Chief Walters May Run for O.C. Sheriff

Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters said Thursday he might run for Orange County sheriff, a bid that would pit him against one of the sheriff’s top lieutenants and Orange County Marshal Michael S. Carona.

The 52-year-old chief said he will make a final decision in upcoming weeks, but he already has informed the Santa Ana City Council and city manager of his interest in succeeding Sheriff Brad Gates, who announced last week he would not seek a seventh term.

Walters said he is assembling an “exploratory committee” of friends and local leaders to gauge his chances in an election against Assistant Sheriff Douglas D. Storm and Carona.

Storm is a former college classmate of Walters’, and, even more awkward, Carona is a longtime friend whose candidacy Walters has worked to support.

The news of Walters’ interest was disconcerting for Carona, who named him months ago to lead Carona’s campaign steering committee.

“I was completely caught off guard,” Carona said, after Walters told him the news Thursday. “I’d like to know what Paul’s motivation is,” he said, adding that he will meet today with Walters, a friend for nine years, to discuss why he might drop his support of Carona and run himself.

“Two days ago he was saying, ‘I’ll support you. I’ll do whatever I can,’ ” Carona said. “That was the part that was most disconcerting.”

Walters acknowledged some discomfort with his turnaround, but said Gates’ surprise retirement announcement led to a flood of calls and comments from friends and community members encouraging him to seek the office. And, despite backing Carona, Walters on Thursday expressed some doubts about his friend’s qualifications for the county’s top law enforcement post after heading an agency that deals primarily with courthouse security and serving warrants.

“It’s a question mark,” Walters said. “Being marshal is very different than being a police chief. It’s a different animal.”

Carona, 42, who was appointed county marshal in 1988, said, “There may be a logical reason for him to be doing this. Why were you on board and now why are you off? If you can explain that, then God bless you and good luck with your campaign. If we’re going to do battle, you’d at least like to know why.”

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Walters said he is intrigued by the prospect of “bringing more innovation” to the vast county agency, and he cited ongoing friction between Gates and other local law enforcement leaders as a factor.

“The sheriff said years ago his vision for the county was one metropolitan police department,” Walters said. “His goal was to take us all over, to gobble us up.”

Walters said the Santa Ana department and others were routinely invited to partner with the county agency in various efforts, but the city chiefs bristled when, he said, Gates insisted on hoarding the final authority and limelight.

“They would work with us, but it was never an equal partnership,” he said. “They call the shots, and we were partners in name only. They wanted it both ways. They wanted our help but never wanted to share the decision-making.”

Walters said he did not want to elaborate on specific clashes, “because I don’t want to seem like I’m slamming the sheriff.”

But he did point to joint efforts, such as the management of the Regional Narcotics Suppression Task Force, as sore spots for police chiefs who had to kowtow to Gates, he said. Walters said he and former Anaheim Police Chief Joseph T. Malloy often talked about challenging Gates, but the timing never seemed right.

“I did not want to run against the sheriff,” he said. “As much as we had personal disagreements, I did not think it would be good for the county.”

But Storm called such agency partnerships strengths of Gates’ tenure, and said he would continue them if he were elected.

“Every agency is just as important as the other agencies. We’re all fighting the same enemy,” he said.

“I do have a vision for this department. All law enforcement in the county can benefit through information sharing and working together,” said Storm, 46, who started his career as a jail deputy in 1973.

Both Carona and Storm said Walters’ candidacy would have no effect on their campaigns.

Walters, who was born in England while his father served a stint in the military, has lived in Orange County since his teens and graduated from Santiago High School in Garden Grove in 1963.

Orange County has become an “extremely complex” place in the years since, and he said he would like to see a more forward-looking sheriff’s department that would resist “business as usual.”

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Asked for specifics, he pointed to the practice of assigning new deputies to work in the county jail for their first five to seven years on the job. Walters said that system fails to use resources in the best way and does not prepare young officers for serving the general public. He also said the lack of computer terminals in patrol cars puts the agency far behind law enforcement trends.

“I would like to see that agency be among the leading agencies in the country in innovation.”

Walters said it would not be easy to leave the Santa Ana Police Department, where he has been in uniform since his graduation from the O.C. Sheriff’s Academy in 1971.

Gates was one of his training sergeants at the academy, and Walters was a classmate of Storm’s at USC.

Santa Ana has become a densely populated, urban area in the years since Walters arrived, and with that growth came the advent of street gangs and violent crime.

Also contributing to this report was Times correspondent Jean O. Pasco.