"...Paul Tanaka said that he has no plans to run for Los Angeles County Sheriff...But then again, Tanaka also said repeatedly that he was not running for Mayor of Gardena.”

HE’S OUT Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, the #2 person in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department command structure, right under Sheriff Lee Baca, announced his resignation on Wednesday during the sheriff’s Executive Planning Committee. Department sources said that the announcement was stunningly unexpected, and was greeted by most in the room with genuine shock. A press release was hastily put out on Wed mid-afternoon. It began: Undersheriff Paul Tanaka today announced his retirement to the Sheriff and the Department’s executive staff. His retirement will be effective August 1, 2013…. The August 1 exit date was likely picked because it is shortly after the undersheriff’s 55th birthday in July. Fifty-five is the magic age for LA County employees who wish to get their full retirement. The undersheriff has been with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for 33 years. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHYS AND WHEREFORES Of course the real question is not so much when Mr. Tanaka is leaving, as it is why? It is hard to find a more polarizing figure in contemporary Los Angeles law enforcement than Paul Tanaka. Until recently, Tanaka has been viewed as a sort-of shadow sheriff, the person behind Sheriff Lee Baca whom many saw as holding the real power in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. WitnessLA’s Matt Fleischer first broke the news in December 2011 that the largely unknown Mr. Tanaka wielded a startling amount of control in the LASD, which—-with 18,000 employees—is the largest sheriff’s department in the world, and runs the nation’s largest jail system. Since our report Tanaka has come under scrutiny by the FBI for his part in what has been described as a culture of violence inside Men’s Central Jail, and he may also be the focus of a federal grand jury probe into allegations that LASD management ordered jails personnel to hide an FBI informant from his handlers by moving the man in secret from place to place inside the county jail system, using a string of phony names and false inmate ID numbers. Starting in early 2012, WitnessLA issued a series of additional reports on what was widely perceived inside the department as a system of patronage run by Mr. Tanaka, in which loyalty and, in many cases, cash donations to Tanaka’s political campaigns, were rewarded when it came to promotions—instead of merit. (NOTE: Along with being the LASD undersheriff, Tanaka is the mayor of the city of Gardena.) (See reports here, here and here.) In February, the reports caused Supervisor Gloria Molina to introduce a motion to prohibit county supervisors from asking for or accepting campaign contributions. As the year wore on, the Citizen’s Commission on Jail Violence—which included four federal judges and a chief of police—delved further into the undersheriff’s practices as they investigated the jail violence in general. In their final report, issued in September 2012, the commission stopped just short of ordering the sheriff to fire Tanaka and they critiqued what they saw as the undersheriff’s mismanagement and misconduct in the harhest of terms: “The troubling role of Undersheriff Tanaka cannot be ignored. Not only did he fail to identify and correct problems in the jails, he exacerbated them. The Commission learned about his ill-advised statements and decisions from a wide array of witnesses and sources. Over the course of several years, the Undersheriff encouraged deputies to push the legal boundaries of law enforcement activities and created an environment that discouraged accountability for misconduct. His repeated statements that deputies should work in an undefined “grey” area contributed to a perception by some deputies that they could use excessive force in the jails and that their aggressive behavior would not result in discipline” The 194-page report goes on in that vein, including a description of the “belief” among deputies regarding the undersheriff “that patronage and favoritism matter more than merit.” Shortly after the report was delivered, the sheriff forced into retirement many of those who who had some responsibility for the deputy-abuse-of-jail-inmates scandal—most notably Assistant Sheriff Marvin Cavanaugh, and Chief of Custody Operations. Dennis Burns—he seemed stubbornly disinclined to hold his second-in-command accountable, telling the Citizen’s Commission during his testimony last year, that he had no intention of getting rid of the undersheriff, that he was too crucial, particularly when it cames to balancing the department’s $2.5 billion budget. “Paul Tanaka is uniquely suited to be the undersheriff,” Baca said. “When you go through two recessions, you need a CPA.” Among his other skills, Tanaka is a certified public accountant. Nevertheless, in response to the commission’s allegations, the sheriff announced that the department had launched an internal affairs investigation into the undersheriff’s conduct. He also insisted that, from there on out, the undersheriff would mostly be the department’s CFO applying his magic to the budget, but