Updated May 5, 6:30 p.m.: Long Beach Police Commissioner Michael Tangney, who told city officials last week he will be retiring at the end of this month after 42 years on the force, has never been known to pull punches.
And he did not when asked in an interview during the weekend why he is leaving.
"They reduced my pay by about $60,000" in the proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
The cut, if the budget is approved by the city council, would reduce Tangney's pay to $175,000 a year to head the 69-member force.
Tangney is departing amid a coronavirus pandemic that has infected more than 600 people in Long Beach. City officials said they had no comment on the timing of his departure. His supporters say there is little Tangney can do during the crisis beyond supervising his officers, who are working to ensure people practice social distancing.
But Tangney had said, "I'm 64. After 62, you're maxed out" in pension. "It's not worth it. How long do you work anyway? It's time to do something else."
Tangney, described as a "cop's cop" and a no-nonsense manager, said he will be replaced, on an interim basis, by veteran police officer Edward Ryan, an inspector. Ryan has been with the Long Beach police department for more than 30 years, Tangney said.
"I had a great career," he said. "I was a cop, a sergeant, a lieutenant and I've been commissioner for eight years. There's nothing I haven't done."
"I always tell young cops that there will be pictures in their minds, horrible pictures, that they will take to their graves," he said.
For Tangney, one such picture took place in July 2005, after he and family members had attended a wedding.
On his way home, on the Meadowbrook Parkway, he spotted a limousine that had been in a horrible accident. Tangney stopped and rushed to the badly damaged vehicle. It was then and there he learned his 7-year-old niece, Katie Flynn, had been in the limo and was killed in the accident. A drunken driver, Martin Heidgen, traveling at 70 mph in the wrong direction on the Meadowbrook, slammed into the limo. Heidgen received an 18-year to life sentence.
Tangney has a long history with Long Beach. At one point, he served as city manager as well as a police commissioner. He had said in an interview he had no intention of remaining city manager. "I'm just minding the store." Tangney returned full-time to police commissioner when an acting city manager was named. In February, the city hired Donna Gayden, a municipal finance expert, as city manager.
Gayden has proposed a budget that contains a 1.81 percent tax rate, the lowest in years. But it includes layoffs of 142 people, and steep cuts in spending and salaries. The city council is to hold two public hearings on the proposed budget, one on Tuesday and the other May 17.
Tangney has been credited with reducing crime, running a tight financial ship, securing funds for surveillance cameras and police training, and seeing to it that his officers were adept at the use of Narcan to treat opiod overdose patients.
Tangney's wife, Darlene, is the leader of the Long Beach Independent Democratic Party.
Tangney said he had no immediate plans for his future. "I'm going to take a summer vacation for the first time since grade school," he said. Would he remain in Long Beach?
"I was born here," he said. "It would take God knows what to get me to leave."
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that more than 600 people in Long Beach had died of Covid-19. The new version correctly states that more than 600 city residents have been infected with the virus. We regret the error.
