What’s more important than to reassure the Vallejo residents who live in fear of police officers sworn to serve and protect them?

Apparently, to the Vallejo City Council members, it’s to reassure Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou that they have full confidence in his leadership of the department.

Bidou, who took over the Police Department in October 2014, announced his retirement in March amid growing criticism following the Feb. 9 fatal shooting of Willie McCoy by six Vallejo police officers in a Taco Bell drive-through.

Bidou, who turned 50 last month, didn’t give his employer much advance notice of his retirement. Chiefs typically announce their retirements months in advance, giving their cities time to kick-start a months-long hiring process for a new chief.

Bidou is retiring on April 30. And get this: he can start collecting his pension of about $19,000 a month from the California Public Employees Retirement System, or CalPERS; and then, on May 1, he starts his “new” job in the city of Vallejo: interim police chief.

If he works full time, he’d collect about $20,000 a month from Vallejo.

No, this isn’t a joke. Bidou could collect double the pay for doing a job he isn’t even good at.

Remember, this is the chief who allowed his officers to hold a news conference in 2015 to essentially call kidnap-rape victim Denise Huskins and then-fiance Aaron Quinn liars and humiliate them — an utterly stupid act that cost city taxpayers $2.5 million in an out-of-court settlement.

But in the blinded eyes of the Vallejo City Council, Bidou is a savior.

On Tuesday, at the first Vallejo City Council meeting since the release of the body cam video of McCoy’s death, the council voted unanimously to appoint Bidou as interim chief while the city searches for a new department leader.

In making the appointment, the city cited a state law that allows retirees to sign a contract to fill “a vacant position during recruitment for a permanent appointment.” Bidou’s appointment is effective May 1. His time as interim chief can’t exceed 960 hours — or about four months.

During the council meeting, Councilman Robert McConnell acknowledged there are “deep problems in Vallejo Police Department.” But, he believes the problems aren’t with the department’s command staff — and he thinks Bidou should play a role in fixing the department.

“I believe that Chief Bidou, with the type of person he is, is not going to want to leave this organization with this as his ending curtain call,” McConnell said at the meeting.

Even as city leaders — finally! — acknowledged publicly that they have concerns about the behavior of Vallejo police officers, that wasn’t enough for them to refrain from handing Bidou an opportunity to rewrite his legacy.

This is how Vallejo operates. The council is why police aren’t held accountable.

“I think it’s really important not to shake the department up right now,” Greg Nyhoff, Vallejo’s city manager, said during his remarks explaining why he recommended Bidou as interim chief.

“It needs to be shook up,” blurted Lisa Davis, a Vallejo resident who sat next to me.

She wore a T-shirt with “Let us live” written on the front and stylized as a social media hashtag. “Pass AB392” was written on the sleeve. It’s a reference to a state Assembly bill that seeks to restrict police officers from opening fire on people until all nonlethal options have been exhausted.

Davis, a labor and delivery nurse who has lived in Vallejo for four years, told me before the council meeting that police keep getting rewarded. She mentioned the new police headquarters the council approved days after McCoy’s death.

“There is no other job description that I can think of that rewards you for doing a horrible job,” she said. “The weatherman, he don’t have to be right. But at least he ain’t killing nobody.”

Bidou’s tenure has been marked by the controversial fatal shootings of Angel Ramos, Ronell Foster and McCoy. There have also been the disturbing videos that have gone viral on social media. In 2017, Dejuan Hall was chased and beaten by an officer who also aimed his gun at onlookers. On Jan. 22, Adrian Burrell says, he was slammed against a wall just for using his cell phone to record an officer detaining his cousin in Burrell’s driveway.

Vallejoans who have spoken out about what they say is aggressive and unnecessary force by police have told me they’ve been intimidated by Vallejo police officers.

The police have repeatedly declined my requests to interview Bidou and command staff.

As more than a dozen people criticized police at the meeting, Bidou stood in the back next to Capt. Joseph Iacono and Sgt. Jeff Tai. He walked out of the council chamber as Dejuana McCoy, Willie McCoy’s niece, shouted at the officers.

During the meeting, Nyhoff said he recommended Bidou as interim chief for “continuity and leadership,” saying Bidou will “bridge a gap” until a new chief is hired through a nationwide search. He said selecting an interim chief from one of the department’s three captains would strain the leadership capacity and provide “less leadership and less oversight than what we currently have.” Nyhoff didn’t respond to an interview request.

Nyhoff and council members talked glowingly about their relationship with Bidou. Perhaps city leaders need to be reminded that the problem facing them isn’t the relationship they have with the police. It’s the tenuous relationship police have with the community the council represents.

“I’m really disappointed tonight that they all voted to continue on with something that’s obviously not working,” Gary Wettstein, a Vallejo resident for two decades, told me after the vote. “People are not happy. I see (Bidou’s) tenure here as mediocre at best, but more importantly I don’t think he really stepped up to the plate and really went to bat for the citizens of Vallejo.”

Neither has the council. It’s time for Vallejoans to start considering new leadership in City Hall.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Mondays and Thursdays. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr