Legal Issues Could Cloud Selection of New Chief of Police : LAPD: Because of the uncertainty over Gates’ retirement date, questions are being raised about who has the authority in naming a successor.

As the controversy over the choice of six finalists for Los Angeles police chief continued, city lawyers Monday were grappling with a series of legal questions that could significantly affect how and when Chief Daryl F. Gates’ successor can be appointed.

Given the continuing uncertainty of Gates’ departure date, John J. Driscoll, general manager of the Personnel Department, asked for legal guidance on how the selection process can proceed.

“I think the issues need to be settled as to the (legal) capacity” of city officials to name a new chief at a time when Gates’ retirement date remains unclear, Driscoll said. “Are you prohibited from moving ahead or aren’t you?”

City Civil Service rules say a chief may only be appointed when a vacancy occurs. City officials have said a new chief can be “designated” before a vacancy occurs. And, indeed, the city Police Commission has said it hopes to designate the new chief next month.

Gates first said he would step down in April, but now says he plans to stay until June. He still has not set a retirement date.

Driscoll said he is seeking additional legal assurances from the city attorney’s office, in part because of a proposal by City Councilman Richard Alatorre to delay any choice of a chief until after the June election. Alatorre said he will take his proposal to the City Council today.

Alatorre and Latino community leaders were outraged that no Latino candidate made the list of finalists for Gates’ job.

They were particularly angry because a Latino semifinalist--Division Chief Lee Baca of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department--was bumped from the finalist list, even though he outscored several finalists from inside the Los Angeles Police Department.

The City Charter requires candidates from outside the department to score better than all LAPD candidates to become finalists. If approved on the June 2 ballot, proposed LAPD reforms would eliminate the inside advantage, and Baca could be back in the running, officials said.

Among the issues that Driscoll said need to be clarified are:

What happens if Gates does remain until after the June election, and voters approve changes in the chief selection rules? Should a new process of screening and selecting candidates be required?

Also, approval of the ballot measures could shift the authority to appoint the new chief from the Police Commission to the mayor and City Council. But what if the Police Commission has already designated its choice to succeed Gates?

Driscoll said some of these issues were not addressed earlier because “everybody assumed the process was continuing” toward an April selection of a new chief.

Assistant City Atty. Frederick Merkin said he is researching several legal questions raised in recent days by city officials.

Police Commission President Stanley Sheinbaum said he intends to move ahead with the designation of a new chief as early as April. “I think the city has been destabilized for the last year because of the Rodney King affair,” he said. “I think it is essential to go on with the selection. We are following a timetable, unless there’s a legal reason presented by the city attorney not to.”

News of the legal uncertainties came three days after officials announced the finalists who will compete for Gates’ job. At the top of the list are Philadelphia Police Commissioner Willie L. Williams and LAPD Deputy Chief Bernard C. Parks, followed in order of ranking by LAPD Deputy Chief Matthew V. Hunt, Assistant Chief David D. Dotson, and Deputy Chiefs Mark A. Kroeker and Glenn A. Levant.

In another development, Baca said he would seek a hearing before the city Civil Service Commission to protest his elimination. After reviewing the scores assigned him by seven members of a rating panel last week, Baca said, two panelists may have been biased against him because they scored him lower than the other raters.

Personnel officials said such differences, while uncommon, occur and are not necessarily grounds for overturning the selection process.

Also on Monday, Assistant Chief Robert L. Vernon, a semifinalist for Gates’ job, told a news conference that he was disqualified because “I am no longer politically correct.”

Vernon also said his reputation has been “sullied” by accusations that he has improperly infused his fundamentalist religious views into police work and that that may have influenced the panel that rated the finalists.

“I’m not angry. I am disappointed--big time,” Vernon said.

Vernon said he does not expect to challenge the selection process.

He said he plans to take some time off in the near future to reassess his 38-year LAPD career and decide whether to retire.