Deal Reportedly Near in LAPD Feud Over Parks : Police: Tentative agreement would let the assistant chief keep his current rank and retire early next year with maximum benefits, officials say.

The feud between the Los Angeles Police Department’s two most powerful figures is on the verge of a settlement that will permit Assistant Chief Bernard C. Parks to retain his rank until early next year and then retire with maximum benefits, city officials said Friday.

Police Chief Willie L. Williams, for his part, will be allowed to bring in a new second-in-command, possibly before Parks’ retirement.

In a deal brokered by several City Council members, Parks would be able to leave the department without accepting a demotion that he considered unjustified. Williams, who ordered the demotion, would accept Parks’ retirement and proceed with a staff reorganization that he says is crucial in speeding reforms in the Police Department.

A final agreement between the city and Parks is expected next week, several sources said.

Neither Parks nor Williams was available for comment.

The outcome of the battle will apparently leave the department without Parks, the man who has overseen 80% of its operations, and with a police chief who has lost his aura of political invincibility.

Williams said he needed to demote Parks, and promote Chief of Staff Ronald Banks to second in command, in order to take more control of his department and push ahead with the expansion of the ranks and institution of Christopher Commission reforms.

The political dispute has exposed Williams to the first serious controversy of his two-year reign.

“I think it’s tarnished him,” said an adviser to Mayor Richard Riordan, who asked to remain anonymous. “I think it presents a scratch in the Teflon, but it’s also an opportunity, with the changes, for him to move and do something with the department.”

The controversy erupted Monday when Williams announced that Parks would be demoted from his post as an assistant chief to deputy chief, with an attendant loss of pay of about $6,500 a year. The chief said he would replace Parks with Bayan Lewis, a deputy chief who has overseen the city’s responses to several emergencies in recent years. Banks, in turn, would be promoted to the new position of first assistant chief, overseeing all of the LAPD’s operations.

But several City Council members were furious that Parks, a 29-year veteran, had been kicked downstairs without apparent warning and while he was out of the country, attending a sister-city conference in Berlin.

Councilman Richard Alatorre let his displeasure be known Thursday in an expletive-laced showdown with the chief, sources said. Council President John Ferraro also questioned how much control Williams really has over the department and suggested that the chief was ducking his own duties by attempting to put Banks in a new “super assistant” position.

And the lawyer representing the department’s highest-ranking officials also objected, saying in a letter to the chief that he had acted in an “unlawful” manner by demoting Parks without proper notice. A confrontation with the Command Officers Assn. “will result in divisiveness and loss of public confidence in the department,” lawyer Barry Levin wrote to Williams.

Concerned about the ongoing feud and the possibility that Parks would challenge the demotion in court, Ferraro called a meeting Thursday that included Williams and City Atty. James K. Hahn.

The group agreed that Parks should be allowed to stay on the city payroll and maintain his current rank of assistant chief and pay of $128,388, rather than take the cut if demoted to deputy chief, sources said. The group also agreed that Parks would not return to duty, but could take accrued vacation and compensatory time until February, when he will complete 30 years of service and be eligible for his full pension. The arrangement would result in $89,868 annually in retirement pay for Parks, about $4,500 a year more than his pension would have been after the demotion.

Williams has agreed to the settlement, according to Ferraro and city officials, who said they are only awaiting final approval from Parks. Another council member, who asked to remain anonymous, said Parks had already agreed to the arrangement.

But a source close to Parks, who asked not to be named, said the assistant chief had not reviewed the agreement and had a number of concerns, including that it might contain a proviso preventing him from speaking publicly about the police chief or new command staff.

*

Skip Miller, one of Parks’ attorneys, declined to comment on any specifics of the tentative agreement. “It’s moving toward a resolution and it’s not finalized yet. That’s all I’ll say,” said Miller.

Police Department spokesman David Gascon, elevated in the recent restructuring from commander to deputy chief, declined comment, saying Parks’ employment status is a confidential personnel matter.

It is unclear what impact Parks’ departure will have on a department in which he oversaw the vast majority of operations. It had been an open secret that Williams and Parks--the man he edged out two years ago for the top job--did not get along.

Many City Council members and police commissioners have said Williams should be allowed to shift Parks and others without interference and should only be judged on the final performance of the department.

But other council members have said they believe that the attempted demotion of Parks was an effort by the police chief to deflect criticism that he has moved too slowly to put more police on the streets and make other changes.

“How many reorganizations does the guy need?” said Alatorre. “I mean, come on, he has been here for two years.”

Performance reviews of the police chief and other city department heads by the mayor and City Council have not been conducted for two years because no money was available for pay raises. When the reviews resume next year, Williams and his reorganization plans will be scrutinized closely, several council members promised.

While Williams has acknowledged that the pace of some reforms has been slower than he would like, LAPD officials said they do not understand critics who say the police buildup is moving too slowly. Plans by the chief and mayor--which are supposed to add 2,855 police to the 7,700-member force over five years--are on schedule, according to several LAPD officials.

Even if the roiling waters surrounding the Parks affair are calmed next week, more changes are expected. Williams is expected to announce a new round of top-level staff changes as early as Monday.

Times staff writer Jim Newton contributed to this report.