Altered police exams unveiled

On Wednesday morning, when the Newport Beach Police Department promoted three of its officers in a ceremony, the force looked to put well more than a year of litigation, investigations and morale issues behind it.

Thanks to some outside consulting from Donnoe & Associates, a firm that specializes in creating promotion exams for public organizations, Newport Beach seems to have taken a leap toward restoring its officers’ faith in a system that had seen a lieutenant rise to chief in less than two years through broken rules and a sergeant repeatedly passed over for promotions based on false rumors that he was gay.

Donnoe & Associates was paid $16,000 to help create a new test for the sergeants and lieutenants promotional exams. The city does not plan on using the firm routinely, said Human Resources Director Terri Cassidy. The chief and other department experts used to have a larger role in creating the test, but have taken on a more advisory role while the Human Resources Department and Donnoe & Associates has handled the minutiae of the process, Cassidy said.

“I think it’s about a 100% turnaround in confidence in the process,” Cassidy said.

In promoting Jon Lewis to lieutenant, and Steve Rasmussen and Joe Cartwright to sergeant, the city unveiled a revised exam that removed much of the subjectivity — or at least the appearance of subjectivity — from a process that many officers had come to view skeptically.

Rigid requirements

Officers aiming for a higher rank now have half of their promotional score based on an interview with officers already in that rank who ask them a pre-determined set of questions to ensure fairness.

All the interviewers are regarded as the best and brightest from other Orange County police agencies and have no ties to the candidates or the department, Cassidy said.

In years past, the value of this panel on a candidate’s score was about a third.

Candidates for sergeant go through a three-part exam — an oral panel with some work-related exercises, a written exam and a review by superiors — and are scored. After all parts are completed, the candidates are ranked and one of the top three is selected.

Under both Police Chiefs Bob McDonell and John Klein, Newport Beach police unions encountered problems with how the oral panels were conducted.