Orange County Focus is dedicated on Monday to analysis of community news, a look atwhat’s ahead and the voices of local people. : IN PERSON : Longtime State Police Veteran Continues Mission With CHP

Lt. Michael Morgan didn’t know whether to smirk or cry this month when he first tried on the khaki colors of the California Highway Patrol.

For the previous 25 years, Morgan wore the almost identical uniform of the obscure California State Police, so the new togs meant he wouldn’t have to constantly correct people anymore. Sadly, though, the stiffly pressed suit also reminded the Newport Beach resident that the CSP’s long and unique history was over.

“I don’t want say it was the passing of an era, but there were a few tears shed,” the taciturn lawman said of the CSP’s July 11 closure. The agency had been responsible for guarding the governor, state property and the huge California Aqueduct before efficiency and budget concerns led to its end.

Morgan, 47, was the only CSP officer stationed in Orange County when the 108-year-old agency was absorbed by the sprawling CHP operation. He continues his assignment, protecting the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, but he is still attempting to adjust to life in a new agency.

“The CSP had one policy manual, and I understand the CHP has about 90,” Morgan said chuckling. The transition has been made more trying by its timing: The Orange County Fair began the 7th and ended the 23rd.

“I’ve worked 270 hours this month,” the Santa Monica native said with a sigh as he weaved his way through a record crowd on the fair’s closing night. “I’ve only had two days off. I plan on going to sleep Monday and not waking up until next Monday.”

Morgan has already turned his attention to next year’s fair. A 3-inch-thick notebook on his desk, crammed full of forms and documents, attests to the size of his annual task, which includes coordination of a 160-member security staff.

He also has to deal with fairground events during the other 50 weeks of the year. More interesting, though, are the minor fair crises that no one told him to expect when he took the job two years ago.

Ticket scalpers and petty thieves are easy enough to handle, but Morgan and his security crews found themselves with the unlikely task last year of clearing a path for a 250-head cattle drive down Fairview Road. This year, the animal high jinks continued with three escaped sheep, a biting horse and an unruly chimp.

“It’s not the kind of stuff you run into out on the street,” Morgan deadpanned.

But then the nature of the CSP’s work statewide has rarely been commonplace. The agency, which had 267 employees at its close, began as the 10-member California State Capitol Police squad in 1887. The CSP has repelled mobs, such as the 1911 pro-labor group that stormed the Capitol, quelled prison riots and provided the bodyguards who shadow the governor and other heads of state.

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Perhaps the most offbeat jurisdiction of the CSP was its protection of the 444-mile California Aqueduct, the pipeline that delivers water to the Southland. The agency’s airborne patrols and the special team of divers assembled for that duty now work for the CHP.

Morgan never worked the aqueduct, but he did serve a stint guarding leaders, including former New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller during an early-1970s visit to the West Coast. Just before coming to Orange County, Morgan was assigned to the Los Angeles office where he performed civil seizures for state agencies and helped with special events, such as the 1993 California Economic Summit.

Ambling by the throngs of fair-goers chomping on cotton candy and corn dogs, Morgan said he much prefers his current assignment, one he hopes will last long enough to cap his career.

“The emphasis here is for everyone to have a good time,” said Morgan, an avid traveler and people-watcher. “We can fulfill that and still fulfill our mission. This [assignment] has taught me a lot about dealing with the public.”

The veteran cop spoke guardedly about the closure of the CSP, but it was clear he was saddened by the agency’s passing and touched by the familiar faces he saw at the CSP commemorative banquet in May--a “farewell to arms,” he called the night.

Still, he has nothing but glowing reviews of the CHP. With a smile, he noted that as a young man he tried out for the highway patrol before landing a spot with its lesser known sister agency.

“I was one-fourth of an inch too short,” he said, pointing to the crown of his head with the antenna of his walkie-talkie. “But I guess that doesn’t matter now.”