Torrance OKs Wide Search for New Chief : Police: A firm will get about $20,000 to find and screen candidates from outside the city. They will be considered along with Torrance officers to replace Donald Nash, who is retiring.

The search for a new Torrance police chief will be conducted both inside and outside the department, the City Council decided Tuesday, though all seven council members said they hope a Torrance officer will win the post.

After nearly an hour of debate, the council voted 5 to 2, with councilmen George Nakano and Bill Applegate dissenting, to hire a search firm to seek candidates outside the city.

By the end of this summer, the city hopes to have a list of at least 10 finalists to replace retiring Police Chief Donald Nash, 66. The chief announced earlier this year that he would leave the department in February, 1992. Nash, hospitalized more than two weeks ago with chest pains, is recovering at home from an operation to clear two blocked arteries. He has headed the department since 1971.

Before the council’s vote Tuesday, a leader of the city’s police union had urged that only Torrance officers be considered for Nash’s post.

“We’ve got 13-plus qualified candidates within the department with more than 20 years experience,” said Detective David Nemeth, president of the Torrance Police Officers Assn. “To go outside, it’s telling them, ‘You’ve done a good job with the city, but not good enough to be police chief.’ ”

Councilman Bill Applegate agreed.

“I’ve been proud of them time after time after time for all the things that they’ve done,” Applegate said. After the vote, he said Torrance officers will “perceive that there is a lack of support for people currently doing the job in Torrance.”

But Applegate’s colleagues said every possible option should be considered in the search for a chief for the department, which has 248 sworn officers and is the fourth largest law enforcement agency in Los Angeles County.

“I would be the happiest person around to see one . . . of our departmental people in the position of chief,” Councilman Dan Walker said. “But we need to be in a position where we can say that, when these people (were) measured up, they measured up to the entire industry.”

The council approved paying $13,000, plus expenses estimated at $7,000, to the Ralph Andersen & Associates search firm to find and select qualified candidates.

After reviewing applications, the firm will put together a panel of police chiefs and administrators from other cities to conduct interviews. A list of finalists will be sent to the city’s Civil Service Commission, which will then forward several names--the council still is debating how many-- to City Manager LeRoy Jackson.

Jackson will choose who will fill the post, which is expected to pay between $78,252 and $95,112 per year. Nash is earning $133,000 this year.

During the council debate, Applegate said the search for outside candidates was prompted by expensive legal settlements against the Police Department and questions arising from Nash’s underpayment of sales taxes on automobile purchases.

Last week, the city agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a 19-year-old motorcyclist killed in a collision with an off-duty police officer. A jury in that case concluded that the Police Department had a “custom and policy” of covering up misbehavior by its officers.

Several months ago, the city agreed to pay $1.9 million to a construction worker who was partially paralyzed after an officer accidentally shot him in the face. Three police officers were fired after the Civil Service Commission and the City Council concluded they conspired to cover up the incident by making it look as if the man had provoked the shooting.

In addition, Nash is the subject of a criminal investigation by the district attorney’s office and the Department of Motor Vehicles because he did not pay the full sales tax on a 1957 Thunderbird, which he bought two years ago.

Similar investigations involving Nash’s purchase of a used Jaguar in 1988 did not result in criminal charges. Nash since has paid the full tax on both cars.