Posted on: Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Police chief list down to nine candidates
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
The next chief of the Honolulu Police Department will come from within the ranks and will have almost two decades of experience as an officer here.
The field was cut from 13 to nine last week when four candidates were eliminated after the results of a written examination were delivered to the police commission.
The candidates still being considered are: deputy chiefs Glen Kajiyama, 48, and Paul Putzulu, 50; assistant chiefs Boisse Correa, 58, and Robert Prasser, 51; majors Donna Andersen, 58, head of the Internal Affairs Division; Susan Ballard, 47, of District 5; Thomas Nitta, 52, of District 6; Bart Huber, 47, of District 7; and Timothy Slovak, 51, of the Records and Identification Division.
Each has at least 18 years of experience as a Honolulu police officer, and two have been on the force more than 30 years. Correa has been an officer for 34 years; Putzulu, 32; Prasser, 29; Kajiyama and Nitta, 27; Slovak, 22; Andersen and Huber, 21; and Ballard, 18.
They will now begin the assessment center phase of the selection process that runs Aug. 10-11.
That's when outside consultant Terry Eisenberg, hired to help with the search, and a group of community members will assess each candidate's performance in a series of exercises. Then, another cut will be made.
The assessment phase is made up of four components, one of which is a simulation that requires the candidate to react to a police scenario as if he or she were chief.
On July 21, the Honolulu Police Commission accepted a list of seven community members from which three will be picked to act as assessor. The three community members will be paired with one Mainland law enforcement expert, selected by Eisenberg, to form the outside assessment group.
That segment will be followed by a psychological test and the process ends with an oral exam. The commission is expected to name a chief by the end of August.
Mayoral candidate Duke Bainum said the selection process is fair and that there is no doubt that it will produce an effective chief.
"When I saw the initial list I was struck by the quality of each and every one of the applicants," he said. "We have qualified folks right here in the department."
His opponent, Mufi Hannemann, was pleased with the list of candidates. He said strong people from Hawai'i will be in position to direct an agency situated in Hawai'i and that outside candidates should only be sought if no qualified ones from within can be found.
"I think it's a no-brainer you go local if that expertise is there," said Hannemann, who has been endorsed by the State of Hawai'i Organization of Police Officers. "If you're talking about overseeing the Honolulu Police Department, and if you can find the expertise from within, you should go that route."
For the second straight selection process, no Mainland candidates were in the running.
According to the police commission, four people from the Mainland applied, but one pulled out after learning that the commission does not pay travel expenses, and the other three who expressed interest didn't show up before the list of candidates was finalized.
Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.
