Don’t Undermine Chief Williams

The Los Angeles City Council needs to step back and ponder very carefully how far it wants to go in micromanaging the management decisions of the Los Angeles Police Department. It is veering dangerously close to undermining Chief Willie L. Williams--who is by recent opinion polls the city’s most popular public official.

The reform chief was appointed two years ago to shake up the tradition-encrusted LAPD. Williams has not had an easy time of things recently. With the octopus-like Civil Service system constricting the chief’s ability to maneuver the police bureaucracy, Mayor Richard Riordan has grown restless with the slow pace at the LAPD.

Even so, the mayor has steadfastly supported Williams’ controversial decision--some even suggest that the mayor’s office encouraged the decision--to demote Asst. Chief Bernard Parks, the department’s No. 2 and a career veteran. Riordan understands that any department head must be comfortable with his top aides and if the chief is not comfortable with Parks, then that’s that.

This is typical Riordan--a clearheaded and hard-nosed believer in giving managers leeway to do the job, then holding them strictly accountable for the results. But some City Council members immediately went to bat for Parks. They lobbied to save Park’s job, and when that seemed like a losing cause, lobbied to save his salary and pension level.

Some council members claim to be protecting the city from a lawsuit, a legitimate concern; but are they also running the risk of trying to do Williams’ job? If that’s what they have in mind, why don’t they just move their chairs into the chief’s office?

Riordan is right to want the chief to be able to call his shots. Los Angeles either has one chief of police or it has none. Last we looked, the chief was Willie L. Williams.