Council OKs LAPD Reform Items for Ballot

Opening a historic debate over reform of the Los Angeles Police Department, the City Council on Tuesday approved ballot proposals that would limit the terms of future police chiefs to 10 years and change how they may be hired and fired.

Exactly six months after the police beating of Rodney G. King was captured on videotape, the council passed a series of 10 Christopher Commission proposals that proponents say would increase public accountability in the 8,300-member Police Department.

Specifically, the council approved preparation of a ballot measure that would limit police chiefs to two five-year terms, drop the job from Civil Service protections and give the mayor and City Council final say over the selection of chiefs.

The council also voted to give itself power to initiate the termination of a chief--authority that the Police Commission also would hold.

And, in its only major departure from the Christopher Commission proposals, the council voted to maintain ultimate control over the Police Department and the Police Commission. Voting unanimously, the council tabled a proposal to make the Police Commission exempt from the council reviews that were authorized by a recently passed City Charter amendment.

Charter Amendment 5, approved by the voters this year, gave the council power to reverse any decision by a city commission, including the Police Commission. “The people of Los Angeles have already spoken,” Councilman Richard Alatorre said in defending the council vote. “I don’t think the Police Commission deserves to be less accountable than any other commission in the city.”

The council action, coming after months of controversy that rocked the city, took place in a nearly empty City Hall chamber. Scattered throughout the cavernous marble room were representatives of the Christopher Commission, the city police union, the business community, a new citizens watchdog committee and homeowner groups. But there was little last-minute lobbying as the council voted on the sweeping reforms proposed by the independent investigating panel in the wake of the March 3 beating of King.

Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack, part of a citizens committee that will campaign for adoption of the Christopher Commission proposals, said his group chose a low-profile approach Tuesday because the council appeared to be headed in the right direction.

“We don’t want to presume bad faith by the council. . . . Today was not designed to pack the chambers and draw battle lines,” Mack said.

Proposals adopted by the council will need voter approval in a special election to be held as early as next spring. City officials said the election would most likely be conducted after a new chief has been selected to replace Daryl F. Gates, who has said he will step down in April.

But city officials said the new chief could be made subject to the new term limits and any other changes in the City Charter.

The council still must consider a host of other recommendations by the Christopher Commission, including use of community-based policing to reduce racism and brutality among officers. Most of the other recommendations, such as changes in police training and recruitment, do not require Charter amendments but are being reviewed by the council.

The council’s actions Tuesday came after five hours of sometimes acrimonious debate, much of it centered on how authority over the police chief should be divided among the mayor, the council and the five-member Police Commission.

“These are very complex and fundamentally important decisions the council is making today,” Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said in an interview, “which could have an impact on the city of Los Angeles long after we’re dead--it’s not going to be done in a day.”

Council President John Ferraro agreed, saying: “There’s been a lot of discussion but these are very heavy issues.”

Few of the council’s actions were unanimous.

The council voted 12 to 2, for example, to give the mayor authority to appoint police chiefs from a list of three top candidates selected by the Police Commission. Currently, the chief is selected by the Police Commission.

Opposing the change were council members Nate Holden and Hal Bernson.

The vote was 11 to 3 in favor of limiting a chief’s tenure to two five-year terms. Dissenting votes were cast by Bernson, Holden and Ernani Bernardi.

With Holden and Joel Wachs dissenting, the council voted to give itself power to initiate termination proceedings against the police chief.

Nine less controversial proposals also were approved by the council, including one that would limit police commissioners to five-year terms and the commission president to two consecutive one-year terms.

The council, by an 11-0 vote, also agreed to establish a Police Commission executive officer--an action praised by Ray Fisher, deputy general counsel for the Christopher Commission, as “critical to the commission’s ability to carry out its oversight function.”

Only a handful of speakers addressed the council on the LAPD reforms. Jo Ann Wysocki of the Wilmington Homeowners Assn. charged that adoption of the proposals would politicize and destroy “one of the finest police departments in the country.” But Lois Medlock of the South East Central Homeowners Assn. said the Christopher Commission proposals should be immediately implemented to “stop the killing” of minorities by police officers.

Many of the other political and community leaders who were most outspoken during the King controversy were absent.

“I think a lot of the steam has been taken out of people,” said Yaroslavsky, noting that Gates has announced his retirement and that there is a growing political consensus for adoption of the Christopher Commission proposals.

But Mack of the citizens watchdog committee said a major lobbying effort will be launched if the Christopher Commission proposals become hung up in technical details or union negotiations over changes in police working conditions.

Despite Tuesday’s council action, some officials and lobbyists said important details remain to be worked out on the Christopher Commission reforms.

Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores said Tuesday’s action probably marked only the beginning of lobbying on the final shape of the charter amendments.

The ballot measures still must be drawn up--and some City Hall sources recall that loopholes developed during the drafting of detailed ordinances on council-approved ethics laws last year.

Fisher of the Christopher Commission said lawyers for the independent panel will continue to advise city officials on the detailed language of the ballot measures and other reforms.

Police union officials noted that some of those ballot measures cannot be made final until after negotiations with the labor group. Danny L. Staggs, a union director who monitored the council action from a small desk in the corner of the chamber, said Tuesday’s actions “are one thing. . . . How it finally appears on ballot is another.”

Staggs and Bill Violante, the union president, declined to say what portions of the Christopher Commission proposals may be objectionable to the union, if any.

CITIZEN WATCHDOGS: A list of the 43 business, civic and community leaders who are on a panel formed to encourage implementation of Police Department changes advocated by the Christopher Commission. B2