They may not be Babe Ruth cards, but deputies are making a big hit.

DEALING DEPUTIES: Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Nick Burns pulled into the townhouse parking lot in Carson and saw his prey: a group of kids just hanging out.

“Why are you here?” they asked. “Are you arresting someone? What’s going on?”

Just here for a chat with the residents, he told them. Then he began handing out baseball cards. Actually, they were baseball-style cards with Burns’ picture and bio.

“They were like ‘Gosh, boy!’ They were so excited to get them,” Burns recalled.

Each of the Carson station’s 150 deputies has 300 personalized trading cards with his or her picture on the front and a safety message or biographical information on the back. The city of Carson bought the cards for $11,256 and deputies have been passing them out to children to establish a rapport with the kids.

“It gives them something to look at and see and identify with,” Burns said. “They see a positive role model on the card and see that person right in front of them, as opposed to a baseball star they may never meet.”

The Santa Clarita station began distributing similar cards a few years ago, the first sheriff’s station to do so. Burns said other sheriff’s stations and police departments are thinking about following suit.

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RUFFLED FEATHERS: Neighbors of Redondo Beach chicken keeper Roseanne Smith are in a fowl mood following the City Council’s decision this week to limit to five (instead of zero) the number of birds Smith can keep on her property.

Smith, who has admitted keeping 28 chickens as pets at her South Irena Avenue home, has been taken to task several times since 1987 for keeping more chickens than the city allows.

Neighbors, who complain that the birds smell bad, make too much noise and are a health hazard, wanted the council to revoke Smith’s wild animal permit altogether. The council instead told Smith to keep five of her feathered friends and get rid of the others. She will not be allowed to replace chickens that die.

“I wish they didn’t have any, but I guess five is better than 30,” said neighbor Karen DeYoung.

Quipped City Clerk John Oliver: “The mayor said we’ve been pecking away at this problem, but I think the whole thing is for the birds.”

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THEY SAID IT: Torrance’s community bulletin pointed something out to us: The acronym for the city’s cable TV public service show, “This Week in Torrance,” is TWIT.

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MAYORAL MIGHT?: Rancho Palos Verdes voters won’t be casting ballots for mayor anytime soon.

The City Council nixed a proposal to let voters decide whether the city should pick its mayor in direct elections or continue to allow council members to rotate the position among themselves.

The proposal called for a Nov. 2 ballot question that, if approved, would have paved the way for direct mayoral elections starting in 1995.

Mayor Susan Brooks, who suggested electing the mayor, said that it would give the public a bigger stake in the political process and end the constant turnover on the council. The irony of the mayor proposing the move was not lost on Brooks, but she denied her suggestion was politically motivated.

“I don’t plan on being a person who is going to be a candidate,” Brooks said.

Other council members, however, saw nothing wrong with the current system. Said Councilman Steve Kuykendall: “It works well the way it is.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We want to buy pencils, not condoms.”

--Lomita City Councilman Robert Hargrave explaining why the citizens committee he leads wants to secede from the Los Angeles Unified School District to form an independent system in Lomita.

THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Hermosa Beach: Friends of the Hermosa Beach Library will urge the City Council on Tuesday to prevent the county from closing the municipal library. The library, which this year celebrates its 80th anniversary, is among several county libraries earmarked for closure because of budget cuts.

Redondo Beach: The Hyperion Outfall Serenaders will perform at the municipal pier at 6 p.m. Thursday to help kick off the city’s pier reconstruction project. Parking for the festivities at 101 West Torrance Blvd. is free. Information: (310) 318-0661.

LAST WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Carson: The City Council scheduled a workshop on the school secession issue for Aug. 14, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Carson Community Center. Carson voters last June overwhelmingly approved an advisory measure calling for Carson’s withdrawal from the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Manhattan Beach: By order of the state Supreme Court, a land ownership dispute that could cost taxpayers millions of dollars will be reviewed by an appeals court. The complicated dispute, which centers on a deed from the 1880s, is over whether the city must pay claims to the heirs of 67 original property owners whose land was used by a railroad company to build a line into the city. The heirs contend that the railroad never held title to the land, which the city now owns. A Superior Court judge last year ruled in favor of the heirs.

Rancho Palos Verdes: Councilwoman Jacki Bacharach announced that she will not run for reelection in November. “Although it’s been a labor of love, it’s time for me to step down,” Bacharach said. A councilwoman since 1980, she has served on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority. She has been considered for a job with the U.S. Department of Transportation, but the Clinton Administration has not indicated whether an appointment is forthcoming. Her resignation will leave two council seats vacant on Nov. 2. Former Councilman Bob Ryan resigned in March to become a Los Angeles County Regional Planning commissioner.