New Police Commissioners Pick Leaders at 1st Meeting : Government: Rabbi Gary Greenebaum will serve as president and attorney Deirdre Hill as vice president. Both support Christopher Commission reforms.

Los Angeles’ new police commissioners, heeding the recommendations of Mayor Richard Riordan, who appointed them, elected Rabbi Gary Greenebaum as their president Tuesday.

Deirdre Hill, an attorney, was elected vice president.

Aside from some minor procedural matters, the election was the first order of business undertaken by the five-member Police Commission during its initial meeting at the downtown Parker Center police headquarters.

Greenebaum, western regional director of the American Jewish Congress, and Hill, the daughter of state Sen. Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood), were the only commissioners nominated for their respective posts and were elected by unanimous votes.

Both have voiced strong support for police reforms recommended by the Christopher Commission.

The other members of the police commission, all of whom were present at Tuesday’s meeting, are Herbert F. (Bert) Boeckmann II, a prominent San Fernando Valley car dealer who served previously on the commission; Art Mattox, a Xerox executive who is a member of a police gay advisory group, and Enrique Hernandez Jr., a security firm executive.

Greenebaum said he has “three basic areas” of concern that he intends to pursue.

“The first,” he said, “is to increase the size of the department,” because “there is safety in numbers.”

The second is to see that the remainder of the Christopher Commission’s recommendations are implemented. And the third, he said, is to “deal with the problems of police morale . . . working with the department, the Police Protective League, the City Council and the mayor’s office to reinstate strong support for the city’s police officers.”

Riordan has promised to put into effect the remaining reforms suggested by the Christopher Commission and has vowed to increase the 7,673-officer force by 3,000 officers. Greenebaum, who lives in the Mid-City area and who served with Riordan on the board of Rebuild L.A., was active in the campaign that led to voter approval last year of Charter Amendment F, an outgrowth of Christopher Commission recommendations prompted by the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King.

Hill is a resident of the Baldwin Hills area. During the mayoral campaign, she joined a group of women who favor abortion rights in supporting Riordan. Her nod came at a time when Riordan was under attack for his contributions to anti-abortion groups.