Ernie Bakin takes over as the new director of Public Safety and lagging spirits turn upward




Photograph by Jeff Kearns







Department Resurrection

After years of tumult, Public Safety workers enter a period of rebuilding

By Sam Scott

For a man who has been fighting crime since he hit the Brooklyn beat on his 21st birthday half a lifetime ago, Ernie Bakin's spirits are remarkably light. Quick with smile or a laugh, Bakin, Sunnyvale's new Public Safety chief, comes off as being unburdened by his years in the trenches, like a cop who could write a ticket and improve someone's day at the same time--if that's possible.

Bakin, who took over last week, is known for his community policing. In Arizona, he was key in starting the Phoenix Violence Prevention Initiative, a program that focuses on identifying and stopping the causes of crime.

"Ernie is innovative. He's progressive," Captain Chuck Eaneff says of his new boss. In support of his opinion, Eaneff points to the shift Public Safety recently introduced in its investigations: switching from property and person crimes to family and street crimes. While it was considered cutting-edge, it was a change Bakin had implemented in his old department two years earlier.

"I wish I had talked to him two years ago," Eaneff says.

Bakin's arrival from Phoenix, where he was assistant police chief, has stirred excitement in a department that has been without a permanent leader since Regan Williams' resignation took effect last May. The picking up of the baton has been a cause for celebration in the 49-year-old department.

"They used to announce a new chief in a memo," says Tom Hoppin, a 24-year veteran with the city and county. "You'd read about it and that was it."

Not this time.

City Manager Robert LaSala administered the oath of office to Bakin during a ceremony at Public Safety headquarters. If it wasn't the rolling out of red carpet, it was far from a short brief in an in-office memo. On the stage with Bakin and LaSala sat Bakin's mother, brother, wife and one of his two sons. In front of them, a giant American flag hung between the extended ladders of two fire trucks. Police and fire chiefs from Palo Alto to Gilroy, City Council members and scores of Sunnyvale officers, many with cameras, attended. It was a short ceremony, but definitely sweet.

"It's a nice change," an officer talking to another in the crowd said. "It's good for the department."

References to Bakin as a "breath of fresh air" are common in conversations with the rank-and-file. The new chief comes on board as the department is emerging from a rocky period where internal strife resulted in persistent and public complaints over management.

"The last two years have been the worst two years in Public Safety history," Kelly Fitzgerald, president of the Public Safety Officers' Association, says matter-of-factly.

In his position, Fitzgerald stood in the middle of a hard-fought and frequently ugly two-year contract battle with the city. The struggle resulted in hard feelings, as the PSOA thought management failed to stand up to the city on their behalf.

"We felt the commanders just looked out for their own divisions," the union president says. "We didn't feel like they had the best interest of the Public Safety system in mind."

Fitzgerald also says that there was a sense that management avoided hiring new officers to cut costs, a move that resulted in hours of overtime for the officers.

Fitzgerald says officer morale- sapped by the contract struggles, poor communication with management, and understaffing-reached an all-time low during the end of Williams' tenure. A resulting no-confidence vote by the union preceded his resignation, which was shortly followed by the elimination of three commander positions.

Things brightened, Fitzgerald says, during the short tenure of Brown Taylor, former chief of the Los Gatos, who took over as director on an interim basis in May. Taylor, Fitzgerald says, shortened the distance between the management side, known as "mahogany row," and the officers.

"Taylor included employees from the line in what he wanted to do," he says. "It was immediately more of a partnership than ever before."

Public safety officer Bryan Smart cleans up after a controlled burn set last week to help train new recruits.




Photograph by Jeff Kearns







Hiring picked up also, so much so that now the field training officers have their hands full teaching the new hires. "The pipeline is full," Eaneff says. He also describes an effort to hire more women as moderately successful.

Fitzgerald said he feels optimistic that the Bakin era will continue open communication between the line and management. "His arrival is like the start of a new day here," Fitzgerald says. "We're excited about it. We talked to the Phoenix Police Officers Association and they were enthusiastic about him."

City manager Bob LaSala, who consulted a broad array of officers in selecting Bakin, concurs that there has been a resurrection within the department.

"There's a sense of enthusiasm, a sense of optimism," he says. "I'm seeing people as leaders and innovators on every level."

A glance at Bakin's resume suggests the chief should have no problem relating to the concerns of his officers. As a founding member of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, he took part in negotiating the state's first public safety labor contract.

"I was on the other side of the table for a period of time," Bakin says with a New York accent that has survived his time in the Southwest. "I have an appreciation for both sides."

Bakin says one of his first tasks is to meet with groups of officers to give them an opportunity to get to know him and let him know how he can assist them.

As far as big changes are concerned, he says he has not come with an agenda and will be flexible in defining his leadership. It is an attitude that will please Hoppin, who sees no need for big adjustments.

"There's really nothing broke," Hoppin says. "It's been running fine and it'll continue to do so just because of the dedication of the people here."

Statistics bear out Hoppin's point, since internal squabbles seemingly did not diminish Sunnyvale's police and fire reputation for excellence. Figures released by the department's crime analysis unit show Sunnyvale has a lower crime rate than any comparably sized, self-policing city in the South Bay. On a national level, Sunnyvale's crime rate ranks behind only Simi Valley and Amherst, New York. And Sunnyvale does it with fewer officers per resident than either rival city.

The fire division is rated a two, as high as any of the Bay Area or national leaders. The bonus for Sunnyvale citizens is that, besides excellent service, Public Safety comes at a bargain rate. Fire and police services combined cost $281 per citizen, less than any comparable city in the vicinity, and nearly $140 per person less than the regional average.


Photograph by Jeff Kearns

Mike Drago (foreground) and Steven Fox, both 19, are part of a wave of new recruits that have joined the Public Safety department in the last year. While recruiting was a bleak topic around the department only a few months ago, officials say their pipeline of potential recruits is now full. Wood, who attends De Anza College, and Drago, who is at San Jose State, both hope to become full-fledged officers once they finish college.




Indeed, Bakin thinks that as downtown expands and Sunnyvale continues to grow, Public Safety's biggest challenge will be living up to its own standards. "The numbers we have in Sunnyvale will be a challenge to maintain," Bakin says "It's going to be quite a challenge."

Though Sunnyvale's Public Safety Department is a fraction of the size of Phoenix's police department, it won't be a cake-walk for the newcomer. Public Safety has the complexity of having fire and police in the same department--the largest such setup in the country. As the bumper stickers on the department's vehicles say, it's two careers in one. Rigs leave the firehouse with only two fire fighters aboard. Police patrols, which travel with fire gear in the trunks, arrive to make up the difference. Each year, officers bid for shift and professions. It's a system that allows Sunnyvale to run a lean ship, assigning fewer people to firehouses without reducing the number of officers responding to fires. Bakin is one of the few in the department who doesn't have fire training--yet.

"One of the very first issues is fire services," Bakin says. "We've got an aggressive schedule to get me up to speed."

His lack of experience may hamper his feel for fire issues at first, but he says coming in as an outsider has its benefits. "It does provide you with a fresh perspective," he says. "You get to ask some pretty dumb questions." Sometimes, he says, those dumb questions reveal a hole the old hands weren't seeing.

Bakin says he also hopes to find time to enjoy the variety of options that weren't available in the Arizona desert. Bay Area folk love to brag about how it's possible to go to the beach, mountains, city, or countryside within a few hours. Bakin, a music lover, is more impressed by the array of cultural events. "It's amazing the amount of opportunity here," he says. "I opened the newspaper and there were about five operas."

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