With an advisory committee forming to help find a new police headquarters site, the Newport Beach Police Assn. has publicly come out against one proposal.
While Joe DeJulio, the police union’s president, has not endorsed any location in particular on behalf of more than 160 members, he’s vocally opposing any plans to remodel and expand the current station on Santa Barbara Drive. City officials in previous discussions noted that it would temporarily displace police operations.
“I have no idea how putting us in trailers during construction would ever possibly work,” DeJulio told the Daily Pilot. “How can we book people that we arrest? How can we safely store evidence that is brought forward in court?”
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Newport Beach is soliciting applications to seat four resident members of an advisory board that will explore three possible sites for a new police headquarters.
Newport Beach Police Chief Dave Miner cited similar concerns with remodeling and expanding the current location during a March 10 meeting of the City Council, especially as construction could take years.
DeJulio, who agrees with Miner, also underscored the need to move away from an aging facility that first opened its doors in 1973. He noted that water leaks, mold growth and an electrical fire have plagued the headquarters in recent weeks — not to mention an iffy Wi-Fi connection at times.
But as the debate over where a new police station should go has grown more contentious in recent months, DeJulio stopped short of endorsing either a potential site on Civic Center Park greenspace or on city-owned property near John Wayne Airport.
Some residents have spoken out at council meetings against building atop 3.5 acres of parkland that would include the beloved “Bunnyhenge” sculpture garden and cost an estimated $162 million.
The police union stated a preference to be centrally located in a June 16 news release that quoted DeJulio extensively. But members support the advisory committee’s work that will soon begin after the application period for four resident members — including two experts on real estate finance and construction management — closed on June 1.
“We should all let the process play out, see what this new committee involving our community members will look like, what information they’re able to bring back and go from there,” DeJulio said.
Newport Beach received 31 advisory committee applications from the public. During the City Council meeting on June 23, councilmembers will consider nominees selected from Mayor Lauren Kleiman’s subcommittee.
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Thomas Maloney, Sandra Meadows, Robert Olson and Ronald Rubino are the nominees slated to join Councilmembers Michelle Barto, Noah Blom and Sara Weber on the advisory committee.
Kleiman appointed Weber as committee chair with Blom as vice chair.
Prior to the committee’s formation, which dissolves a previous group without resident members, councilmembers had directed city staff in March to focus on the Civic Center Park site going forward.
Last month, Councilmember Robyn Grant viewed the new committee as a restart button for the process.
As the group primes to continue its work over summer, DeJulio is willing to speak with anyone interested in the police union’s position.
“We want people to know that we are paying attention, and that we do care,” he said. “I want to make sure that people get as much information that they can from the officer perspective. That might have been something not originally considered.”
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Gabriel San Román is a feature writer for TimesOC. He previously worked at OC Weekly until the newspaper’s closing in late 2019. In 2023, San Román was part of the breaking news reporting team that was a Pulitzer finalist for its coverage of the Lunar New Year mass shooting in Monterey Park.
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