LAPD Oversight Board Picks Exec

Richard M. Tefank was named executive director of the Los Angeles Police Commission on Thursday, a promotion from his job of assistant inspector general.

Tefank, 58, a former police chief in Pomona and Buena Park, will replace Dan Koenig, who retired earlier this month.

Commission President David Cunningham III said Tefank was the runner-up in a national search that selected Koenig in 2003. Tefank “was head and shoulders above the others,” Cunningham said.

Tefank, a former head of the California Police Chiefs Assn., will formally begin the job in mid-June. “I thank the commission for placing their trust and confidence in me,” he told board members after he was selected.

Commissioner Rose Ochi abstained. She said she knew of other candidates who would have liked to apply for the position.

“They should have opened it up to competition,” Ochi said. “That’s how you get the best and brightest.”

Vice President Alan Skobin said Tefank was better qualified than when he applied last time because he has since become deputy inspector general, a job that involves monitoring the LAPD first-hand.

Koenig said his decision to leave came because after more than three decades in the LAPD and law enforcement, he needed a change

Tefank served as the California attorney general’s law enforcement liaison from 2001 to 2003, Buena Park chief from 1989 to 2001, and Pomona chief from 1986 to 1989. In Buena Park, he was an advocate for gun control. In Pomona, he was fired after he refused to lay off workers, which he contended would have been unethical.