Mann Elected Over LAPD’s Valley Chief : Top Marshal’s Job Eludes Sullivan

The top Los Angeles Police Department official in the San Fernando Valley, Deputy Chief Daniel R. Sullivan, will remain in his post after being passed over for the job of Los Angeles County marshal.

Acting Marshal Robert F. Mann, who has been serving in the position 17 months, was elected to the job permanently in a vote by the county’s Municipal Court judges Wednesday night, said Capt. Ron Downing of the marshal’s office administrative bureau.

Downing said Mann, 42, received 91 votes from the 126 judges who cast ballots, 12 more than needed to get the job. The decision came on the third ballot, after three other candidates had been eliminated, Downing said.

The final tally was 91 votes for Mann, 23 for Sullivan and 10 for Cmdr. C. L. Johnson of the marshal’s operations bureau, Downing said. There were two abstentions.

About 70 people applied for the job, but the field was narrowed to six finalists before Wednesday’s vote.

Downing said the vote for Mann came as no surprise to the rank and file in the marshal’s office.

“Mann has worked in the office for more than 20 years, having worked up from deputy to sergeant to captain and assistant marshal,” Downing said. “He was the favorite going in.”

Downing said Sullivan’s support came mainly from judges assigned to municipal courts in the Valley.

Before the vote, the judges reviewed the finalists’ resumes and listened to five-minute presentations from each.

Sullivan said he applied for the job last summer because “the timing just happened to be right. I have 25 years on the department and I’m not going to be chief of police. It’s time to move on.”

The marshal’s salary ranges from $67,000 to $90,000, depending on experience and qualifications. Sullivan now earns $89,000 a year and, if elected, would have received a yearly police pension of $49,000 in addition to the marshal’s salary.

A committee of nine Municipal Court judges selected the finalists, who Wednesday night appeared before the quorum of the county’s 153 Municipal Court judges meeting at the Los Angeles County Courthouse.

The marshal’s office is responsible for security in 26 courthouses, oversees prisoners appearing in municipal courts, enforces court orders and makes arrests on warrants.

Sullivan was transferred to the Valley post in 1982 from the West Bureau, which during his command was rocked by allegations that officers burglarized businesses while on duty and had sexual relations with teen-age Explorer Scouts.

Sullivan is co-author of a textbook on criminal investigations and a consultant on law enforcement. Described by his colleagues as smart, brash, irreverent and cynical, Sullivan has criticized the court system, City Council and wealthy Westsiders, among other things.

He had long been discussed as a replacement for Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. Gates said in the past that he would retire after the 1984 Olympics but has since made no move to do so.