Chief-Hunt Panel to Be No Secret : Police: Pressure from inside LAPD forces Personnel Department to reverse itself and name members who will screen candidates to succeed Gates.

The city’s Personnel Department reversed itself on Friday and decided to make public the names of citizen panelists who will screen applicants for police chief and winnow the field of candidates to 10 or 15 semifinalists.

Personnel officials had planned to keep names of the application reviewers secret until their work was completed, to shield them from people seeking to influence them.

But the move away from secrecy in the early phase of the selection process came in response to pressure from candidates for chief from inside the Los Angeles Police Department, officials said.

The internal candidates feared that momentum to reform the Police Department in the wake of the beating of motorist Rodney G. King might make it too easy for a secret panel to unfairly eliminate them in favor of outside candidates.

Philip Henning Jr., assistant general manager of the Personnel Department, said publishing the names of panelists was a departure from normal procedure but was justified “just so everyone is convinced this is being conducted fairly.”

Henning said the department’s staff recommended the change to the Civil Service Commission, which unanimously approved it on Friday. The commission, which is the head of the Personnel Department, is expected to name the five or six panelists sometime next month.

The commission said all candidates for chief would be required to submit an essay of no longer than three pages describing “what you believe are the three main issues and problems facing police departments in large urban areas.”

Candidates also will be required to describe in a maximum of one page each “significant accomplishments . . . which demonstrate your philosophy, leadership and managerial abilities” in the areas of “affirmative action; responses to changes in cultural and community diversity; relationships to political and government officials, business executives, media representatives, and community leaders; (and) responsibility for budget formulation, selection of staff and administration of discipline.”

In addition to reviewing written applications, the citizens panel may interview candidates or contact references to help determine who the 10 to 15 semi-finalists should be, officials said.

Then the Civil Service Commission will appoint a second citizens panel to give an oral examination to the semi-finalists, rank them, and pass on the top six scorers to the Police Commission, which will make the final choice.

Under the City Charter, an outsider will have to outscore all internal candidates to be selected as a replacement for Chief Daryl F. Gates, who has said he will retire next year.

Barry Levin, an attorney representing the Los Angeles Police Command Officers Assn., applauded Friday’s action saying: “It looks like the Civil Service Commission is acting responsibly and making a very good faith attempt to guarantee that it’s a fair process, at least at this stage.” The association is made up of 94 senior officers, 25 of whom are eligible to apply for the chief’s job.

Last week, the association demanded that one of the Civil Service commissioners be disqualified as biased. However, controversy over the role of that commissioner, the Rev. Kenneth Flowers, fizzled on Friday when the commission did not debate it.

Flowers had said at a public hearing that an outsider as chief would be “a breath of fresh air,” but at the same time he pledged to be fair to internal candidates. He said he saw no reason to step aside.