Having spent all thirty years of his adult life with the Police Dept., the unwavering objective of his career has been to sit in the police chief’s chair.
Although he was a candidate for police chief the last time the job came open, he has not — yet? — joined the fast-crowding field. “The difference between then and now,” he said with a large smile the other day, “is that now I have the job.”
Mr. Burck is living very much in the moment, relishing an opportunity that fell out of the sky. “I am enjoying the time,” he said.
Ice-cold reality is staring back at him. “The sad part,” he said, “would be walking away from something you enjoy.”
Will he or won’t he be a contender?
“At this point,” he told thefrontpageonline.com, “I am not planning on applying” for the permanent position. He said, however, he would reserve a final decision until the filing deadline at the end of January.
“The only way I would apply for the job,” Mr. Burck said, “would be if I made a decision to stay for two, three or five years.
“It would not be fair to the officers of our department for me to stick around for just a year,” an obvious reference to his predecessor’s abbreviated twenty-one-month term.
In a private interview during his second week as interim chief, the fifty-three-year-old Albuquerque native did not indicate which way he was leaning.
But he may have provided a tantalizing clue. After being police chief, even on an interim basis, he said it would be virtually impossible to return to the ranks.
In other words, if he enters his name and loses, or he just rides out the anticipated several-month hunt without applying, he will announce his retirement as soon as the City Council hires a permanent chief.
As a thirty-year veteran, Mr. Burck is relatively set financially. He has maximized his pension. However, as a bonus, his service as interim chief, regardless of the length of time he serves, will further fatten his pension benefits.
A buzz circulating among Culver City’s curious lower ranking officers these days is whether the interim position was handed to the Assistant Chief with a stipulation.
Mr. Burck gave no indication that the interim appointment was accompanied by a condition that he not apply for the fulltime position.
But around the department, the scuttlebutt is that he allegedly agreed not to be considered for the permanent job.
The question of whether the temporary appointment would give him a leg up, if he decides to seek the office, remains open-ended.
The last time a City Hall personality faced such a dilemma was four years ago under circumstances that were similar, not identical.
When ill health forced Chief Administrative Officer Mark Winogrond to the sidelines in the late summer of ‘01, Fire Chief Mike Thompson was selected to be the interim CAO. The appointment and accompanying pay raise came with a sticky stipulation. Mr. Thompson would agree not to apply for the permanent position, returning to the Fire Dept. when a new CAO was named. The CAO search bogged down, Mr. Thompson became a hard-running candidate and won appointment from a skeptical, reluctant City Council.
The winning vote supposedly hinged on Mr. Thompson agreeing to stay awhile, an unspecified period. He agreed. Months later, he declared his retirement, moving to Washington state to aid his father. Last heard from, he reportedly had junked retirement in favor of returning to the fire service.
How It Happened
One morning last October, without expending a drop of perspiration or energy, the coveted job tumbled into Mr. Burck’s well-ordered lap when Chief John Montanio unexpectedly announced his imminent retirement.
As promotions go, it is in the class of winning the lottery.
But before the golden sheen of joy that washed over Mr. Burck had a chance to wear off, he was forced to wrestle with the imposing question of now what does he do?
A scant two years ago, when the legendary Chief Ted Cooke reluctantly retired, Mr. Burck sustained one of the large disappointments of his career.
He ran for the chief’s chair but was eliminated prior to the final round of three.
That haunting memory has not been allowed to float into the filmy mist of the past. With a plump lifetime pension temptingly wagging its finger at Mr. Burck, is he willing to risk a public run for a job where no City Hall watcher believes the odds favor him?
The descriptive adjective dapper may have been invented for the well-coiffed, sartorially snappy interim chief.
Every proudly youthful dark hair atop his darkly handsome face is perfectly positioned. Ditto for each fibre of his immaculately groomed moustache. Below the neck, he could have stepped from the latest edition of G.Q.
Even by just his second week as interim police chief, it was clear that, at least among the furniture, Mr. Burck has established his presence.
He wasn’t just sitting at the second-floor desk that most recently was dominated by the intimidating and storied Mr. Cooke. It did not seem to feel like a mere waystation to the proudly Hispanic Mr. Burck.
Married and the father of two grown daughters, he appears to be experienced as the head of household. No interloper, he presides over the desk that might swallow up a less seasoned leader.
No lover of early mornings, Mr. Burck reports to work several hours later than Mr. Montanio and stays several hours later. Calm, confident and well-spoken, he succeeds at trying to present his new responsibilities as just another day in his life. But for how long?
