Block, 3 Rivals Debate Status of Department at Valley Appearance

In their first campaign appearance in the San Fernando Valley, the three candidates vying to unseat Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block criticized his leadership Monday and called for a break from the status quo.

“The Sheriff’s Department was once the elite, premier law enforcement agency in the country. It is no longer that,” Bill Baker, former chief of the sheriff’s detective bureau, told the 75 people who attended the luncheon forum sponsored by the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. “There is an urgent need for change.”

Block, in his toughest campaign since taking office in 1982, defended the department and his leadership but acknowledged that the agency has had its share of problems.

“I have a reputation of going out front and admitting it whenever we have a problem,” said Block, who disagreed sharply with Baker’s comments. “I must remind Chief Baker that we are still the premier law enforcement agency in the United States,” Block said.

The attacks are the latest volley in the hotly contested race between Block and his three challengers, Baker, 60, Sheriff’s Chief Lee Baca, 55, and Sgt. Patrick Gomez, 40.

Block, 73, is seeking his fifth four-year term.

In past campaign events, Baca has tried to make an issue of Block’s health, noting that the sheriff has survived two bouts with cancer and now suffers from kidney failure. But not on Monday.

Instead, it was Baker and Gomez who launched the toughest attacks, accusing Block of being responsible for a series of problems that have plagued the agency and its 13,000-member civilian work force and 8,100 sworn deputies. They cited reports that six murder suspects have been mistakenly released by county jails, which Block runs.

Baker noted that the department has been slapped with a $23-million judgment for a 1989 incident in Cerritos in which a group of deputies was accused of brutalizing 36 party-goers attending a bridal shower. He also mentioned the arrest of a sheriff’s administrator and an independent food service contractor on bribery charges involving millions of dollars in allegedly padded contracts for county jail system food.

Baker included Baca in his attacks, noting that Baca has worked in the top management of the department for years.

“If you are content with paying $23-million judgments . . . if you are content with the number of erroneous releases that come out of jail . . . if you are content with food service contract kickbacks, then vote for Block or Baca, because they are the same,” Baker said.

Block returned fire, noting that Baker himself also had a management position in the department for many years.

“Bill Baker has been in the department for 32 years, some of those years in a high management position. Yet he cannot point to a single accomplishment during his career in the department where he left any kind of lasting impression, any kind of legacy,” Block said.

If elected, all three candidates said, they would expand or improve department programs to keep youngsters out of gangs and away from crime.

Gomez said he would work to increase the Explorer Scouts program for youngsters.

If elected, Baca said, he would create a “general plan” for crime fighting that would be reviewed by the police chiefs of each city within the sheriff’s jurisdiction.

He also talked about auditing various departments within the agency to ensure they are running efficiently.

Baker said he would team up with education experts to create crime-prevention programs targeting youngsters. He also vowed to develop a long-term planning blueprint for the jail system to keep up with growing overcrowding problems.

For his part, Block cited his 16 years of experience and pointed out that he has been endorsed by all five county supervisors along with U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) and Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita).

“My endorsements are very broad across party lines,” he said.

State Senate candidate Richard Katz, a former assemblyman, also spoke to the business group. His top Democratic opponent in the June 2 primary, City Councilman Richard Alarcon, did not appear at the forum due to budget deliberations in City Hall.

Katz and Alarcon are vying for the Senate post being vacated by Herschel Rosenthal, who is leaving due to term limits.