LAPD Chief Screening Panel Picked

Three educators, a judge, a senior law enforcement official, a union leader and a financial executive were named Wednesday to a screening committee that will narrow the field of candidates to succeed Daryl F. Gates as Los Angeles chief of police.

The city’s Civil Service Commission chose the panel, making an obvious effort to achieve an ethnic and sexual balance. The commission named four men and three women to the screening committee, including two blacks, two Latinos, two Anglos and an Asian-American.

Named were:

* Bill Anton, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District and a former teacher and principal.

* Candace Cooper, a former corporate lawyer who has served as a Municipal and Superior Court judge since 1980 and is a former president of the California Judges Assn.

* Jerry Cremins, who rose through union ranks to become president of the California State Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella group of construction unions.

* Edward W. Gomez, the only law enforcement official, who is chief of the Southern California division of the California Highway Patrol.

* Vincent H. Okamoto, chairman and chief executive officer of Pacific Heritage Bank.

* Ann Shaw, a former college and city schools teacher who has served as a member of the state Commission on Judicial Performance, as chairman of the board of Founders Savings & Loan Assn. and as a member of the boards of the Salvation Army, the United Way and Loyola Law School.

* Andrea Rich, who, as executive vice chancellor at UCLA, serves as its chief operating officer and oversees searches for deans and other vice chancellors.

Each member will screen resumes and brief essays submitted by the 32 applicants--21 of whom come from agencies other than the Los Angeles Police Department.

Then the panel will meet, compare notes and vote to pare down the list to the most qualified 10 to 15 candidates, said John J. Driscoll, general manager of the city’s Personnel Department.

At that point, another citizens’ panel, which has yet to be named by the Civil Service Commission, will conduct an oral examination of the 10 to 15 candidates, rank them with scores and submit a list of the top six to the Police Commission, which will pick the next chief. Only the names of the six will be made public. Gates has said he will retire April 1.

All candidates were required to submit an essay of no more than three pages describing “what you believe are the three main issues and problems facing police departments in large urban areas.”

They were also required to describe in essays of no more than 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.”

Candidates in the LAPD had to be of the rank of commander or deputy chief. Outside candidates--who under the City Charter must outscore all inside candidates to be chosen--must hold senior positions in their agencies.