Is this the face of San Francisco’s next top cop?
Text by Sarah Phelan
Back in February, I asked mayoral spokesperson Nathan Ballard if San Mateo police chief Susan Manheimer was Newsom’s top pick to replace SFPD Chief Heather Fong.
I asked because the Community Leadership Alliance was promoting Manheimer hard and seems to have the insider edge within Camp Newsom.
(CLA lists the Chamber of Commerce’s Rob Black—Newsom’s unsuccessful pick to replace D6 Sup. Chris Daly in 2006—as honorary Chair, Scott Caroen as Chair, Troy Hammer, David Muhammad, Christopher Rosas and Joseph Alioto Veronese and Angela Alioto as advisers, and David James Villa-Lobos as director.)
Ballard’s reply, which I included in the Guardian’s story about San Francisco’s dysfunctional public safety system, was that, “It would be wildly premature to comment on the Mayor’s preference for police chief at this time. “
This was of course before Fong demoted veteran police office Greg Suhr to captain, before the domestic violence victim whose case was used to demote Suhr claimed that Suhr’s actions saved her life, various other candidates had their names leaked to the press, and before the Examiner’s Ken Garcia accused Fong of trying to burn down the whole department.
But now the Chronicle is claiming that Manheimer could very well be SF’s next top cop, because she spent 16 years in the SFPD before heading to San Mateo, the powerful SF Police Officers Association feels it can work with her, and the choice will allow Newsom to appear to be choosing a department outsider.
Suhr, Deputy Chief Kevin Cashman, and Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian, are reportedly still in the running.
Meanwhile, I’m left wondering if Newsom is going to back CLA director Villa-Lobos for D6 in 2010, becausethe two are photographed posing together on CLA’s website and the group seems to have its finger on Newsom’s pulse.
David James Villa-Lobos poses with MGN