Sheriff’s Health Becomes an Issue in Reelection Bid

Over the past seven years, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block has undergone successful surgery for prostate cancer and chemotherapy for lymphoma, and now suffers from severe kidney failure, but he says he is in good overall health and capable of serving a fifth term.

Medical experts and some members of his own staff, however, doubt whether the 73-year-old sheriff is physically up to the demands of the job.

“If you have 100 people in his situation, not very many of them would have a vigorous schedule,” said Allen Nissenson, a kidney specialist and professor of medicine at UCLA, who has not treated Block. “That doesn’t mean you can’t do it. If he were to keep up, he would be remarkable. Not just unique, but remarkable.”

Block, who undergoes thrice-weekly hemodialysis, has refused to make his medical records public to silence challengers in June’s election and the departmental critics who say he is too sick to serve another four years. Instead, he has released a letter from his personal physician, who says the sheriff is able to “carry on a vigorous schedule without any negative effects.”

The issue of health has become a central theme in the campaign. (A recent poll, conducted by one of Block’s challengers, found that 58% of the voters surveyed felt that the sheriff is too sick to run the department for another four years.)

Block has filed a number of workers’ compensation claims--dating to the late 1950s--on problems ranging from high blood pressure to a leg injury, which he has over time attributed to various causes. Block has also declined to make those records public.

“I don’t care to talk about my workers’ compensation,” the sheriff said in an interview. The claims, he said, are “minimal.”

As for his health, Block said: “I feel good. I have a very high energy level. As I’ve told people, this is the office of sheriff. This is not a deputy sheriff who is chasing crooks down streets or climbing 8-foot walls. This office requires someone with a brain and a mouth . . . an individual who can go out into the community and develop trust.

“This health thing is nonsense.”

‘People Are Concerned’

But some members of Block’s staff say his medical problems do compromise his performance. “His health is of concern to almost everyone in the organization,” said Commander Bill Stonich, one of the few ranking members who openly oppose Block’s reelection because of the medical problems.

“You hear it in private conversations all the time: ‘How did the boss look today?’ ” Stonich said. “People are concerned about his daily appearance and the record of his illness, but more important, they are concerned about his medical future. There’s a concern that he is putting himself--and the department--at risk.”

Amid continuing questions about Block’s physical condition, his three opponents have turned their medical records over to The Times. One of them, retired Sheriff’s Chief Bill Baker, 60, was tested for narcolepsy in 1996 after he lost consciousness following a racquetball tournament. Baker’s doctor later found that he does not suffer from the disorder, which causes a frequent and uncontrollable need to sleep. Baker, an avid racquetball player, believes the episode was caused by the physical strain of the tournament in which he was competing. The other two, Chief Lee Baca, 55, and Sgt. Patrick Gomez, 40, have received relatively clean bills of health.

It is Baca, whose campaign poll reported the public concern with the sheriff’s health, who has been the most critical of his boss’ decision to seek reelection. If no one receives a majority of the votes in the June election, the top two vote-getters will face a runoff in November.

“Ninety percent of the reason I’m running is because of [Block’s] health,” Baca said. “We are electing the individual for a four-year term. We don’t need something to occur midway through the term where the entire leadership of the department falls squarely on the Board of Supervisors to appoint someone who is beholden to them.”

Block Says He Would Serve a Full Term

If Block were unable to complete a fifth term, it would be up to the supervisors to pick a replacement. In years past, sheriffs have chosen their own successors and then asked the board to ratify the decision.

However, Block says that if reelected in June, he intends to serve out the four years. By the time the term ends in December 2002, he will be 78.

“No one can promise you tomorrow,” Block said. “My expectation is” to finish the term. He added: “I get so tired about hearing about my health.”

In 1991, doctors discovered that the sheriff had prostate cancer. He underwent a radical prostatectomy. According to the letter written by his doctor, Block has “suffered no residual effects or recurrence of the cancer.”

Two years later, non-Hodgkins lymphoma was diagnosed, requiring him to undergo chemotherapy for five months. The cancer has since gone into remission.

