Long Beach Chief, Aide Face Probe : Personnel: Inquiry by city manager follows complaints by members of the Police Department’s upper ranks.

Prompted by a wide range of complaints from upper ranks of the Police Department about top management, Long Beach City Manager James Hankla has launched a personnel investigation of the police chief and assistant chief.

City Hall officials would not elaborate on the internal investigation of Chief Lawrence L. Binkley and Assistant Chief Eugene J. Brizzolara, though they stressed it did not involve any allegations of criminal wrongdoing.

Police and City Hall sources said Friday that Brizzolara filed for stress-related disability retirement and went on vacation pending review of his claim. In a memo distributed throughout the department Friday, officers were advised that Deputy Chief Robert Luman was assuming the position of acting assistant chief.

Neither Brizzolara nor Binkley returned telephone calls to their offices.

While he declined to divulge details of the investigation, Assistant City Manager John Shirey said Hankla “is conducting an investigation regarding the chief and the assistant chief.” He said the inquiry rose from allegations by a number of people within the department.

“It’s a personnel investigation that doesn’t have anything to do with any allegations of criminal wrongdoing,” emphasized Assistant City Atty. Robert E. Shannon.

Police sources said the probe was triggered by complaints from top-ranking police commanders.

“A lot of the commanders came forward about what’s been going on over there,” said a source familiar with the department. “From the way people are treated, to transfer policies to retaliation against union members to just about everything (regarding) how the department is run.”

Binkley, Brizzolara and other senior department officials have been the subject of at least five lawsuits filed by rank-and-file officers claiming department management has violated their 1st Amendment rights and improperly disciplined them.

In one case, Officer Jack Ponce recently won punitive damages from Brizzolara and two commanders. In a lawsuit, Ponce had accused Binkley, Brizzolara and Cmdrs. John Bretza and Alvin Van Otterloo of false arrest after he was booked for assault with a deadly weapon after a fight at a local bar last year. The district attorney’s office did not file charges and a jury this fall awarded Ponce $30,000 in damages to be paid by Brizzolara, Bretza and Van Otterloo.

Former Cmdr. Charlie Parks also has a lawsuit pending against Binkley and the department. Parks alleges in his lawsuit that the chief pressured him to quit the police union, and when Parks didn’t, Binkley denied him a promotion.

Binkley’s management has caused friction in the department since his arrival from the Los Angeles Police Department in 1987, determined to bring change to a force he said was badly in need of reform. He soon developed a reputation as an unyielding authoritarian and came under vehement criticism from the police union, although his relationship with the union has recently improved.