Wednesday, Apr. 23, 2008

Livingston's police chief ready to retire

Bill Eldridge has served for 36 years, but many in the community are clamoring for him to stay.

By SCOTT JASON
sjason@mercedsun-star.com

LIVINGSTON -- Police Chief Bill Eldridge will retire in less than two months. If he waits any longer, he may change his mind.

"I'm running as quick as I can," he said Tuesday. "I know it's short notice."

Eldridge, 58, turned in his retirement paperwork into City Hall last week and will hand in his gun and badge July 5, capping 36 years of law enforcement service as a chief and sheriff's deputy.

The longtime Livingston chief said he's finally beginning to grow tired of his duties and would like to spent more time traveling, visiting his grandchildren and possibly volunteering at a nonprofit. "Not every day has been positive," he conceded. "I have gray hair, and some of it has been from this job."

He reckons he's served closer to 50 years because he regularly works 12-hour to 14-hour days, showing up to work at 6 a.m. and staying into the evening. It's a schedule that's even more rigorous than what Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin keeps.

"His work ethic at this point in time is truly an aberration," said Pazin, who worked for Eldridge at the sheriff's department in 1979. "We don't see that type of commitment. I doubt if we ever will."

Pazin said it's widely known that Eldridge is disciplined and focused in his duties -- traits that have carried him through his career. "If there was the word 'workaholic' in the dictionary, Bill's picture would be there," he said.

Speculation about Eldridge's retirement has swirled around town for the past year, with some members of the community urging the City Council to figure out a way to keep him longer. More pay, more vacation. Anything.

He was set to retire last year, but was talked into staying a little longer.

Mayor Gurpal Samra, who's still hoping the chief will change his mind once more, said Eldridge is the only city employee with whom he's argued -- only to have him argue back. "The next day it's like nothing ever happened," he said.

The city will cautiously look for someone with Eldridge's attributes with the help of a consultant search firm and won't rush into any hiring decisions, Samra said.

Eldridge has always been colorblind when someone walks into his office with a complaint, Samra said. "He doesn't see you as Mexican, Indian, white, black or pink," he said. "He sees you as a person."

In Livingston, Eldridge has made the department dedicated to earning the trust of its diverse community, which often views the police with distrust and fear.

Taking the oath to serve a city means more than patrolling in a car and enforcing the law, he said. It's also knowing and understanding the residents.

His tactics -- tirelessly supporting community events and bringing his officers to neighborhood barbecues -- have been slighted by some in the law enforcement community who consider them to be little more than social work with a badge.

"Don't go to Livingston, they'll make you barbecue hot dogs," Eldridge has heard over the years. Regardless, he remains proud of the efforts to have officers interact with citizens in positive ways.

"It's another side of the officer," he explained. "It's just not that police officer arresting a son or writing a ticket."

Every morning he said he'd reflect on his job to decide if he was ready to retire. Recently, he began wishing his workweek started Tuesday instead of Monday.

Eldridge, born in Hoboken, N.J., moved to California with his father, who retired from the military at Castle Air Force Base.

He was drafted by the U.S. Army and decided to enlist, believing he wouldn't be sent to Vietnam. He was anyway, and he returned three years later, planning to spend a few months on unemployment to clear his head.

In 1972, after a month, he was dousing blazes with the Merced City Fire Department and volunteering as a sheriff's deputy. After a couple years, he went full time.

After 20 years, he was tapped to serve as an interim chief in Livingston, though he was still working for the sheriff's department.

The city had fired its chief and needed someone to oversee the department. After a couple years, he was formally offered the job and started looking at what the department and community needed.

Even that, though, was a tough decision for him to make. "It was breaking that umbilical cord (from the sheriff's department)," he said.

As his top achievement, he cites growing the department from nine officers to 20, and also taking it from having two marked cars to 21 cruisers. A new main station was also constructed.

Eldridge likened himself to a conductor who can only wave a wand in front of his employees. "If I didn't have these individuals," he said, "there'd be no music."

Now he's ready to let someone else pick the tune.

Reporter Scott Jason

can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or sjason@mercedsun-star.com.