Chief Demotes Top Aide in LAPD Shake-Up

Police Chief Willie L. Williams--under growing pressure from the Police Commission and Mayor Richard Riordan to improve the Police Department’s performance--announced Monday that he is reorganizing the LAPD’s upper ranks, demoting his second in command and reshuffling several of the department’s leading players.

“Over the course of the summer, I did a self-analysis of myself, my administration, where it is and where we need to go,” Williams said in an interview before announcing the changes. “I came to the conclusion that I needed to restructure my senior staff.”

Williams said he was pleased by some of the department’s progress since he took over in 1992 but added that “we were not functioning as a team.” He described the shake-up, including the demotion of Assistant Chief Bernard C. Parks, as effective immediately, but some aspects will require approval from the City Council, where Parks has many allies.

Although Williams said the changes were his idea, others said the chief has come under increasing pressure in recent months to demonstrate that he can effectively lead the LAPD. Critics, including Riordan advisers, say Williams has moved too slowly to make changes recommended by the Christopher Commission and has failed to aggressively implement the city’s Public Safety Plan, the blueprint for an LAPD expansion that was the centerpiece of Riordan’s mayoral campaign.

Sources in city government say Riordan and his staff have repeatedly urged Williams to do more to take charge of the department.

Just last week, in fact, Riordan and Williams met at the Pacific Dining Car restaurant, where they were accompanied by Riordan Chief of Staff William Ouchi, Deputy Mayor William Violante, Police Commission President Enrique Hernandez Jr. and LAPD Chief of Staff Ronald Banks, the sources said.

During that session, Williams said his efforts to make quicker progress in the Police Department were being hampered by his lack of confidence in his command staff, particularly Parks, one of the most important and best known officials within the department.

At that meeting, Williams proposed correcting the department’s problems by shaking up its top personnel. On Monday, he announced several moves and said more would be forthcoming.

Most startlingly, he demoted Parks and replaced him with Deputy Chief Bayan Lewis, a veteran official who has played important roles in the Police Department’s response to the city’s many emergencies in recent years.

Banks was promoted to become first assistant chief, a new position that places him in charge of all LAPD operations and has him reporting directly to Williams. Parks will drop in rank to deputy chief. His new duties have not yet been decided.

Under the old organization, Parks and a second assistant chief, Frank Piersol, reported to Williams. As chief of staff, Banks was a central player in many department decisions and had a direct line to Williams, but he was a deputy chief, ranking lower than either of the two assistants. Piersol will remain an assistant chief, but will report to Banks instead of Williams.

In addition to those changes, Williams announced that he is promoting Cmdr. David J. Gascon, the department’s chief spokesman, to the rank of deputy chief. Gascon, whose handling of the department’s public relations is widely credited with helping spark the LAPD’s resurgent popularity, will take over for retiring Deputy Chief Lawrence Fetters.

Gascon will inherit responsibility for the Public Safety Plan, Riordan’s top priority and one that Williams said was “the No. 1 issue in city government.”

But it was the demotion of Parks that captured most attention Monday and that most rocked police headquarters.

Parks, who had roughly 80% of the LAPD under his command, was representing Los Angeles at a sister-city conference in Berlin when Williams met with Riordan. Parks only discovered upon returning a few days ago that his position was in jeopardy. He was not at work Monday.

Although Parks was unavailable for comment, he already has consulted with attorney Skip Miller, a well-respected lawyer who handles many high-profile lawsuits and has represented the city in cases such as Rodney G. King’s suit.

“I talked to him briefly over the weekend,” Miller said. “He is out with his family for a couple of days. This was done in his absence, without any discussion with him. . . . He had no notice, no forewarning.”

Williams declined to comment on whether he had spoken with Parks but said Parks was “well aware of my feelings and my views.”

Commission President Hernandez, who has spoken highly of Parks on many occasions, said he would respect Williams’ desire to create his own team.

“Chief Williams has indicated to me that he is uncomfortable with the chemistry between himself and some members of his top staff,” Hernandez said. “He wants to gather a team around him that he has the best chemistry with. I have told him that I, as Police Commission president, am going to hold him accountable for achieving the goals and objectives we set. And I, by necessity, need to give him the latitude to do that.”

Hernandez stressed that last week’s meeting with Riordan was not called specifically to critique the Police Department or to discuss individual staff members, but rather was part of an ongoing series of sessions between city and Police Department leaders.

Other officials said they had learned over the weekend that Williams was preparing to move Parks or at least to dilute his authority. Some expressed concern about that idea, but others, including some who have expressed great respect for Parks, backed Williams.