would have no longer have any control over the jails or the patrol divisions, or the investigative bureaus like internal affairs. Yet, at the same time, as recently as late last October, Baca continued to defend Tanaka both in public and in private. As the year came to a close, however, Baca’s attitude reportedly took a measurable turn. Sources inside and close to the department tell us of “an uneasy rift” between Mr. Tanaka and the sheriff in the last few months, which became “very noticeable” before Christmas 2012. “I think that all the things began to add up for the sheriff,” said one source. “The talk of pay-to-play, the cigar club, the whole thing of working the grey, the way the federal investigations were handled, the problems in the jails, and all the rest.” Another source said that Baca was also upset when Tanaka, who had told the sheriff that he would not run for mayor of Gardena again, pulled out of the race late after registering–thus scaring off most other candidates, and causing his name to remain on the all-ready ballot. Then, although he professed non-interest, he allowed a surrogate fundraising and campaign in his behalf to be launched by the Gardena police, complete with a rash of Tanaka yard signs blooming on lawns all over the city. Tanaka was easily re-elected mayor of Gardena on Tuesday. His retirement was abruptly announced on Wednesday. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SO WHO LEFT WHOM? According to Sheriff’s department spokesman Steve Whitmore, the decision to leave was entirely Tanaka’s alone, and the sheriff himself only learned of the undersheriff’s retirement plans on Tuesday, the day before the announcement. Mr. Whitmore said that Mr. Tanaka has chosen to retire in order to spend more time with his family.“When I talked to him about it,” said Whitmore, “he pointed to a picture of his three-and-a-half year old son that sits behind his desk and told me, ‘That’s why!’ You have to remember, the undersheriff is 54, so he didn’t become a father until he was past 50.” The department “is losing a dedicated public servent,” said Whitmore. “He will be sorely missed. His departure leaves a big hole.” Whitmore said that the internal affairs investigation into allegations against Tanaka will continue, despite the undersheriff’s announcement. He also said that in Tanaka’s time remaining on the job he will shepherd the department’s budget to its completion date in June. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT EFFECT WILL TANAKA’S DEPARTURE HAVE? If Paul Tanaka’s resignation/retirement leaves a hole, as Steve Whitmore suggests, what does that newly-opened gap portend? Miriam Krinsky, the Jail’s Commission’s executive director, reiterated the “troubling reports” about Tanaka that the commission uncovered in the course of its investigations, and characterized the undersheriff’s exit as potentially positive for the department. “I certainly hope,” she said, “that the decision of the undersheriff provides the department with the opportunity to look for someone who can help create a new and positive culture in the jails.” Peter Eliasberg, the legal director of the Southern California ACLU, was also surprised and pleased by the news. “Any time you’re talking about changing the culture of a large organization, a big part is making sure that the right people are in charge and the wrong people aren’t. The change of one person like Tanaka isn’t a silver bullet, but I think it’s potentially quite significant. Both Krinsky and Eliasberg emphasized that much will depend on who replaces Paul Tanaka. According to Steve Whitmore, however, Sheriff Baca is “not considering any replacement” for the departing undersheriff, at least not for a while. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- POST SCRIPT It has long been actively rumored that much of Paul Tanaka’s management style has been aimed at gathering a base of power in order to succeed Lee Baca as sheriff of LA County. Last summer, in fact, former LASD Commander Robert Olmsted told me that Tanaka had unapologetically confided to him, a few years ago, that the reason he needed to ensure that the “right” people were in supervisory positions in the department, was so that those loyalists were in place when he, Tanaka, became sheriff. “He said Waldie (who was then the undersheriff) Cavanaugh and the Sheriff are all old, and that they would be retiring very soon, and he expected to hold the position after Sheriff Baca, ‘for the next fifteen years.’” Unbelievably, even with the ongoing storm of scandals, as recently as the past few months, the undersheriff was reportedly working behind the scenes to make sure “his” people were elected to crucial positions on the boards of the two LASD unions—ALADS and POPA—plus LA county’s law enforcement fraternal organizations like BPOA (Black Peace Officer’s Association of Los Angeles County) and HAPCOA (Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association). On Wednesday, however, Mr. Tanaka told Daily Breeze reporter Sandy Mazza that he has no plans to run for Los Angeles County Sheriff. But then again, Tanaka also said repeatedly that he was not running for Mayor of Gardena. Yet he has officially accepted the post for a third term. http://witnessla.com/category/lasd/