OCEANSIDE —— City Manager Steve Jepsen announced Tuesday that he has selected Frank McCoy, a commander with the Long Beach Police Department, to serve as Oceanside's top cop.

McCoy, who also is a city council member for Cypress, a city of nearly 50,000 in northwest Orange County, has served 21 years as a Long Beach police officer.

According to a biography posted on the city of Long Beach Web site, McCoy is currently commander of the Police Department's Internal Affairs Division. His background includes service in the detectives, SWAT, gangs, special enforcement and youth enforcement departments.

McCoy, who is expected to start work the first week of the new year, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Jepsen said Tuesday that he was impressed with McCoy's breadth of experience in law enforcement and with the amount of time he spent working with community groups throughout Long Beach and neighboring cities. The city manager said he and other members of three committees that interviewed the candidates traveled to Long Beach to research McCoy's background.

"He has a lot of community-oriented policing experience," Jepsen said. "When we went up there (to Long Beach) to do interviews, we met with several community groups, and they all gave him very strong accolades."

Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood and City Council members Rocky Chavez, Shari Mackin and Jack Feller all said they had never met McCoy or even had a telephone conversation with him. Councilwoman Esther Sanchez could not be reached for comment.

"I've read his resume and that's all," Wood said, adding that he and other council members discussed qualities they wanted in a new chief with a professional hiring firm that contacted a total of 48 candidates.

Chavez said he thought McCoy's qualifications looked impressive. He said it was the council's responsibility to keep its distance from the hiring process.

"I'm trusting Steve (Jepsen)," Chavez said. "He's a competent city manager. He knows what he needs, and he knows the city."

Mackin added: "It's my understanding that the city manager does the hiring, and I have every confidence in Steve Jepsen to hire the right person for the job."

Like his colleagues, Feller said Jepsen should make the decision.

"We'd all like to hire our friends in every situation," Feller said. "I had people that I would have preferred and thought could do the job, but it's not my job to be in the middle of that."

Oceanside's highest-ranking law enforcement post has been filled since March 21 by interim police Chief Jerry Lance, a Long Beach police chief. Former Chief Mike Poehlman retired from his position in February to take a job as police chief in Reno, Nev.

After Poehlman left, details of friction between police management and the Oceanside Police Officers Association surfaced. Police managers and the union, which represents about 230 officers and nonsworn employees, said a rift had grown because of old issues such as the replacement of defective bulletproof vests and the value of weekly meetings.

Union Chairman John Anderson said Tuesday that he served on one of three committees that interviewed police chief candidates. He said the selection of McCoy as the department's new leader suits the union just fine.

"We were able to sit in on the selection process, and we believe the city manager and the city made the right choice," Anderson said.

He added that he made his own trip north to Long Beach to check out McCoy's references.

"We did quite a lot of research up in Long Beach," Anderson said. "We talked to their (police) association and their leadership. We learned that McCoy is pretty much a cop's cop. He is not afraid to get out and walk the beat. He's not afraid to get his hands dirty and take reports. He is a hands-on chief, which is important to us."

The city used a professional search firm to identify 48 candidates for the chief's job. Jepsen said three committees —— one made up of citizens from the community, a second made up of law enforcement professionals, and a third composed of city department heads —— interviewed final candidates and recommended McCoy.

According to Jepsen, the committees interviewed four final candidates and enumerated the strengths and weaknesses of each. After listening to each committee's findings, the city manager alone made the final decision.

Jepsen said getting the Oceanside police union involved in the selection process only made sense. He said Anderson served on a committee of other law enforcement personnel.

"We've had some difficulties between management and the police officers association, and I wanted to make sure they were on board," Jepsen said. "It seemed like it was best to get all of the questions answered ahead of time instead of afterward."

Jepsen said that interim Chief Lance did not play a role in McCoy's selection.

"He stayed out of it," Jepsen said.

Al Nyman, a member of the Oceanside chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he sat on the community committee that helped select McCoy.

A retired San Diego County sheriff's deputy, Nyman said it was important to him that a successful candidate for chief demonstrate his integrity and his ability to interact with the community. Recalling his interview with McCoy, Nyman said McCoy described how he helped calm a Long Beach community after a woman was shot while police were standing in front of her home, waiting to be let into her backyard where a gunman lurked.

"People in the neighborhood were angry because the police were standing right out front when it happened," Nyman said. "He had a community meeting and, what I liked about him was, he had a second follow-up meeting, and that really calmed the community down."

Nyman said Lance was the Long Beach police chief at the time of the incident.

"He confirmed for us that it was a true story," Nyman said.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.