SEAL BEACH : Council Won’t Act Against Police Chief

The City Council agreed Monday to refrain from taking action against Police Chief Bill Stearns, despite a stinging Orange County Grand Jury report that raised concerns about nepotism and an unusually high number of stress-related disability retirements at the department.

After meeting in closed session for more than an hour, the council decided that it will not make any personnel changes to address the grand jury’s allegations, Councilman Joe Hunt said.

Hunt said city officials feel that the grand jury’s 11-month investigation was inadequate to support some of its allegations. “As far as a professional, in-depth investigation, it certainly was lacking,” Hunt said.

The council ordered the city attorney to draft a written response to the grand jury report and send it to Superior Court as required by law.

City staff members said the written response wraps up their own investigation of allegations raised by the grand jury, which issued its report in June. In addition to the nepotism issue, there were citizen complaints of harassment and discrimination by Seal Beach police officers.

The internal investigation by the city staff has not been without its difficulties.

At one point, Councilwoman Marilyn Bruce Hastings became so upset with what she described as the slow pace of the city investigation and the staff’s unwillingness to keep council members informed that she asked the district attorney and the state attorney general to step in.

The district attorney’s office refused the request for an investigation because the grand jury’s report raised no criminal allegations. The attorney general’s office is still reviewing the request.

Shortly after the grand jury report was released, more than two dozen police officers and their supporters appeared before the council to take issue with claims that favoritism and nepotism had led to low morale in the department.

Although Stearns was not directly named in the grand jury report, city officials have acknowledged that the allegations of nepotism were focused at the chief. Soon after Stearns became acting chief in 1987, his wife, Michelle, was moved from animal control officer to court liaison with no attempt to interview other candidates for the job.

The grand jury report said the hiring of a department head’s spouse had violated city rules and created an atmosphere of favoritism in the Police Department that hurt morale and intimidated some employees.

City officials maintained, however, that since the job change was a “reclassification,” no open recruitment was required, despite grand jury assertions that five other people appeared qualified and said they wished that they had had a chance to apply.

Hunt said city officials do hope to enact new policies “so that we are protected from the perception of nepotism and certainly to prevent the reality of nepotism.”

At a recent meeting, the council discussed the possibility of easing the city’s nepotism policy, which prohibits any two relatives from working in the same department. So far, however, the council has yet to act on any changes.