Monday, March 31, 2003 Rob Webb's incident     Police: Do you think drinking and driving usually gets handled like this? What's one way to gauge whether an elected official has had special treatment at the hands of the police department? Ask yourself if the same thing would have happened to you. In researching a story on the use of city-owned vehicles by council members, Press-Telegram reporter Jason Gewirtz uncovered an incident involving Councilman Rob Webb and the Long Beach Police Department. It started when Webb's city- owned Chrysler Sebring had a flat tire one night, and he pulled over and called a city tow truck. A dispatcher notified the police department that a councilman was stranded, and a police cruiser and a sergeant went to his aid. According to police reports the officers smelled "a faint odor' of alcohol on his breath. They didn't give him a sobriety test, and they didn't let him get behind the wheel, either. Instead they waited until Webb's tire was fixed, drove him and his car to a city pump for gas, and then to his boat, where Webb planned to stay the night. Webb initially denied to a reporter that he'd been drinking, but when confronted by a police department memo that noted the alcohol on his breath, admitted to a "Clinton-truth.' Complicating matters further, car inspections showed Webb's vehicle had $1,280 worth of damage. Webb offered to pay the damage himself. The city attorney's office, which is required to send an investigator to every accident involving a city vehicle, was not called. We'll never know if Webb was intoxicated or not, because the officers never performed a sobriety test that night. Therefore, there is no way to know for certain whether he received special treatment. But ask yourself if Long Beach Police Department officers found you on the side of the road with a damaged car and alcohol on your breath, would they forgo a sobriety test, wait for your flat tire to get fixed, escort you to get gas, and then drive you and your car to a safe place to spend the night? Hardly.