“He is moving to make the administration of his department have more of his personal stamp,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, a member of the Public Safety Committee. “I have the utmost high regard for Bernie Parks, but I also do for Chief Williams. My personal feelings for Bernie Parks aside, I am determined not to micro-manage the Police Department.”

Parks, 51, is one of the department’s most visible and highly respected officers. He has spent 29 years with the LAPD and came close to being appointed chief when the job went to Williams instead. Among his backers are a number of City Council members and retired Chief Ed Davis.

But Parks also has become a lightning rod for controversy. Since becoming director of the LAPD’s Office of Operations, he has backed affirmative action efforts and has vigorously investigated allegations of sexual harassment in the ranks.

In recent weeks, the Los Angeles Police Protective League filed a grievance against Parks, accusing him of disregarding the promotions process in voiding a slate of detectives vying for supervisors’ jobs in the department’s Narcotics Group.

Williams initially backed Parks in that dispute, but said at the time that he would have his staff investigate the complaint and then publicly announce the results in a few days. That was weeks ago; no public announcement has been made, although Williams said Monday that he and Parks “agree 110%” on that issue.

But sources within the department say Williams and Parks have been at odds, at least off and on, since April or so. At that time, Ouchi intervened to ask whether Parks would consider taking a job outside the LAPD.

Parks reportedly said he would not, and afterward he and Williams met to discuss their differences. Both said later that they believed the problems were resolved.

The reorganization unveiled by the chief Monday is the most significant set of personnel moves within the LAPD since Williams took office just over two years ago. It comes after months of building frustration over the strength of his leadership.

Mayoral advisers said Williams has not pushed hard enough to speed hiring of new officers or to redeploy officers from desk jobs to the streets. Ironically, neither of those issues is Parks’ responsibility, and some Riordan aides actually are more impressed with Parks than with Williams.

“Where is the community-based policing?” one Riordan adviser asked. “Where is the commitment to get people out in the street?”

Freeing up more officers to fight crime and expanding the Police Department were the central promises of Riordan’s mayoral campaign, and City Hall sources said Riordan aides are most deeply concerned about Williams’ ability to deliver on the expansion plan.

Riordan’s staff feels it has held up its end of the bargain by setting aside an extra $85 million in this year’s budget for hiring more officers. They are concerned that despite that investment, however, the pace of new hires has fallen below plans, endangering the goal of boosting the 7,700-officer force to 8,350 by the end of this year.

“Dick Riordan has given (Williams) $85 million, and this guy sits over there and, candidly, does nothing,” the adviser said. “It is frightening.”

At the same time, however, council members and the mayor’s staff are reluctant to take on Williams, in part because he enjoys enormous public approval ratings--exceeding those of Riordan, in fact. What’s more, Williams is perceived as having been enormously successful at restoring public confidence in the LAPD, which was rocked by the Rodney G. King beating and the handling of the riots.

“He’s been very good for the city as a symbol, to give confidence in the Police Department and to help heal the city,” said one Riordan adviser. “He is a decent guy and he has a charisma that is very important to this city.”

Williams has acknowledged that some Police Department efforts are moving more slowly than he would like. In public, he has attributed that mainly to the long and bitter contract dispute over officers’ attempts to secure a pay raise. That debate held down morale and made progress on other issues difficult to achieve, the chief has said.

In a recent interview with The Times, Williams conceded that the LAPD was struggling with some issues but denied that he was contemplating any moves that would alter the makeup of his senior staff. He also said rumors of him feuding with Parks were overblown.

“People who don’t know me and some of my senior staff or even some of the mid-level staff make assumptions that because we don’t always say the same thing all the time that someone’s out to bring you down,” Williams said. “Part of my job is to have a diversity of personnel (so) the chief can hear all issues, and then make what I feel are the right decisions.”

Williams’ decision to shake up the department’s upper management is complicated by still another development within the LAPD leadership. Fetters, one of the department’s senior leaders and a favorite of the Riordan camp because of his role in drafting the Public Safety Plan, has told colleagues he intends to retire in a few weeks.

Fetters plans to go to work in Atlanta, where he will help with the security planning for the 1996 Olympics. His absence from the LAPD will deprive the organization of a respected leader at a time when its management is in flux.

In addition to the personalities, there are structural questions about Williams’ suggestion that one assistant chief assume responsibility for all LAPD operations. That same organizational structure was in place decades ago, but was abolished because it concentrated so much power in a single assistant chief.

Councilwoman Chick said she has some concerns about that aspect of the reorganization, which probably will require council approval because it would cost money.

“My knee-jerk reaction is to ask whether this would put another layer between the chief and his staff,” she said. “Also, I am concerned about the possibility of concentrating so much authority in a person below the chief level.”

Times staff writers Jim Rainey and Henry Weinstein contributed to this report.