Public Safety Chief’s Resignation Sought; Severance at Issue : Hermosa Beach: Steve Wisniewski is accused of several improprieties, one involving the swap of city weapons with a Southland gun dealer. He is now on paid administrative leave.

The Hermosa Beach city manager is negotiating a severance package with public safety director Steve Wisniewski, who was placed on paid administrative leave after he was accused last month of several improprieties.

City Manager Frederick R. Ferrin said he met with Wisniewski last week in an effort to secure the safety director’s resignation. He said the two sides disagree on how much severance pay Wisniewski should receive, but added that he expects the talks to be completed in two weeks.

Federal, state and city officials are reviewing charges that Wisniewski misled the City Council when he secured approval for a weapons swap between the city’s Police Department and a gun dealer in 1991.

Officials are also investigating allegations that Wisniewski used undue influence in appointing a former college instructor to a city post, misused a government vehicle, and improperly supervised money for undercover narcotics operations.

Wisniewski, who recently obtained an unlisted home phone number, did not respond to a written message left at his Rancho Palos Verdes home. But Hermosa Beach Mayor Albert Wiemans defended Wisniewski, saying he has been the unfair target of “disgruntled” city employees and the media.

“I believe the gentleman has been assassinated in the press,” Wiemans said. “I still have confidence in the chief.”

Public safety director since 1986, Wisniewski, 46, oversees the city’s police and fire departments. He draws an annual salary of $84,800. Police Cmdr. Val Straser has been appointed to fill the public safety director’s post temporarily.

Ferrin’s initial severance talks with Wisniewski, a 90-minute session Wednesday afternoon, marked the pair’s first meeting since the city manager put the chief on administrative leave March 4.

The most serious allegation leveled against the chief, according to Ferrin, is that he misled the council regarding the 1991 weapons swap. In the August meeting, Wisniewski proposed trading about 40 surplus firearms--some of which were confiscated by police in drug busts--for machine guns sought by the Police Department.

But council members and citizens objected. They argued that if the weapons were bought by a gun dealer, they could end up in the hands of criminals, who might use them against the Hermosa Beach police force in the future.

Wisniewski replied that criminals usually seek guns that are easy to conceal, and the weapons in the exchange were mostly shotguns and rifles. He also told the council that the arms probably would be sold to “rural area” law enforcement agencies.

In fact, when the trade was completed in December, the weapons went to Interstate Arms Corp., a national gun dealer whose Western headquarters are in Northridge. The Hermosa Police Department received five Heckler and Koch 9 mm machine guns for 58--not 40--weapons, Ferrin said.

Of more concern, 11 semiautomatic pistols were on the trading list as well as two assault rifles, two Russian AK-47 assault rifles and four Uzis, Ferrin said. In his presentation to the council, the chief, who failed to mention anything about the assault rifles, said all the weapons proposed for trade were “perfectly legal.”

It is unclear whether the trade violated a 1989 state law that outlaws the sale of assault rifles, Ferrin said. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the state Department of Justice are looking into the weapons trade, he said. Also, the FBI is deciding whether to launch an official investigation into Wisniewski’s actions.

Another allegation involves irregularities while Wisniewski managed accounts for police “flash” money--funds used in undercover drug buys. Although no shortages were reported, the funds mysteriously changed denominations while in the accounts--and shouldn’t have, Ferrin said.

“I couldn’t find a good explanation for why money went out in hundreds and didn’t come back that way,” Ferrin said.

Officials are also looking into two other allegations. One is that Wisniewski has been using a 1983 Mercedes-Benz lent to him by the U.S. Customs Service for personal use. The second concerns the chief’s role in appointing David Coffey as a city prosecutor.

Coffey, who is no longer employed by Hermosa Beach, had instructed Wisniewski in police training courses at El Camino College before the appointment. Wisniewski later urged the council to fire Coffey from the city post, Ferrin said.

Ferrin said that even if the investigations exonerate the chief, Wisniewski should resign.

“My feeling is that Chief Wisniewski’s credibility has been so damaged and his ability to direct his department has been so seriously compromised that even if a pronouncement cleared him it would, I think, be on the verge of impossible for him to regain the ability to lead those departments,” Ferrin said.

Wiemans disagrees. Seeking to oust the chief from office before investigators have issued their findings is unfair, he said.

“I have not been convinced of any facts that would indicate this gentleman deserves to lose his position,” the mayor said.