It’s his style to lend a hand, and for that, police officer gets a round of applause.

TOPS IN TORRANCE: When he noticed a growing number of people living out of cars in Torrance parks, police Officer Ted Litvin sprang into action--but not in the way you might think.

Instead of impounding their vehicles or shooing people out of the park, Litvin left friendly notes telling them where to get help. Superiors were so impressed that they ordered standardized forms for Litvin and other officers to use. The forms list phone numbers for three shelters that assist battered women and the homeless.

“I personally leave notes for all kinds of things,” including messages to parents about a child’s improper activities, Litvin said.

But his outreach doesn’t stop there.

Schoolchildren recognize Litvin as the creator, with the help of his wife, of “Bucklesaurus”--a grinning dinosaur used in posters and stickers that urges kids to fasten their seat belts. (“Don’t Become Extinct,” Bucklesaurus urges.)

Litvin’s efforts led the Police Department to honor him as Torrance’s “Police Officer of the Year” for 1992.

Good cheer with the homeless and school kids aside, Litvin has a harder side: He also recently developed a plan to charge fees for the release of vehicles impounded due to negligence or because they were used in criminal activities.

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO: Lomita tried to break from the Los Angeles Unified School District several years ago, only to have the effort scuttled by the state Board of Education after district officials strongly objected.

Now Lomita is ready to try again, with Councilman Robert Hargrave once again leading the effort.

He told The Times in January that he wouldn’t be up for another fight without legislative backing. Now, it looks like help from Sacramento has arrived: State Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) is sponsoring a bill that would carve Los Angeles Unified into seven districts, which proponents say would be easier to manage and more accountable to parents.

Unlike Lomita’s secession drive in the mid-1980s, “It seems the climate has changed in regard to keeping L.A. Unified intact,” said Hargrave, who heads the Committee to Unify Lomita Schools.

The last time, Los Angeles Unified administrators argued that taking away Lomita’s 2,000 students, most of whom are white, would skew the racial balance in the school system. Los Angeles board members and the administration still maintain that is the case in opposing similar secession drives in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere.

This time, Hargrave predicted, the central issue will come down to financing. Can a separate district be better funded than the near-bankrupt Los Angeles school system?

A subcommittee of the Lomita group is preparing a report.

NO HULAS HERE: Don’t get him wrong, says Art Hannemann, a Samoan management consultant. He appreciates a good hula and other Polynesian dances. But the problem, he says, is that too many Polynesian organizations revolve around dance troupes instead of economic advancement.

So he and a group of Polynesian professionals have formed the California Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce, a group that hopes to raise the profile of Polynesian businesses.

The group held its first meeting last week in Carson and plans to start a newsletter, hold annual business conferences and monthly breakfast mixers, and develop seminars on budgeting, goal-setting and networking. Hannemann says the group hopes to attract 100 members by the end of the year.

“When people think of Polynesians they say, ‘Oh yeah, you do the Tahitian or the hula’ or ‘I love your singing.’ There are a lot of Polynesian clubs, but they are all dancing and culture,” says Hannemann, 38, of Westlake Village.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, but we have formed a club that is not cultural. We are business-minded and hope to keep that. There is not a lot of development or movement upward of Polynesian businesses. We are trying to promote that.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I always wondered what he did all day, besides meetings.”

--Kristen Vandervoet, 12, after spending the day with her father, David, a TRW aerospace engineer, as part of the national “Take Our Daughters to Work Day.”

LAST WEEK’S CITY HALL HIGHLIGHTS

Rancho Palos Verdes: Mayor Susan Brooks visited Mexico as part of the Southern California Assn. of Government’s delegation researching the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement. Brooks and other members of the delegation met with Mexican trade and environmental officials to discuss wage, environmental and infrastructure issues.

Torrance: The City Council awarded a $20,000 contract to Pyro Spectaculars Inc. for a Fourth of July fireworks show at Charles Wilson Park. The show will include bursts of 612 shells.

THIS WEEK’S CITY HALL HIGHLIGHTS

Redondo Beach: South Bay Common Cause will hold a candidates’ debate from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Knob Hill Community Resource Center, 320 Knob Hill Ave. Runoff races for the mayor’s post and two City Council seats are scheduled for May 11. Information: (310) 376-8219.

El Camino College: The college will participate in a national live video conference on “Hispanic Issues in Higher Education: The Politics, Prerequisites and Presumptions” at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Recital Hall, Crenshaw and Redondo Beach boulevards, near Torrance. Latino educators from colleges across the country will discuss cultural stereotypes and myths as well as Latino education.