Allan McClain, 51, announced Thursday that he was retiring effective Dec. 30, as Lake County News has reported.
McClain arrived in Clearlake In June 2007, after spending more than 26 years in law enforcement in Kings County.
There he served two years as the sheriff, appointed to fill the position by the Kings County Board of Supervisors after three-term Sheriff Ken Marvin retired. He lost election in November 2006 and left the Kings County Sheriff's Department in January 2007.
With 30 years in law enforcement, he said he's ready to retire, and he and his wife plan to move to Hawaii. “It'll give me something to do,” he said, noting he likes to scuba dive and fish.
McClain has presided as chief during a difficult time for the city. During his tenure the city has cut nine officer positions, dropping from 27 to 18, and also eliminated two code enforcement officers, a dispatcher and the chief's secretary.
The department, at the same time, has absorbed animal control duties. McClain and his staff have worked with local animal groups in the effort.
The city's departments have come in under budget every year and have cut millions in expenditures, he said.
The cuts in staffing levels means the department can't be as active in the community as McClain would like. If an officer is on vacation or testifying in court, they have to pull in other officers to work overtime.
“So basically right now we're running at what would be minimum staffing,” he said.
The department has struggled to provide the best service it can with limited resources. At the same time, McClain said, his agency has been creative in obtaining the tools it needs without asking the council for more money from the general fund.
McClain said the department has used grants to buy cars and other equipment. The department also brought on a K9, which was achieved through a community-based fundraising effort.
McClain said the new council is seated next month – Jeri Spittler and Joey Luiz will succeed retiring Councilmen Roy Simons and Chuck Leonard – they will have to look at the city's financial situation and assess how much money they want to spend to properly fund the department.
He said the biggest issue the department has is finances.
“We don't have the resources to hire the staff needed to keep the city safe,” he said.
Measure P, the half-cent sales tax the city adopted to enhance law enforcement, isn't able to keep up with the department's needs, he said.
Part of his frustration as chief, he said, is that Measure P was part of his recruitment package, and he was told that there would be money for certain programs and uses.
“When I got there I found out it just wasn't true,” he said.
“The only light we had at the end of the tunnel for additional revenue and those types of things appeared to be attached to any kind of project going at the airport,” he said, referring to the proposed regional shopping center at the now-closed Pearce Field on Highway 53.
The city's police officers association spoke in favor of the project before the council earlier this year.
“I just don't know where the revenue sources will come from,” he said.
McClain said it's in the police department's best interests that he step away, which will allow the city to get someone to come in for less than the $115,000 annual salary he makes, plus more than $70,000 in benefits, including retirement.
The department also can look into a reorganization, he said.
During the last council meeting, both Spittler and Vice Mayor Joyce Overton said there were too many police officers. Measure P's goal is to have one police officer for every 500 residents, rather than one per 1,000 citizens, which is a benchmark for most cities.
McClain said the police department has never been at the one officer for 500 residents level, despite Measure P's goals.
He's also concerned that Spittler and Overton were making those comments and not looking, at the same time, at the city's level of calls for service.
Clearlake Police Department is handling 30,000 calls a year, more than the Lake County Sheriff's Office and the Lakeport Police Department combined, said McClain.
“Measure P was written specifically because of those levels of service,” McClain said.
“I believe – and I believe this wholeheartedly – the officers and the people we have working at the city have done an outstanding job trying to maintain the level of service we're able to provide and keep things functioning as well as they have,” he said.
“The concern is, when you're handling that many calls for service, what is going to be the level of burnout on the officers that are here?” McClain asked. “At what point are they going to get to the point where they say, 'Enough is enough, I'm not willing to do this anymore'?”
McClain said there is a lot of negativity in the community and people are tending to overlook the positive the department does. The officers are “doing a hell of a job” and trying to make things work.
With the country's economic trials and the troubles in Sacramento, “There's no trust,” he said. “People don't trust politicians, they don't trust government, and I believe that's where the negativity that's generated from.”
Add to that, many people don't understand completely how government works and, as a result, think things are being hidden from them, McClain suggested. “It's usually just an understanding issue.”
As to the suggestion in some quarters that McClain was leaving because he was afraid of newly elected sheriff, Francisco Rivero, McClain dismissed the idea. “Why would I be afraid of Frank?”
He said he's talked with Rivero several times, adding, “Frank Rivero has no control over me, the city of the department.”
There were previous discussions about contracting with the sheriff's office to provide policing services for the city, but McClain said Sheriff Rod Mitchell was not interested in trying to take over the services completely.
“The sheriff's office can't do what we do for the cost we do it,” said McClain, noting that it's an “enormous undertaking” for the sheriff.
Overton said Thursday she intended to bring the contracting matter up again with the council. McClain said that for the city to have a serious conversation about the issue, it would first need to make a determination about what level of service it expected.
He said cities tend to be loyal to their police departments and don't want to give them up. It can also be a political nightmare.
“The cost savings are usually insignificant,” he said, with the main cost savings coming because the police chief's job goes away.
Going forward, if the council asks McClain for his opinion on what steps to take next, “I'll give it, but I won't make any recommendations unless they ask for it,” he said.
“I think it's going to be difficult” to recruit a new chief, said McClain.
He suggested that it may be easier to find someone local or within the sheriff's office who wants the job, rather than trying to recruit outside of the county.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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