Police chief applicant field down to 6 names | News, Sports, Jobs

WAILUKU – Three ranking Maui Police Department officers and three retired police officers from Maui, Honolulu and New York are the six finalists who will be interviewed for the job of Maui County police chief.

The finalists, announced Wednesday at a Maui Police Commission meeting, are:

* Clayton Tom, MPD deputy chief who has been serving as acting chief since the retirement of Chief Gary Yabuta on July 31.

* Victor Ramos, MPD assistant chief of the Uniformed Services Bureau.

* Tivoli Faaumu, MPD captain and commander of the Kihei Patrol Division.

* Larry Hudson, a retired MPD assistant chief.

* Moana Heu, a retired Honolulu Police Department major.

* Chuck Tsang, a retired New York Police Department lieutenant who is chief of security at the University of Hawaii Maui College.

Except for Heu, who lives on Oahu, the finalists are Maui residents.

The six were selected after a four-member police chief selection committee headed by commission Vice Chairman Kelly Ruidas reviewed and scored the 17 applications submitted by the Aug. 12 deadline.

Committee members took into account the commission’s requirement that applicants have at least 15 years of law enforcement experience, including five years in administration, he said.

In a report to the full commission Wednesday, Ruidas said four of the applicants were disqualified because they live on the Mainland and state law requires state and county department heads to have been Hawaii residents for at least one year prior to appointment. The remaining 13 applicants included five current MPD officers, four retired MPD officers, two retired police officers from the Mainland and two non-officers who have a law enforcement background, Ruidas said.

He said he and other committee members – commissioners Pancho Alcon, Howard Hanzawa and Gregg Lundberg – had been in “constant communication” since the committee was formed in May to review applications and submit a final list of candidates to the full commission.

Committee members reviewed certifications that applicants received throughout their law enforcement careers as well as letters of recommendation.

“During our meetings, there were a lot of discussions – intense, exhaustive deliberation to come to some kind of conclusion,” Ruidas said.

Those who weren’t selected to be interviewed had been notified in the days before Wednesday’s meeting, he said.

Ruidas thanked those who applied.

“There were a lot of impressive, outstanding applications,” Ruidas said. “Anyone on this selection committee can tell you it is not easy to turn down applicants who have devoted a lot of years to law enforcement.

“But the reality is we can only select one chief.”

Chairman Roger Dixon said that the nine-member commission plans to interview the six candidates during a special meeting beginning at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 3 in a meeting room at the Maui Beach Hotel in Kahului. The meeting is expected to be recessed and continued to Sept. 4 to allow about two hours to interview each candidate over the course of two days.

The interviews will be done in closed executive session because personnel matters will be discussed, Dixon said.

He said that the public can offer testimony about the candidates at the start of the Sept. 3 meeting. Public testimony will be limited to three minutes a person, Dixon said.

All of the finalists have more than two decades of police experience.

Tom has spent 32 years at MPD, serving as deputy since Yabuta picked him after being appointed chief in 2009. Before that, Tom was assistant chief of the Support Services Bureau. During his career, he has worked in the Wailuku and Molokai patrol districts, as a Vice Division narcotics investigator and in the Communications Section and Criminal Investigation Division and on the Special Response Team.

Ramos, who has 25 years’ experience with MPD, previously worked as captain of the Kihei, Wailuku and Molokai patrol districts and headed the Internal Affairs Section. Earlier in his career, he was a traffic officer and supervisor of fatal traffic investigations and a detective in the Criminal Investigation Division.

Faaumu’s 29 years with MPD include work as commander of the Lanai Patrol District, Communications Section, Community Relations Section and Plans, Training, Research and Development Section. Early in his career, he worked in the Lahaina and Wailuku patrol districts, as a gambling and narcotics investigator and as a vice sergeant and detective in the Lahaina Criminal Investigation Division.

Hudson retired last year after 33 years with MPD, the last three as assistant chief of the Support Services Bureau. During his career, including an assignment as technical services captain, he worked on capital improvement projects including development of new Kihei and Lanai police stations, a new forensic facility and remodeling the Lahaina Police Station.

Heu retired at the beginning of 2013 after a career of almost 30 years with HPD, the last three as a major. According to her Linkedin profile, she has a master’s degree in public administration from Central Michigan University.

Tsang, who has been chief of security at UH-MC since November, moved to Maui last year after retiring as a lieutenant after a 23-year career with the New York Police Department. He is originally from New York and has a bachelor’s degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

The police chief job pays $135,000 a year.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.

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