Block Shifts Staff, Promotes Assistant Chief to No. 2 Post

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block shifted his top-level staff Tuesday, elevating Assistant Chief Michael E. Graham, a 31-year department veteran, to second-in-command.

Graham replaces Undersheriff Jerry L. Harper, who will take a personal leave to work on Block’s reelection campaign and plans to retire early next year.

The undersheriff’s post traditionally has been a steppingstone to sheriff. Block and his predecessors, Peter Pitchess and Eugene Biscailuz, were undersheriffs before moving into the top job.

Block, however, has pledged that if reelected in November’s runoff, he will serve his full four-year term, and Graham said Tuesday that he will “absolutely not” run for sheriff.

Block said he announced Graham’s promotion only to quiet rumors that had surfaced with news of Harper’s upcoming retirement. Some had predicted that the sheriff would fill Harper’s job with someone who might be groomed to succeed Block, such as highly regarded former Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Mark Kroeker.

“There was a lot of speculation both in the department and outside that I would pick Mark Kroeker as undersheriff,” Block said. “I think the world of Mark Kroeker, but it has always been my position that when there are qualified people within the department, they’re the ones who deserve to move up.

Appointing the well-known Kroeker as undersheriff “would have been a brilliant campaign move” in Block’s runoff against challenger Lee Baca, said veteran political consultant Rick Taylor, who managed the campaign of Bill Baker, one of Block’s opponents in the June primary.

Graham, Taylor said, “is somebody who’s not in the public eye. It won’t switch voters Block’s way or away from him.”

Block said that he and Kroeker are “old friends” who had talked generally about working together, but that he “never made him an offer” and Kroeker “never had any expectations.”

Graham has been an assistant sheriff and division chief, and commanded the Malibu and Marina del Rey stations. Block said Graham helped to create some of the department’s most successful community policing programs.

If a sheriff does not complete a term, the county Board of Supervisors names a successor. Block was appointed sheriff by the supervisors in 1982 when Pitchess left office before his term ended.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said it is premature to be speaking of who the next sheriff will be. Block, he said, “has every right to decide who his No. 2 should be. I won’t comment on any other aspect of this, because it is pure speculation. I don’t know what the political impact of this is, if there is any.”

All five supervisors have supported Block’s reelection bid, and he has backed all of their political campaigns as well.

Graham will be acting undersheriff while Harper works on Block’s campaign. If Block is reelected, Harper said, he will probably retire in January, at which time Graham would become undersheriff.

At the sheriff’s headquarters news conference, Block also announced the promotion of Rachel M. Burgess, a 30-year department veteran, to assistant chief.

She had been chief of one of the regional divisions, where she replaced Baca.

Block said that if reelected, he will look to his middle management for strong candidates for sheriff. One reason he is still running at age 74, he said, is that his top aides do not want the job.

“Had any of these people indicated interest, I would have stepped aside, but not for Baca. He’s not qualified,” Block said.

Baca campaign consultant Jorge Flores called Block’s appointments an attempt to “bolster his failing reelection bid.”

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Michael E. Graham

New title: Acting undersheriff

Age: 53

Experience: 31 years in Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

Previous positions: Assistant sheriff responsible for the Custody and Detective divisions and the Field Operations Regions. Division chief, Professional Standards and Training Division. Commander, Administrative and Custody divisions.

Personal background: Born at the old French Hospital in Chinatown, Graham graduated from Mt. San Antonio College and Cal State L.A., and has a master’s degree in public administration from USC.

He lives in Hermosa Beach with his wife, Diana. They have two sons, Michael, 28, and Christopher, 25.