13 on council say they back Bratton for a second term

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton was endorsed for a second term Tuesday by 13 of the 15 City Council members after a hearing at which some nevertheless complained that his department is not doing enough to address the concerns of minority communities.

“Working with this chief, Los Angeles has brought crime to a 50-year low,” said council President Eric Garcetti. “I support his reappointment, and I look forward to an open discussion in council chambers about how we can address the problems, such as youth homicide and domestic violence, that remain.”

Garcetti and others expressed support for Bratton in interviews after a hearing on the chief’s reappointment in which a few council members aired gripes about the department. The council ended the hearing after more than an hour without taking an official position on the reappointment, which the city’s civilian Police Commission is expected to approve as early as Tuesday.

The council could get involved only if a two-thirds majority objected and voted to overturn the reappointment. But interviews with council members and their representatives showed that most support the chief.

Besides Garcetti, other council members saying they support a second term were Janice Hahn, Ed Reyes, Jack Weiss, Wendy Greuel, Jan Perry, Bill Rosendahl, Greig Smith, Jose Huizar, Tony Cardenas, Dennis Zine, Herb Wesson and Tom LaBonge.

Councilman Richard Alarcon was traveling and unavailable for comment. Councilman Bernard C. Parks declined to comment.

Still, some members wanted to weigh in with concerns they have heard from constituents, saying some communities, including areas of South Los Angeles, remain highly dissatisfied with the LAPD under Bratton.

Parks, who lost the police chief job in 2002 to Bratton, initiated the hearing, saying people he represents in South L.A. think the department has not been tough enough in taking disciplinary action against officers accused of misconduct.

He also said the department appears to be “misleading” the public on how far crime has dropped.

Parks brought in pollsters from the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, who found in a survey that fewer than half of African American residents said they support giving Bratton another term and that many others are undecided.

Predicting that the council would not muster the two-thirds vote to overturn a reappointment decision, Parks said he believed it was important for the department to hear about the community’s concerns through a council hearing. Public dissatisfaction with the police over the years has led to two riots in the city.

“If things should erupt in the city, we don’t want people to say, ‘We didn’t know. I wasn’t aware,’ ” Parks said.

Perry questioned whether the police are doing enough to stop killings in the community, and Hahn said she is concerned that efforts to build trust in the police are hurt by the high turnover of command staff transferring out of her district, which stretches from Watts to San Pedro.

“I think LAPD’s practice of promoting and transferring is an absolute detriment, and it undermines community policing,” Hahn said.

The hearing at times became contentious, especially when some on the council questioned whether Police Commission members were making up their minds on the chief without sufficient community comment.

Hahn suggested that it might be good for the commission to hold additional public hearings, “to make sure that before this becomes a done deal we have reached out to the community.”

Parks questioned commission President John Mack, who had been summoned to the hearing, about why he had announced that a decision would be likely in 30 days when the panel has until late July to vote.

“We are not rushing to judgment,” Mack said. “We are just not inclined to postpone the decision, to drag it out needlessly.”

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com