Long Beach : Critics Claim Sheriff’s Pact Violates City Charter
Supporters of the new police review board told the City Council on Tuesday that the city’s new four-year $19.9-million contract with the Sheriff’s Department violates the City Charter.
The group claims that the contract is illegal because it does not require sheriff’s deputies to cooperate with investigations conducted by the Long Beach Citizen Complaint Commission, created last spring by charter amendment. Alan Lowenthal, president of Long Beach Area Citizens Involved, read the council a statement put together by backers of the board, which include the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
“The council does not have the power to enter a contract which provides to the contrary,” Lowenthal said.
Councilmen reacted angrily to Lowenthal’s charge. “Your issue is not the most important issue in this city,” Councilman Wallace Edgerton said. “Our first responsibility is the safety of the people.”
City Atty. John R. Calhoun said after the meeting that the contract is “perfectly legal” and that the city already contracts out to a number of non-city law officers.
If the council refuses to reconsider its contract, said Ernie McBride of the NAACP, “we’ll go to court--definitely.”
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