Commission Agonized Over Choice of Outsider for Chief

Once the final deliberations began, the Los Angeles Police Commission’s bold decision to break with longstanding tradition and name an East Coast police chief to head the beleaguered Police Department came quickly--but by no means easily.

At a huge City Hall news conference Thursday to introduce the newly named chief, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Willie L. Williams, the five commissioners lined up with other key city officials in a display of perfect unity.

But behind the scenes in the preceding days, the commissioners remained divided on a decision that President Stanley K. Sheinbaum described as a “moment of history for the city.” He said, with no trace of understatement, that it “was a tough one.”

It is unlikely to be known soon just how tough it was because the commissioners have vowed among themselves not to reveal details of their debates or discuss their reservations about the five losing candidates from within the department. They refused even to say whether Williams was their unanimous choice.

“Our deliberations were secret,” said Commission Vice President Jesse A. Brewer, “and they will remain that way.”

The official action--and breakdown of the vote, if there was one--will not be reported publicly until the commission’s next meeting. As a practical political matter, the record is likely to indicate a unanimous decision, whatever the commissioners’ individual preferences, according to well-informed City Hall sources.

In interviews with commissioners and others familiar with the deliberations, it became evident that right up until the end the commissioners disagreed over whether it was in the city’s best interest to select someone from another department to head the Los Angeles Police Department for the first time in more than four decades.

Was this the time--with the department so demoralized and so many major issues demanding quick attention--to bring in an outsider? Was not someone needed who could hit the ground running, and not be left vulnerable in an agency that is a shark tank of internal politics?

“It certainly was a major factor” in the end, Brewer said.

By mutual agreement, the five panel members kept their opinions to themselves about the finalists for six grueling weeks of intense meetings.

Seated around the oval wooden table in the dining room of Sheinbaum’s Brentwood home last month, the commissioners listened and watched carefully, like poker players, as the six hopefuls paraded through with their plans to repair the department’s image.

Hours more were spent with the candidates around a long conference table in the commission offices at Parker Center. They talked to people who knew or had worked with the would-be successors to Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. They absorbed detailed background briefings by the investigators from the city Personnel Department and the LAPD’s Internal Affairs Division.

Then last Thursday afternoon, they gathered for a private meeting at Parker Center to voice, for the first time, their personal preferences and concerns.

Since July, when Gates announced he would retire, it had been widely speculated that the No. 2 ranked candidate--Deputy Chief Bernard C. Parks--would be the new chief. Parks who, like Williams, is black, was regarded as being bright and a good administrator. In addition, many observers noted, he is a protege of Brewer, a close ally of Mayor Tom Bradley’s and a former LAPD assistant chief.

Despite the speculation that Parks had the job locked up because of his relationship with Brewer, it turned out during the Thursday meeting that the commissioner was strongly in Williams’ corner. “Williams was very impressive; just heads and shoulders above the others,” Brewer said.

Like some other commissioners, Brewer was taken by the 48-year-old Williams’ cool and confident style, by the highly positive reviews they had received about him in Philadelphia and by reports on his background.

In addition, he had proved himself a tough disciplinarian, having fired 19 Philadelphia officers in recent years for misconduct and disciplined another 100.

Sheinbaum, a former American Civil Liberties Union leader and strong-willed warhorse for liberal causes, also voiced his support during that Thursday meeting for Williams, who had been ranked first by a rating panel. Sheinbaum said Thursday that he would not discuss the deliberations.

Also leaning toward Williams was Ann Reiss Lane, who had just returned from three days in Philadelphia strongly impressed by what she had seen and heard of the chief’s community-sensitive style of policing. Lane confirmed Thursday that she supported Williams in the end.

But Commissioners Anthony de Los Reyes and Michael Yamaki--two trial lawyers who make up the more moderate wing of the panel and have voiced the most sensitivity to rank-and-file officers’ concerns--were not sure about bringing in an outsider. They wanted to give more consideration to at least two insiders, although it was not clear Thursday which ones.

The discussion lasted six hours, until Reyes said he had to have more time and wanted another meeting, even though Sheinbaum wanted to press ahead. “I don’t know where he gets his energy,” Reyes said.

Yamaki, a criminal lawyer who deals with police frequently and has visited nearly every police station in the city, also did not want to be rushed. He was troubled by the idea of selecting an outsider, no matter what Williams’ qualifications.

They agreed to take up the matter again this week, on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, there were meetings and phone calls among some commissioners.

When they regrouped, Williams remained the choice of most, though not all, the commissioners. Once again they went over the risks and benefits of an outsider.

He would be handicapped by unfamiliarity, one argument went. But he also would be a breath of fresh air, his advocates argued, the strongest signal the commissioners could send that they were making a break with the department’s past, one marred by the Rodney G. King beating and other allegations of brutality.

In the end, Williams’ backers prevailed as the commission decided that the time for talk was over and the moment for action had arrived.

“Our feeling was (Williams’) assets outweighed the liability” of an outsider, Brewer said Thursday. “He can look at things and not be caught up in the (LAPD) culture.”

Despite the disagreements and reservations, the commissioners had closed ranks behind Williams on Thursday, praising his deft performance at one of the largest and most anticipated news conferences in recent city history.

Yamaki said his concerns about an outsider were already easing. Williams had passed the first test, he said, displaying “an ease in handling a crisis, media-type situations” that shows he may well be up to the difficult task ahead.