Oxnard Welcomes New Police and Fire Chiefs

OXNARD —  Only hours into his first shift as police chief, Art Lopez glanced at the boxes cluttering his new office.

After a morning spent meeting with community members, department heads, and rank-and-file officers, the law enforcement veteran was unsure just when he’d get around to unpacking.

“That stuff might just stay there,” said Lopez, 48. Then, dipping into the first cardboard box, Lopez pulled out two 8-by-10 photographs of his daughters and placed them on a table--the first pictures to adorn his new office.

It was a day of adjustment all around for Oxnard’s top chiefs.

Down the hall, Fire Chief Joe Milligan, who also began his new post Monday, empathized with Lopez. He reported to work wearing civilian clothes because his new uniforms weren’t ready. He spent the day setting up voicemail, acquiring a pager and learning new phone numbers. Milligan’s business cards haven’t even been printed yet.

“I just can’t wait to be settled,” said Milligan, who has spent the past 26 years with the Pasadena Fire Department, rising to the rank of assistant fire chief. “I’m anxious to become a working part of the department, to get down on the real issues.”

Although the men just met at a charity event last month and talked only briefly on Monday, the new chiefs already predict a great working relationship. “We hit it off immediately,” Milligan said. “I just have a good feeling that he and I will get along well and be real effective for the city.”

Milligan, 51, said he has not decided which issues to tackle first, but will wait until he has a chance to meet with more people inside and outside the department. Lopez, however, said he has a few things already in the works.

During his first lunch meeting, Lopez dined with Jim Lasley, a professor at Cal State Fullerton, to discuss customer satisfaction surveys. Lopez wants to mail surveys to city residents to ask them how happy they are with the department and find out what areas of service they want emphasized.

He also hopes to work with Lasley to come up with a better way of measuring police effectiveness aside from crime statistics.

“Whenever crime is down, we take the credit,” Lopez said. “When it is up, we blame society, socioeconomic problems. We need something that can measure a little more directly, so we can say, ‘Hey, our efforts had a hand in that reduction.’ ”

Lopez also plans to borrow a few ideas from his former employer--the Los Angeles Police Department, which he left as deputy chief after 27 years with the force.

A teenage police academy that Lopez helped start in Los Angeles, for example, was successful in getting more young people involved with the LAPD. Lopez hopes to begin a similar program in Oxnard, even working with school officials to ensure that participants receive school credit.

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But he said his first priority was to meet his officers. To that end, the top cop took time Monday to wander the halls of Oxnard’s department, introducing himself to the new faces. By that afternoon, most of those at headquarters already seemed to know him.

Cmdr. John Crombach, who served as acting chief until Lopez took over, said most officers are happy to have a permanent chief at the helm again.

“We’ve kind of been on hiatus for the last six months,” Crombach said. “We’ve just been trying to keep things going, but it’s hard to keep the momentum. But there’s a lot of excitement now.”

Officers are looking forward to the potential that comes with a new chief.

But Lopez is also an outsider, chosen over Oxnard’s two deputy chiefs, and that has made some apprehensive, officers say.

“For months we were all sitting around, sort of holding our breath until they made a decision,” said Sgt. Tom Chronister. “Now we have an outsider come in. It can be an exciting time, but we don’t know the person who is going to be the new boss. There’s an uncertainty. It’s change, and some find that fearful.”

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Crombach, who was not a candidate for the chief’s job, said he has tried to lay those fears to rest.

“There’s some anxiety over what’s going to happen,” Crombach said. “But I try to tell everyone, ‘Hey, relax. This guy is an extremely qualified individual, and I doubt if he’s going to turn your world upside-down.’ ”

Although Lopez still lives in Northridge, he said he plans to move to Oxnard soon. And he is already trying to fit in with his new community. On Saturday, he took home a second-place medal after playing catcher in the Police Activity League’s annual softball tournament.

“Well, they just gave me the medal, really,” Lopez said. “There were a lot of stupid mistakes out there, and I was responsible for most of them.”

And on Monday morning, he was the guest of honor at a reception hosted by the Oxnard Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“To me, the people I have looked up to in law enforcement didn’t just spend time in the department,” Lopez said. “They spent time in the organization, but also in the community. I want to be perceived as someone doing both. I’m working a 14-hour day today. But I want to take that time to establish myself in the community.”

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Milligan has already relocated to Oxnard with his wife of 32 years, Linda. The couple have two adult daughters and four grandchildren.

Milligan said he also plans to immerse himself in the community as soon as possible.

“I plan on making this a long-term relationship and being a contributor to the department and the city,” he said.