So What Do They Do When It’s Time to Pass the Hat?

Hats off. Except for one.

This being National Hat Day, my thoughts naturally turn to Bob McDonald, the only San Diego cop authorized to wear a hat.

As you know, the modern world is mostly hatless.

Just look in the Encyclopedia of Associations under hats: Hat Industry Research Inst., inactive ; Hat Institute, address unknown since 1964; Hat Manufacturers Assn. of America, defunct ; Hat Salesman’s Assn., defunct .

It didn’t used to be like this. It used be that everyone wore hats. To work, to church, to the baseball stadium.

For decades, the hat rule for the San Diego Police Department was clear-cut: Any cop caught wearing his hat in his patrol car, or caught not wearing his hat when he was outside the car, was subject to a two-day suspension.

But hat reverence began to dim in the 1980s.

Male officers, particularly younger ones, thought the hats were old-fashioned, expensive ($100-plus) and destructive to their stylish haircuts. Female officers thought the hats were never designed for women.

A hat plebiscite was held. The vast majority of cops voted to dump the old hat rule, except for dress occasions; the brass, reluctantly, complied.

There was happiness in the ranks, except for Bob McDonald, who was then a longtime beat cop in La Jolla (where the Town Council liked him so much he was named unofficial mayor of La Jolla).

“I came in with the hats and I wanted to stay with the hats,” said McDonald, now 56, with 32 years’ service. “I’m kind of an anachronism.”

Yes, but an anachronism with moxie. He appealed the new no-hat rule up the chain of command and got a special dispensation from then-Chief Bill Kolender.

McDonald has recently been in the helicopter unit, where , for safety, he wears a helmet. But should he return to street patrol, his hat will go with him.

“A hat is an important part of the police officer’s image,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone that suggests there is nothing more to discuss.

McDonald doesn’t think of himself as being out of step with his 1,800 uniformed colleagues. Rather he thinks of them as being out of step with him.

It’s hard to fight logic like that.

If You Believe This . . .

The passing parade.

* Cops are beginning to enforce the helmet law for motorcyclists and are finding some interesting things.

Like the woman motorcyclist dressed in full clown costume who was stopped by a sheriff’s deputy near Santee. She explained that she couldn’t get a helmet over her bright-orange Ronald McDonald fright wig.

And then there was a guy, also stopped near Santee, who was wearing a Tupperware bowl on his head with a string for a chin strap.

Sorry, the law doesn’t mention clowns or Tupperware. Both bikers got tickets.

* San Diego bumper sticker on a Cadillac: “We Are Refusing to Participate in the Recession.”

* Michael Orrell of Pacific Beach, who believes he has seen UFOs, is getting impatient with the lack of media coverage of his most recent discovery.

He addressed his latest fax to The Times to “anyone with brains.”

* Proof that there are still bugs in the teleconferencing phenomenon.

To haggle over a proposed rate increase, a five-way phone call was set up Thursday between the state Public Utilities Commission, the Navy, San Diego Gas & Electric and the Utility Consumers Action Network.

Intruding on the line was loud and persistent Muzak. The music could not be shaken, and required teleconferencers to nearly shout to be heard.

Then again, maybe it helped. The session ended with a tentative agreement on a $64-million decrease.

* Ronald F. Rutledge, 35, a bad-check artist, escaped Wednesday from Donovan State Prison on Otay Mesa.

He shouldn’t be too hard to spot, especially if he goes shirtless: Among his many tattoos, “Love Is Mom” on his right arm and “San Diego” on his belly.

Always the Last to Know

See, and you thought the media never helped anybody.

A court hearing was scheduled Thursday in the wife-burying case of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Leonard Eddington II. Except that nobody bothered to inform prosecutor Jeff Dusek.

Dusek only learned of the hearing when he got a call from a reporter for the tabloid TV show “A Current Affair,” which is very interested in the gruesome case.