Gates Exempt From Ethics Law Protecting Whistle-Blowers, Panel Finds

To its surprise, Los Angeles’ fledgling Ethics Commission has discovered that Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and other top city administrators are exempt from provisions in ethics legislation enacted last year barring retaliation against whistle-blowers, officials said Tuesday.

The commission learned of the latest in a string of loopholes in the voter-approved ethics law as it was about to begin an inquiry into assertions that Gates retaliated against an assistant chief who criticized the Los Angeles Police Department in testimony before the Christopher Commission.

“Basically, we can only investigate elected officials, so we’re precluded from investigating him,” said Benjamin Bycel, executive director of the Ethics Commission. “It looks like we’re restricted from doing anything about it.”

The Ethics Commission had been asked to determine whether Gates violated the city’s new whistle-blower law 12 days ago when he stripped Assistant Chief David D. Dotson of his command of the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division. The law prohibits retaliation against any city employee who reports wrongdoing, illegal acts or abuse of authority.

Gates took the action against Dotson one day after the Christopher Commission released its report detailing widespread problems in the department. In the report, Dotson described the Police Department as having “failed miserably” in policing itself.

Transcripts released by the Christopher Commission quoted Dotson as saying that “in the last 13 years, in the Los Angeles Police Department--with a couple of very notable exceptions--we have not had, in my opinion, at the top, very effective leadership.” Gates has been chief for 13 years.

Gates denied retaliating against Dotson, but last week the Police Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the department, ordered Gates to revoke Dotson’s reassignment.

Dotson has not publicly charged that Gates’ action was retaliation, but several City Council members called for the Ethics Commission investigation.

The aborted probe had been a top priority for the Ethics Commission until staffers found that they were prohibited from proceeding against Gates by a section of the ethics law that limits investigations to elected officials and members of some city commissions.

“It’s a serious, serious defect,” Bycel said. “Each day, it’s increasingly frustrating to deal with these little minefields we find in the law.

“I have no idea why this is in the law,” he said. “This is what keeps us from doing just about any investigations. . . . It’s a deliberate attempt to exclude whole groups of people.”

He said he is not sure who orchestrated the omissions, which apparently occurred during “chaotic” City Council debate on the ethics package last year.

The Ethics Commission was formed less than a year ago after voters approved a wide-ranging package of reforms that were billed as some of the toughest in the country. But a series of loopholes have become apparent in recent months, including one that excludes thousands of city employees from its provisions.

Councilman Michael Woo, who was instrumental in pushing the ethics package through the council last year, said on Tuesday he plans to seek a City Charter amendment “to give the Ethics Commission clear authority to pursue whistle-blower violation cases.”

Woo said it was not the council’s intent to exempt Gates or other top officials. “The intent was that the chief of police would be covered, but apparently when the legal draftsmanship occurred, it was inadvertently left out,” he said. Woo blamed the city attorney’s office for the ommission.

Assistant City Atty. Anthony Alprin, however, said on Tuesday that the measure was written at the specific instructions of the City Council, which was aware of its content. “We drafted the ordinance,” Alprin said, “precisely as instructed by the council.”