Council Vote Likely to Favor Local Officers : Law enforcement: 5 of 9 councilmen say they will oppose a proposal to abolish the police department and replace it with sheriff’s deputies. Residents are split on the issue.

A majority of the Long Beach City Council said this week that it will support the Police Department and kill a proposal that would replace local officers with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies.

Five of the nine councilmen said in interviews this week that they would vote against a controversial proposal to abolish the Police Department, which would make Long Beach the largest city in the nation without a local force.

Councilmen Evan Anderson Braude, Thomas Clark, Wallace Edgerton, Ray Grabinski and Clarence Smith also said they would vote against placing the issue on the ballot.

The council is expected to take a vote by early July.

It is the council’s job to make such decisions, Grabinski said: “We’re supposed to be leading this city.”

Edgerton agreed, saying that placing the issue on the ballot would be tantamount to “an abdication of responsibility.”

Supporters of replacing Long Beach police with sheriff’s deputies had hoped to win five council votes to send the matter to voters. Councilmen Doug Drummond, Warren Harwood, Jeffrey A. Kellogg and Les Robbins said they would vote to place the proposal on the November ballot.

“I would put the issue on the ballot,” Kellogg said earlier this week. “I represent a district that has both sheriff’s (deputies) and Long Beach police. . . . With an issue of this magnitude, there’s no way the City Council should make this decision.”

Should they delay the decision until after July 21, two new members would have a voice on the matter.

Alan Lowenthal, who will replace Edgerton, and Doris Topsy-Elvord, who will take Smith’s seat, said they support the Long Beach Police Department. During a recent interview, however, Topsy-Elvord said she was not familiar with the option of placing the issue on the ballot and declined to comment on how she might vote on that issue.

Until this week, the council appeared to be split, 4 to 4, with Braude holding a deciding vote. Although Braude had earlier supported the Police Department, he did not rule out the possibility of placing the issue on the ballot until this week.

In an interview, Braude said he is concerned that the state’s financial woes will force counties to place a heavier burden on cities. By contracting with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Braude said, the city could be leaving itself open for sharp cost increases in the future.

Braude also said he was impressed by the support for the Police Department during four public hearings in the past month.

“What I’ve heard makes it overwhelmingly clear that people want to keep the Long Beach Police Department,” Braude said.

In 1990, the Sheriff’s Department was asked to begin patrolling the north and northeastern parts of town to boost the understaffed Long Beach Police Department. The action, first suggested by City Manager James C. Hankla, was endorsed as a temporary measure. But in the past year, some councilmen--particularly Robbins, Drummond and Harwood--pushed to abolish the local force and replace it with deputies.

The hearings, held throughout the city, were tense at times as the proposal was greeted with cheers and jeers. More than 1,100 people attended, some to applaud the Long Beach Police Department, others to denounce it.

In three of the four hearings, the audience seemed to favor the local police. Police officers and their families showed up in force, particularly at the last meeting on June 17, when about 500 people crowded into the Marshall Middle School auditorium and greeted Police Chief William C. Ellis with a thunderous standing ovation.

“The most important thing you can give a city is a police department and a fire department,” resident Judy Forbes told the council during the most recent public hearing.

Councilman Robbins, a sheriff’s deputy, observed: “The only message we got here was from those who are on or are related . . . to the Police Department.”

Braude said he did not think the audiences were stacked. “But assuming it was, there are a lot of people who are supportive of the sheriff’s (deputies). They could have stacked it also.”

During the last three hearings--at City Hall and Jefferson and Marshall middle schools--allies of the department emphasized the need for local control. They said Long Beach police response has improved in the past year as the department has beefed up its force.

At one time, the department, which is budgeted for 685 officers, was down more than 100 officers because of vacancies, early retirements and work-related disability claims. Today, the agency has 655 officers, including 18 in the Long Beach Police Academy, who are expected to graduate next month. In addition, 46 sheriff’s deputies patrol north and northeast Long Beach.

Police supporters said that if the city hands the reins to the Sheriff’s Department, it would lose its civilian review board to oversee police misconduct complaints.

“We will lose our identity,” said Vanessa Martin, a central city resident who complimented local police for quickly responding to her calls about potential child abuse at a neighbor’s house and a burglary in progress.

Officer Robert Schroeder, who works in the department’s canine unit, testified: “We have been here to serve you. . . . None of us wanted to be L.A. County sheriff’s deputies, or we would have become Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and you wouldn’t have a Long Beach Police Department to begin with.”

Representatives from the Citizen Police Complaint Commission, the Public Safety Advisory Committee, the City Employees’ Assn., the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 174, voiced their support for the Police Department.

No representatives from the Police Officers Assn. spoke at the hearings, but the union made its presence felt. The union distributed flyers seeking supporters, rented a truck with an electronic billboard advertising the Long Beach Police Department, and had its members attend the last three meetings en masse.

But in the northern part of the city, where sheriff’s deputies have patrolled since November, 1990, the response was overwhelmingly pro-deputies.

“There has been no peace and quiet in my neighborhood for the last 20 years until the sheriff’s (deputies) came here,” LeNoir Cuipa, 77, told about 250 North Long Beach residents gathered at Jordan High School on May 27.

Maureen Finley won applause when she said: “If the sheriff’s (deputies) are less expensive to use and they’re doing a better job, what is the question?”

In July, 1991, the City Council asked the Sheriff’s Department for a report estimating how much it would cost to take over law enforcement duties in Long Beach.

Hiring the Sheriff’s Department is estimated to cost $11 million to $14 million a year less than it costs to hire the Long Beach Police Department, according to a city auditor’s report. Sheriff’s supporters cite not only cost savings, but their impression that deputies respond more quickly.

Even at the predominantly pro-police meeting at City Hall, the deputies had some support. When a young woman defended Long Beach police, an older resident turned to her and said: “I’ve lived in North Long Beach thirty-something years, honey, and I’ve never had service like this.”

Also attending the public hearings were residents who said they are torn about whether they want Long Beach to become a part of the largest sheriff’s department in the country.

Ann Morgon, an eastside resident, said that she wants to support the Long Beach Police Department but that the agency is not aggressive enough. “I want them to be tough--like the sheriff’s (deputies),” Morgon said.

Another woman, who said she recently moved to Long Beach, was shocked by news reports about the local law enforcement agency. Between reports of high crime and conflicts with former Chief Lawrence L. Binkley, who was fired in January, the woman said she had little confidence in Long Beach police.

Representatives from both law enforcement agencies struggled unsuccessfully to keep the hearings unemotional. They complimented each other at every opportunity and insisted that the two departments are not in competition.

“We’re not here to tell you we’re a better law enforcement agency than the Sheriff’s (Department),” Chief Ellis told one crowd.

And Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kenneth Bayless told those gathered at City Hall: “We’re not here trying to take over the city of Long Beach. . . . We were asked to be here.”