Multiple community members shared words of gratitude and encouragement for San Fernando Police Department (SFPD) Chief Fabian Valdez during a special meeting of the San Fernando City Council, just days after the city announced he would be retiring as chief effective June 19.
While many congratulated him during public comments and sang his praises, at the same time there was a lot of murmuring that his “retirement” was really an agreement for a dignified exit.
After leading the department for more than four years, Valdez was forced to retire, according to sources close to the city and police department.
“Chief, I feel so sad. I don’t know what happened,” said Dolores Rodriguez, one of several local residents who were skeptical about the unexpected retirement announcement. “What’s going on? Why [such] short notice [about] your retirement? Wherever you go, God bless you. Thank you very much for all [that] you did for our city.”
Valdez’s tenure was fraught with challenges from the start. He often hit walls when attempting to take action and weed out the problems. He quickly found the culture at SFPD and its union carved in decades of stone with a refusal to change.
In 2023, nearly three dozen residents made public comments supporting him when news spread that two then-council members – the late Cindy Montañez and current Mayor Joel Fajardo – wanted to remove him from his position.
This time around, community member Julio Martinez said he believes that Fajardo and Vice Mayor Victoria Garcia had been leading the charge to oust Valdez from the department, at the urging of members of the union, the San Fernando Police Officers Association (POA). Both received political endorsements from the POA when they ran for their council seats.
Local council candidates typically seek the endorsement of the POA.
“They pushed him to resign,” Martinez told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol, describing the chief’s impending departure as “heartbreaking [and] disturbing.”
In a contentious exchange during last Monday’s council meeting, Fajardo, who is at the end of his term after deciding not to seek re-election, took aim at Councilmember Mary Solorio, claiming there was only “one person asking for the chief to be removed, and it was Councilmember Solorio.”
“In order to try … repeatedly to get the POA’s endorsement, and at least [at] one of those meetings, she at least made the claim that [Valdez] needed to go,” said Fajardo, who said he wasn’t there when it happened, but he was “told” about the alleged conversation afterward.
“What a lie that is,” Solorio shot back. “The politics that have been at play here are horrible, and I do believe that we’re losing an incredible man, an incredible chief.”
Solorio later told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol that during the meeting, a city employee – who she didn’t want to identify – gave her a warning: “There is a lot of evil here – be careful.”
Solorio acknowledged she attended an endorsement meeting with POA President and SFPD Officer Paul Ventimiglia, SFPD Det. Sgt. Pete Aguirre and several other officers – who told her they wanted Valdez gone as chief – but she stated unequivocally that she never agreed with them.
“They said, ‘If the chief stays, all of us will quit,’” she said. “I was very clear that the council doesn’t fire [or hire] the chief. … They were so adamant about me saying the words that I wanted him gone, [but] I didn’t want that, so I didn’t. I was very clear that he was doing his job.”
Solorio said that while Fajardo is alleging that she was “desperate for the POA endorsement,” during her years as a councilmember, she has repeatedly been told that current POA members responded to a drug overdose at Fajardo’s home, which SFPD records indicate happened in 2017.
Solorio and others have suggested that Fajardo traded keeping the incident quiet in exchange for his support for the POA.
“I think that it is important for the public to know that these are facts – that these people [POA members] involved, the people that he continues to try to move forward and advance, are people that showed up to his house on an overdose,” said Solorio. “That doesn’t sit well with me.”
The San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol attempted to reach Fajardo for comment via phone and text, but he did not reply.
Despite Ventimiglia telling Solorio he would rather quit than continue working with Valdez, he congratulated the outgoing chief on behalf of the POA during the recent council meeting.
“We want to congratulate our chief of police on his retirement,” he said. “We wish him well [on] the next chapter of his life. Enjoy your retirement, sir.”
The city distributed a news release last Friday announcing that Valdez was retiring. However, during the meeting Fajardo said the chief is actually accepting a position in another state, where he will be training new law enforcement officers. Valdez did not comment.
John Perez, retired police chief of the Pasadena Police Department, who has been consulting for the SFPD, will assist with the selection of an interim chief for the department and help oversee police operations, according to San Fernando City Manager Kanika Kith.
A Rocky History
Valdez found himself at odds with the POA since he took the helm as chief in 2022, because “the chief was the one who was going to hold them accountable,” said Martinez. He said the POA has “always had certain council members” who supported their opposition to Valdez.
When Valdez attempted to discipline officers, he was always met with resistance, according to sources close to the department who asked for anonymity.
“The chief was met with pushback as soon as he hit the door from those in the department who wanted the position for themselves and maintained the position as chief be an internal promotion.
“The truth is, the chief was hired by former City Administrator Nick Kimball, who wanted someone from outside of the department because an internal promotion would just keep the police department’s same negative culture going,” said a source close to the issue. “Once Kimball left, Chief Fabian no longer had the support he needed to make changes.”
During the past four-plus years, Valdez made community-building efforts, attempted to discipline officers and sought to implement new policies, trying to heal what he described as the “fractured” department he inherited, Valdez told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol in a previous interview.
“I made the assumption that the culture [here] was ready for change … but I had underestimated the fracture, the hurt and the culture,” he said in 2024.
At this week’s council meeting, an emotional Valdez addressed the council and community members, noting that “it’s difficult to say goodbye to a community and department that I love.”
“I have nothing but gratitude and respect for this community,” he said. “Though I may be retiring from my position, I will always carry this community, the lessons learned and the department with me.”
Seeking Answers
Martinez spoke during public comments, asking for clarification about the chief’s retirement.
“I am concerned about the departure of San Fernando Police Chief Valdez,” said Martinez, addressing city staff and council members. “It was my understanding that he was … asked to retire at a very short notice, and many members of the community want to know [why].”
Lack of transparency surrounding the chief’s retirement fuels distrust, he continued, adding that it can be remedied “through openness, accountability and a clear explanation of the facts.”
City Councilmember Patty Lopez claimed the retirement decision was between the chief and the administration and “had nothing to do with the council,” although the POA has exercised its strength and expressed its disdain for the chief with members of the council.
“It wasn’t a decision made by the council; personally, it wasn’t a decision I made, nor do I think other council members made it,” Lopez claimed during an interview with the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol.
“I think he’s done the best he could in his position … but I think there were some areas where he needed to improve,” she added. “I like that the chief had community meetings in churches and schools, but I think he should have had more police in places like the downtown mall.”
Lopez said perhaps the chief made this “decision because he saw what was going on and [decided] where he wanted to be in the next five years.” Like Valdez, she hopes that the next SFPD chief will “speak Spanish – will be bilingual – and will also understand our culture.”
Nearly three dozen people have commented on the chief’s upcoming departure via the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol’s Facebook page, including Irwin Rosenberg, who retired as a commander for the SFPD in 2024 after serving on the department for two decades.
“I applaud the courage of community members who are speaking out, demanding transparency and accountability,” wrote Rosenberg. “It disturbs me that members of the POA leadership and a select few of its members are demanding the removal of a chief of police with the support of certain council members.
“Although I have been a critic myself at times of the chief because he failed to go far enough in disciplining or terminating officers for acts of misconduct,” he added, “I feel strongly a POA leadership that consists of individuals who themselves either are on administrative leave, under investigation or who have been disciplined for acts of misconduct should not be allowed to push out this or any chief of police.”
Editor Diana Martinez contributed to this article.