Gates Resumes Dance on Date of Retirement : Police: The chief says he is rethinking intention to leave in April. His indecision sparks chorus of criticism.

Here we go again.

As many of his skeptics had predicted, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates now says he may not leave as planned in April.

But then again, maybe he will. That much is clear.

“In the words of Jerry Brown, I can’t not think about it. So I am,” Gates said Wednesday.

Just what the inscrutable chief of police means by that was left to the imaginations of elected officials and community leaders who spent Wednesday mulling the latest in a long line of contradictory pronouncements from Parker Center.

“It brings us back to first base. The clock is turned back,” said Councilman Michael Woo as he introduced a motion Wednesday asking the City Council to go on record calling for the chief to set a definite retirement date in April, 1992--with no conditions.

The reaction of Woo and other Gates opponents was predictable; these scenes have been played out many times before. In fact, Gates’ intimates say the chief gets a good chuckle out of all this--so much that he may be stirring the pot simply to amuse himself.

“He likes to keep people on pins and needles,” said Eric Rose, an adviser to Gates.

“He likes to keep people off balance. He’s enjoying himself,” said Rose. “He’s having fun. . . . It’s his way of telling people that until April, he’s still the marshal of Dodge City.”

Not everyone was amused.

“The mayor doesn’t want to give Gates any validity” by responding to his comments, said an aide to Mayor Tom Bradley, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The mayor doesn’t want to get into it with him” and trade gibes and insults through the media as the two often have done in the past.

Said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, “It may be nothing more than trying to play a game with the media and the people as he has in the past, to focus attention on himself. Or maybe he’s changed his mind, and if he’s changed his mind, I think it would set off a chain reaction which would be very unproductive for this city.”

City Hall insiders groused that the chief’s latest hedging is again diverting attention from the task at hand--reforming a department that has become a national symbol of police excesses in the wake of the police beating of motorist Rodney G. King in March. Some said it is another example of Gates attempting to thwart reforms.

“I don’t know what Daryl Gates is doing, frankly,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. “But I know he isn’t supporting reform in the city of Los Angeles.”

Meanwhile, members of the Police Commission--who are working with the city’s Personnel Department to select a new chief--said they fear that Gates’ waffling could hurt the search for a replacement.

“How can you go out and recruit, talk to potential successors, if it is not determined when the chief is leaving?” asked Commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum, who has been a critic of Gates.

Replied the chief: “I know how anxious Stanley Sheinbaum is to get rid of me. I understand that.”

This is not the first time that Gates and city officials have danced the retirement two-step.

In July, with minority leaders clamoring for his resignation in the wake of the Christopher Commission’s critical report on the LAPD, the chief engaged in negotiations with Councilmen John Ferraro and Joel Wachs over the conditions under which he would step down.

Ferraro and Wachs promptly announced that the chief had agreed to retire by December, if the City Council would hold a special election on the Christopher Commission reforms.

But the chief, who was traveling in North Carolina at the time, said there was no deal.

More contradictory statements followed until the chief sent a letter to the council in late July saying he would retire in April, 1992, as long as a successor had been chosen.

It all seemed settled until Tuesday, when Gates indicated he may stay on until an election on the package of police reforms that, among other things, would change the way the chief is hired and fired. The package includes limiting future police chiefs to two five-year terms.

Just last week, in an 8-6 vote, the council decided to put the matter on the regular June ballot rather than hold a special election in March. Opponents of the special election said it would be too costly. Some also feared it would turn into a referendum on Gates, who has said he opposes the reforms. Others worried if the reforms are defeated, Gates would attempt to stay on.

“What’s going to happen if these reforms fail?” asked Yaroslavsky. “Will he decide to stick around forever?”

On Tuesday, the chief hinted that he may want to tie his retirement date to the vote.

“I think it’s something for everyone to think about, myself included, and I’m thinking about that,” Gates told reporters at a luncheon. “I said April because I thought the election was going to be held (by then).”

On Wednesday, with council members and police commissioners trying to figure out what was going on, Gates was again at the center of attention.

In a scene that has become a weekly ritual, Gates strode down the hallway on the first floor of Parker Center, about five minutes before the Police Commission meeting was to begin, only to be stopped by a phalanx of reporters and cameramen.

“I said in my letter to the council that I would pick a date sometime in April,” Gates said in response to the first question. “That still hasn’t changed. You asked me, because of them not holding the election, was I thinking of prolonging it. . . . In the words of Jerry Brown (considering a presidential bid), I can’t not think about it. So I am.”

“I’m confused now,” said another reporter.

“Me too,” the chief replied, laughing.

Reporter: “Are you saying that you will retire in April, or that you will not retire in April?”

Gates: “You’re, like I am, confused. I think there ought to be an orderly process. The City Council should have thought of that. Now I’m waiting for the City Council to urge me to stay . . . until the election is held, if they want to do that.”

This back-and-forth went on for some time, with Gates saying he intends to “very vigorously” campaign against the proposed changes in the process for hiring and firing the chief.

So what’s the bottom line?

“I’m gonna get out of here next year sometime,” Gates declared. “That’s for sure.”