Mesa spokesman Bill Lobdell said the city is still working out a timeline and process for recruitment.

Although he’s leaving the department, Gazsi said he’s not leaving the community. As a private citizen of Costa Mesa, he’ll keep an eye on his former job.

“As a 54-year resident, I’ll be watching this with great interest,” he said.