No-Confidence Vote on Police Chief Set : Long Beach: The move reflects turmoil in the department, which has been engaged in bitter labor disputes.

The Police Officers Assn., citing low morale among its members, is planning to conduct a no-confidence vote against Police Chief Lawrence Binkley.

Union officials said last week that they will mail ballots to members’ homes in coming weeks and count the votes at a membership meeting July 17.

In a preliminary petition used to gauge support for a no-confidence vote, union officials said they gathered signatures of more than a third of the 600 union members.

The move reflects continued turmoil in the Long Beach Police Department, where the rank and file and management have engaged in bitter disputes for years.

Earlier this year, the two sides settled a protracted contract battle, and Binkley and other city officials expressed hope for a smoother labor-management relations.

Several council members said they were surprised by the union’s move because they believed that relations between the two sides had improved.

Union President Mike Tracy said, however, that members are still upset over increased disciplinary actions by the department last year. The number of internal investigations of police officers’ conduct in 1989 was about double the number of investigations the previous year, according to department statistics.

“The problem is that people are still feeling the pain of last year’s sharp increase in internal investigations and reprimands,” Tracy said.

“We’ve probably started another war,” Terry Holland, the union’s vice president, told about 75 officers at a membership meeting Thursday.

City officials criticized the vote, saying the union was reacting to the results of the recent city elections, in which all of the union-supported candidates were defeated.

“It’s just about the stupidest thing I’ve seen,” said Councilman Les Robbins, a former president of the union that represents Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

“I am tired of the constant bickering,” said Councilman Jeff Kellogg, one of several council members who said the no-confidence vote was the result of the union’s poor showing in the recent election.

Councilman Tom Clark said he expects the vote to have “an adverse effect on the service level” in the Police Department. He said response time has slowed while crime continues to escalate throughout the city.

“It’s the community that gets hurt ultimately by the actions of the officers,” Clark said. “It’s something that needs to be resolved for the benefit of the department and the community.”

A no-confidence vote would jeopardize plans for a November ballot measure that would ask voters to approve a special property tax levy to hire 75 new officers, Robbins and others said. A similar ballot measure recently failed to generate the necessary two-thirds majority.

Some council members have started working on plans for another ballot measure. But if there is a no-confidence vote, Robbins said, “people will ask why should we pay extra for more angry, bitter cops.”

Council members said they expect to call a vote expressing their backing for the chief during their meeting Tuesday. Binkley was unavailable for comment, and Assistant Police Chief Eugene Brizzolara declined to comment.

Officer Mike White, a union board member, said he suggested the petition to measure interest in a no-confidence vote in response to continued “pressure by members.” Several members said the union should have taken a no-confidence vote earlier, he said.

Officers last approved a no-confidence measure in 1978, asking city officials to fire then-Chief Carl J. Calkins. He resigned the following year.

Tracy said the no-confidence vote, if approved, would suggest a range of alternatives, from changing policy to firing the chief.