Proposed Settlement Over Gates’ Status Unravels : Politics: Police Commission and City Council fail to resolve legal dispute. Matter is now up to a judge.

Los Angeles officials Tuesday failed to settle their legal dispute arising from a Police Commission attempt to replace temporarily Chief Daryl F. Gates, leaving to a judge the decision on the chief’s immediate future and the long-term implications of a complicated City Hall power struggle.

Under the settlement, proposed privately Friday by Police Commission President Dan Garcia, the commission would have abandoned its attempt to place Gates on a 60-day paid leave. In return, the council was to appropriate $150,000 to the Police Commission to pay for its investigation of the chief.

The talks broke down as some City Council members held fast to a demand that the commission drop its investigation.

The issues must now be sorted out by a Superior Court judge, who has set a hearing for Thursday. The commission, appointed by the mayor, contends that it is empowered to discipline Gates. The council, invoking its authority to settle city lawsuits, overrode the commission, ordering the city attorney to agree to reinstatement in settling the chief’s legal challenge to his leave.

The Police Commission, mayor’s office and City Council President John Ferraro all had agreed to the settlement in private talks, but the council balked in a lengthy closed session Tuesday.

“You win some, you lose some,” Ferraro said. “This one was rained out.”

“It seems to me that we should allow the Police Commission the right to their own independent investigation,” said Councilman Richard Alatorre, who supported the settlement. “Everybody was paranoid.”

Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani, who helped arrange the settlement proposal, said it was rejected chiefly because a number of council members want an end to investigations of the chief. Fabiani was present during most of the council’s executive session Tuesday.

“It appears that there is a substantial portion of the City Council that would like to make Chief Gates investigation-proof and does not want to give the Police Commission any independent authority whatsoever,” Fabiani said. “That faction effectively blocked any settlement.”

Gates acknowledged Tuesday afternoon that he was disappointed by the proposal’s failure and said: “We really need to get back to doing what we’re all about, and that’s policing this city.”

The Police Commission, which met Tuesday afternoon, took no action on the matter.

“We have reached an impasse, a clear impasse,” said Melanie Lomax, the commission’s vice president. “They (the City Council) want us to agree that we won’t investigate the chief. . . . How can you call this a legitimate investigation if, in advance, you leave out whole areas including the chief and the command structure?”

Ferraro said money to pay for the continued investigation of the chief was one of several issues that blocked the settlement.

The legal dispute over Gates’ job began April 4, when the Police Commission placed him on a 60-day administrative leave while it conducted a wide-ranging investigation prompted by the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King.

Gates’ removal enraged most of the City Council, and a day later, the council voted to reinstate Gates through a legal maneuver. Invoking its power to settle all lawsuits against the city, the council voted 10 to 3 to reinstate Gates as part of a settlement of a lawsuit he was expected to file.

Under the City Charter, the council does not have the power to overrule the Police Commission, but the council does have the authority to settle all lawsuits filed against the city.

Despite objections from the Police Commission, a Superior Court judge April 8 ordered Gates returned to his job temporarily and set a full hearing on the legal issues for Thursday.

Councilman Hal Bernson said Tuesday that he objected to the settlement because it called for the Police Commission to reinstate Gates. Instead, the proposal should have required the commission to rescind its earlier action, he said.

“A lot of us, frankly, don’t trust the Police Commission,” Bernson said.

“You can call this the great unraveling,” said Councilwoman Joy Picus. “Everybody took a thread and pulled, and pretty soon it all fell apart.”

Picus was among the group that objected to appropriating $150,000 to pay for a private law firm to continue an investigation of Gates.

“I would not support that until . . . I saw an outline of what that investigation was supposed to be,” Picus said. “To me, it could be a witch hunt, it could be any kind of a thing.”

Council members would not say how the votes lined up in Tuesday’s session, but Councilmen Alatorre and Zev Yaroslavsky said they supported the settlement.

“My concern is that we have a separation of powers here in the city,” Yaroslavsky said. “The Police Commission, whether we like them or not, whether we trust them or not, cannot be controlled like a puppet by the City Council.”