Baca Quickly Seeks to Ease Tensions

Newly elected Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca pledged Wednesday to seek the creation of an independent inspector general to investigate problems in the county’s overcrowded and troubled jails and to act as the department’s liaison with the public.

Baca said that when he takes office next month he will begin a formal assessment of the benefits and costs of hiring an inspector general for the Sheriff’s Department’s custody division, which runs the jails.

“We know the custody division is overcrowded,” Baca said. “We know that the custody division is under-funded. . . . An inspector general would look at all that, and communicate with the community.”

Baca, capping a race that started out nasty and wound up surreal after his opponent died, won handily in Tuesday’s balloting, capturing 61% of the vote compared to 39% for the late Sheriff Sherman Block.

The sheriff-elect moved quickly to put his own team in place, naming division chief Paul Myron as undersheriff, and Cmdrs. Bill Stonich and Larry Waldie--all of whom had been somewhat ostracized during the last days of Block’s tenure because they supported Baca--to head his transition team.

The current undersheriff, Jerry Harper, a Block supporter who has been running the department since the former sheriff fell ill Oct. 24, said he has always planned to retire after the election, and will do so when Baca is sworn in.

Assistant Sheriff Mike Graham, whose name had frequently been mentioned as a possible successor to Block, said he hoped to stay on and to work with the new administration.

“We’ll see,” Graham said quietly. “I don’t plan to retire until March of 2000.”

Harper, Graham and others from Block’s team were quick to say that they would work with Baca to ensure a smooth transition when the new sheriff is sworn in Dec. 7.

With the support of their leaders, Harper insisted, the 14,000 deputies, sergeants, captains and others in the department will put the divisive campaign behind them.

“This is a family that has had an argument,” Harper said. “This is a family that is going through a reconciliation.”

The Board of Supervisors moved quickly to reach out to Baca, whom they had spurned during the general election.

“Lee won it outright, fair and square,” said Supervisor Don Knabe, who along with many in the county’s powerful political establishment said they would vote for Block, even though he was dead.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who along with his board colleagues endorsed the ailing Block, praised the idea of hiring an inspector general, and said he would support it.

“It’s a bold and revolutionary idea in this department,” he said, noting that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Los Angeles Police Department both have inspectors general.

Baca also said Wednesday that he would move quickly to try to lessen the tensions between the Sheriff’s Department and many in the community.

He pledged to immediately begin holding meetings throughout the county with residents to hear their concerns. The meetings, he insisted, would not be mere public relations events.

“I don’t want to say how great the department is,” he said. “I want to know what the problems are, so I can provide greater services.”

To the same end, Baca promised to improve media access to the department, pledging to make it easier for reporters to gain information.

To further improve relations in the county’s many ethnic and immigrant communities, Baca promised to assign liaisons to English- and foreign-language media.

“A lot of ethnic media reporters are cut off from information,” Baca said. “This way, they can get hold of us at a critical time.”

Another major thrust of the Baca administration will involve setting up a computer network with which police agencies throughout the county could gain information about crime.

With such a network, Baca said, police in one jurisdiction will know whether a crime they are tracking has also taken place nearby, or is showing up in a pattern across the county.

Baca said he would be willing to lobby the supervisors and the state Legislature for funding for such a program, and to convince local police chiefs to take part.

Still, Baca cautioned that change cannot be imposed suddenly on an organization. He is moving carefully on the inspector general idea, he said, starting simply with a request for a feasibility study.

“Organizations need to be prepared for change,” he said. “You need to announce your intent and let it percolate through.”

And, he noted, any major programs would require funding and other approvals from the Board of Supervisors.

Such caution would be characteristic of Baca, said Knabe, describing the new sheriff as soft-spoken and hard-working.

“I don’t expect him to scream and shout and claim, ‘I won and I’m going to get even with everybody,’ ” Knabe said. “That’s not Lee’s style. I just think he’s going to put his team in place and get to work.”

Politically, it is important for the supervisors to reach out to Baca, who was elected with a countywide margin and whose base of support comes from outside the traditional Westside/San Fernando Valley coalition that backs most of the supervisors.

It was not surprising, therefore, that as early as Tuesday night, the lawmakers began to weigh in with expressions of support for the new sheriff.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who along with Knabe had voted for Block, said he would support increased funding for the department under Baca.

Yaroslavsky promised to work with Baca and predicted that the new sheriff will get along well with the board, despite the nasty campaign.

“If he succeeds, we will all succeed,” Yaroslavsky said.