San Clemente : After Eight Years, New Chief Fulfills Dream

Displaying his new badge and calling it “beautiful,” Kelson McDaniel was sworn in Thursday as the city’s new police chief, filling a job that had been vacant since March and fulfilling a dream he had cherished for eight years.

McDaniel made an unsuccessful bid for the job in 1977. A year later, he became police chief in Los Alamitos, a post he held until this week.

A 24-year law enforcement veteran who for 17 years was a Newport Beach police officer, McDaniel bested 112 candidates from as far away as Indiana and Illinois for the $54,300-a-year San Clemente job, City Manager Jim Hendrickson said.

McDaniel, 48, said Thursday that he is “excited” about assuming command of the 63-member San Clemente police force because “it is a time of great transition, from a small department to a medium-sized department.”

McDaniel cited the city’s projected growth--its 30,000 population is expected to double by the turn of the century--and said he feels as if he is “getting in on the ground floor. It’s a good time to jump in here. There will be so many changes.”

McDaniel had run the 25-member Los Alamitos police force since 1978 and was being paid $43,000 a year. For 17 years before that, he was a patrol sergeant, reserve coordinator, adjutant to the chief and management services supervisor in the Newport Beach Police Department.

An Indiana native, McDaniel replaces Gary Brown, who retired seven months ago to work for a Sacramento executive-search firm. Police Lt. Bob McDonell had been acting chief.