In 1994, Block ran on the slogan “A tough sheriff, a tough job,” referring, in part, to his battle to overcome the two bouts with cancer. A year later, he filed a workers’ compensation claim after suffering the leg injury.

He has given a number of reasons for the leg problem. Department sources said Block--who now walks with his leg in a brace--told his staff that the problem was caused by nerve damage resulting from the chemotherapy.

In his workers’ compensation filing, he said the problem was created by spending long hours in his county-owned car, and repeatedly hitting the leg on its communications equipment. In an interview this week, Block said the problem was caused by someone shutting the door on his leg. He also said the chemotherapy may have contributed to the weakening of a nerve in his leg. “There’s no way to be sure,” he said.

Block said the claim has been closed, but he declined to provide further details.

The sheriff said that over the years, he has filed workers’ compensation claims because it is department policy to require employees to report even the smallest on-the-job injuries. He says that he has never received any money for his claims. However, according to state sources, at least five of the claims--almost all of them occurring in the 1970s--were litigated for unknown amounts.

Block Maintains a Full Schedule

As part of the Sheriff’s Department’s workers’ compensation policy, a private insurance firm assesses all the cases and assigns employees disability ratings, which are considered private. Deputies with a high rating can then appeal to the county’s retirement board to be placed on a disability retirement, allowing recipients to apply for large tax breaks.

Block said he has not been assigned a permanent disability rating. He also said that he does not intend to file for disability retirement.

“I don’t have anything that would cause me to go out on disability retirement,” Block said. “I have no intention of doing it.”

Block said that since he began hemodialysis last June for kidney failure--another consequence of the chemotherapy--he feels much better.

Three times a week, he goes to a clinic in the San Fernando Valley for the treatment, a mechanical process in which blood is removed from the body, cleansed and then pumped back in. The procedure usually takes several hours.

Afterward, he returns to work. It’s not unusual for Block to attend community functions six nights a week, after working a full day. Known for his nearly photographic memory, Block still impresses his staff with his ability to recall facts.

“I’m 20 years younger than him, and I don’t think I could keep up with him,” said one department official.

Charles Kleeman, a kidney specialist who is also a friend of Block, said that the sheriff has “done remarkably well on dialysis.”

“I know of people who have been on dialysis for 20 years,” Kleeman said. “We have people on dialysis in their 80s. It has been the single most important lifesaving approach for the treatment of kidney failure.”

Kidney specialist Elaine Kattein, a professor of medicine at USC, agreed that people on dialysis generally feel much better after undergoing the treatment.

“Occasionally they may feel a little weak right afterward, but most of the people feel pretty well,” Kattein said. “I have one gentleman who was 77. Before he started dialysis, he thought he was going to die. Now he says he never felt better.”

She added: “People can live 25-plus years on dialysis. They usually die of other problems.”

It is Block’s other health problems--the cancer and high blood pressure--that concern Kattein. Although she has not treated him, she said that she too remains skeptical that he could keep up a full schedule into his late 70s.

“If it were my father, I would be worried,” she said.

Privately, some department officials worry that Block is trying to do too much. His refusal to cut back his schedule, they say, at times appears to take a toll. He has been known to doze off in meetings and at public forums. At times, he is visibly unsteady on his feet.

“There are times I absolutely know he’s hurting,” said one department insider, who asked not to be named. “Other times you know he’s feeling well, temporarily. I have seen a slow decline in his health in the past two years that has been worrisome. I don’t see him getting better. I just see him getting worse.”

Block counters that assessment with the letter from his primary care physician, Richard Garrett.

“Sheriff Block remains in good overall health,” wrote Garrett, who declined to be interviewed. “He is able to carry on a vigorous schedule without any negative effects. There are no work restrictions or limitations that would adversely affect his ability to function as the sheriff of Los Angeles County at the present time, or in the future.”

Kleeman added: “The bottom line is, no one can say that something of a more acute nature might not occur with Sheriff Block. If he continues having a successful dialysis program . . . he could carry out his job.

“I might have called him and said, ‘Sheriff Block, what do you need it for?’ ” Kleeman said. “He decided he wanted to continue. I think medically he’s perfectly capable of doing it.”