ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Keep It Under Surveillance

Seal Beach has one of the smaller police departments in Orange County, but the department of 42 sworn officers has had a large share of publicity in recent years about morale problems and internal strife. Now comes a report by the Orange County Grand Jury that confirms the need for attention from the City Council.

The grand jury rarely ventures into the corridors of police departments in the county, and is known for issuing measured findings. But after an 11-month investigation prompted by citizens’ complaints, the jury concluded that there was low morale and unfair job treatment in the department, resulting from favoritism and nepotism. Among other things, the grand jury found that Police Chief Bill Stearns had hired his wife to be the department’s court liaison officer without following procedures.

The grand jury report amounted to a wake-up call for the city fathers, who seem to have been insufficiently moved in the past by complaints such as those considered by the jury.

For example, the city Charter has a clause that prohibits nepotism, but City Manager Robert Nelson told jurors that the hiring of the chief’s wife did not violate city or civil-service regulations because it was a job “reclassification,”’ whatever that means. And the fact that Mayor Edna Wilson, when asked publicly about the report’s conclusions, expressed some surprise about the whole thing was itself surprising.

A far more hopeful sign was the mayor’s declaration that the City Council “will do anything that we need to do” to comply with the panel’s recommendations. Among them were sound suggestions that the council investigate any departmental conflicts of interest and institute training to reduce stress and foster team management.

Small police departments have different problems from large ones. But Seal Beach has learned one thing they all have in common: the need for municipal oversight.