Former Police Chief Revels in Newly Minted Station

He wore a Hawaiian shirt and Japanese sneakers, a silver-haired gent with wide eyes and a firm handshake. He strolled around the new La Mesa Police Station like a tourist, but was greeted like royalty. The chief had returned.

Cliff Resch, who headed the La Mesa Police Department for three years until his retirement in 2005, had come for a close look at the station he made possible. On Sept. 20, the day that police officially occupied the new station on University Avenue, La Mesa Patch invited Resch, 62, to take a nickel tour of the $20 million cop shop.

His verdict?

"I'm thrilled," Resch said. "I'm so happy for the officers. They truly, truly deserve it. The youngsters [new to the force] won't know" how much an improvement this station is over the old one across the street on Allison Avenue.

Resch should know. When he became chief in La Mesa after 30 years with the San Diego Police Department, he inherited an overcrowded 1960s-era station with a basement declared off-limits because of lead contamination.

Not long after being hired, Resch met with then-City Manager Dave Wear and bluntly said: "That police station is crap. It's unsafe. The citizens of La Mesa don't deserve it."

Advertised as 16,000 square feet, the old station had a 5,500-square-foot basement that couldn't be used, and the rest couldn't accommodate the modern force LMPD had become—four times the size of the 18-officer staff of 1966.

So Resch said he and Wear put their heads together and, along with then-Fire Chief Dave Matter, arrived at a solution: a bond issue, eventually named Proposition D.

Despite a tough economy, Wear persuaded the City Council to call for a public vote on a $25 million bond issue—promising to replace the city's aging main fire station on Allison Avenue and improve Fire Station 13 on Grossmont Boulevard. And build a new police station.

"[Mayor] Art Madrid deserves credit," Resch said. "Art by design did not stop it and say, 'This is not my idea.' [There was a] lot of vision in this, behind the scenes."

Over the ensuing months, Resch and Matter put on PowerPoint presentations, perhaps 50, to groups like La Mesa Kiwanis, Toastmasters, the water district and senior citizen groups—having ready answers about the cost of property tax hikes many residents would bear. 

"It was a nominal amount," Resch said. "It was not going to break the bank."

On March 2, 2004, La Mesans delivered their verdict—passing Proposition D by a vote of 11,313 to 3,444. The bond issue required two-thirds approval. It got 76.66 percent.

Less than a year later, Resch retired at age 56. His last day, in January 2005, was his 27th wedding anniversary. His wife, Janet, an X-ray technologist in Pacific Beach, retired at the same time.

But voter OK was just the start. A seven-member panel called the Independent Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee needed to shepherd the project to conclusion.  It met, mostly without public interest, to hash out details and put out fires. Minutes of the 28 meetings, led by chairman Steve South, are online here.

According to Resch, the police station project benefited from the bum economy.

"It looks like our recession, taking a dump the way it did," made construction cheaper, Resch said. It lowered the price of building materials dramatically. Otherwise, he said, "they would never have come in on budget, [or] under budget."

The San Diego Architectural Foundation—of "Orchids & Onions"  fame—didn't salute the result, saying this about the efforts of Leach Mounce Architects:

"The city of La Mesa has committed an urban design crime! The civic center redo has recently been mugged by a beast of a building and, ironically enough, the police are the perpetrators. This bad neighbor completely turns its back on the city and has massive and mean blank walls on all sides. Sadly enough, it is the citizens of La Mesa that will be serving time for this one. Please, and I do mean please, book this one with an onion!"

Police are paying critics no heed.

Instead, they're hailing technology not originally planned for the station. Under police Capt. Ed Aceves, project coordinator, the station also offers amenities like a private interview room for victims' families, with comfy upholstered chairs instead of hard sterile seats.

Power-outlet-equipped lockers let officers charge their phones. Storage areas beckon in the underground parking garage. Officers don't have to carry heavy bags—sometimes holding long rifles and laptops—long distances.

"When I was a patrol officer," Resch said, "all you needed was a clipboard. Now you take so much gear with you that you almost have to make two trips."

At the station Sept. 20, Alan Lanning—his former captain—greeted Resch. The chief who launched the project reunited with the chief who brought it in for landing. (Resch also was present at the Sept. 3 dedication of the new station.)

Over the next half-hour, they toured the building. Lanning took Resch to several second-floor rooms on the east side that were off-limits to the public at the Sept. 4 open house. They allow for growth.

Resch, who lives in Poway, made his way from office to office, hugging former colleagues, taking time to ask about promotions and progress.

"For the coppers," he said of the station, "this helps morale so, so much."

Resch and Lanning reached the current chief's office, and eventually stepped into the sunlight on Lanning's private balcony. It's the station's only outdoor overlook—giving the chief a dramatic view of the La Mesa branch library and post office.

"Al, this is really great," Resch said of his baby. "Congratulations. ... I'm thrilled to death about this."

Police are pleased, but what do you think? Does station rate an "Onion" or an ovation? Was $20 million well-spent? Tell us in the comments.