Chief Prepares to Sue, Bargains for $3 Million

Lawyers for Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams have drafted a lawsuit to file if Williams does not receive a second term, and have asked for $3 million to withdraw their threat of a bruising legal battle, according to sources familiar with the increasingly tense situation.

In addition, the chief’s lawyers wrote to the Los Angeles city attorney on Thursday requesting that the Police Commission be removed from the role of deciding whether Williams deserves a second term.

“Chief Williams believes that the commission is unable to act fairly and objectively regarding his employment and, therefore, it is not in the public interest for the commission to take any action regarding his employment,” Williams’ lawyers said in their letter to the city attorney. “The commission . . . should be disqualified from further participation regarding Chief Williams’ employment.”

Within hours of receiving the letter, however, a representative of the city attorney’s office said Williams lacks the authority to make such a request. According to Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the office, only a police commissioner or elected official could seek to have the commission disqualified.

The fast-moving developments reflect the mounting legal and political stakes in Williams’ bid to retain control of the LAPD, a fight with echoes of the early 1990s and with profound implications for the city government. Its outcome not only will determine whether Williams runs the LAPD for the next five years but also could prove the most searing test of the strength and effectiveness of civilian control of the city’s police.

The question of civilian authority also was at stake in 1992, when then-Chief Daryl F. Gates resisted the commission’s attempts to oust him from office. Gates ultimately retired, but not before a wrenching civic struggle marked by political upheaval at all levels of the city government.

In the midst of that battle, the blue-ribbon Christopher Commission recommended that the chief be limited to a maximum of two five-year terms, renewable at the discretion of the Police Commission. In 1992, Los Angeles voters overwhelmingly approved Charter Amendment F, which implemented those reforms. On Thursday, however, Police Commission President Raymond C. Fisher said the chief’s latest actions are an attack on the reform process.

“This is nothing less than declaring war on the Christopher Commission reforms and the charter amendment,” said Fisher, who served as deputy general counsel to the Christopher Commission.

Peter I. Ostroff, one of Williams’ lawyers, dismissed that claim.

“They like to wrap themselves in the Christopher Commission,” Ostroff said of the police commissioners. “We do not attack the Christopher Commission. We do not attack Charter Amendment F. But we do think that this particular Police Commission is a bit of a problem.”

The explosive debate over the chief’s future is expected to come to a head next week, when the Police Commission hopes to vote on Williams’ application for a second term. Williams’ lawyers have said they believe the commission decided long ago to deny Williams a second term.

In light of that, sources say the chief’s lawyers instead are trying to negotiate a deal for Williams, who makes $173,000 a year.

According to sources, the chief’s lawyers have met with Councilman Richard Alatorre, seeking the influential councilman’s support for a deal that would pay Williams $3 million. Few council members seem amenable to such a large payout, and a source close to the negotiations said Williams might not accept anything less than $1 million.

“I think there’s something magical about seven figures,” the source said. “Is $1 million salable [to the City Council]? Maybe, maybe not. I think it’s too high.”

In December, when reports surfaced about a proposed $250,000 settlement for the chief, some lawmakers thought even that figure was too high.

“I’m not going to be a vote for [$1 million],” one council member who insisted on anonymity said Wednesday. “Not unless somebody holds my feet to the fire and convinces me it would cost $2 million in the form of a lawsuit.”

Although Alatorre has been the chief’s nemesis on the council, he is in many ways a natural to negotiate the increasingly sticky situation.

Alatorre is one of the mayor’s strongest allies on the council and he chairs the powerful Budget and Finance Committee, the gatekeeper for any matter involving money. He is a veteran politician known for skill at cutting deals. And in the City Council, he often serves as a bridge between conservatives and liberals because of his close relationship with Mayor Richard Riordan as well as his support for labor and minority rights.

“What I would like to see happen would be to not have a protracted battle on this issue,” Alatorre said in an interview Thursday. “I believe everyone has a right, if it doesn’t work out, to depart with dignity. He came here to be chief of police. I think he has the right to leave with dignity.”

It would take 10 votes of the council to overturn the police commission’s decision regarding a second term for Williams. It would only require 8 votes of the 15-member body to approve a financial settlement.

If a deal cannot be struck, Williams’ lawyers have prepared a complaint that they are prepared to file. That claim has been shown to a few top city officials, but its contents have been kept a closely guarded secret.

On Thursday, however, sources said the claim alleges that the commission has applied the wrong standards to evaluating Williams’ performance and that even if it applied correct criteria, it has demonstrated such bias with respect to the chief that the panel should not be allowed to determine his future.

The claim, sources added, also alleges that Williams’ performance as chief has been inhibited by Riordan. According to the claim, Riordan has exerted political pressure on the chief, including trying to influence his choices of top staffers; the result, Williams’ lawyers allege, is that the chief has not been able to do his job effectively.

A spokeswoman for Riordan said the mayor had not seen the complaint prepared by the chief’s lawyers. “From what’s been described, the mayor reiterated that the Police Commission has and will continue to act as the Christopher Commission envisioned: independently, judiciously and responsibly,” Noelia Rodriguez said.

Fisher, the commission president, confirmed that the chief’s lawyers had leveled the charges against the mayor and commission.

“I’m aware of those allegations,” Fisher said. “It’s all part of a litigation strategy. It’s really an outrageous attempt to impeach the commission and its work. They are politicizing this process.”

Ostroff, one of the chief’s lawyers, acknowledged that he and a colleague have drafted a lawsuit to be filed in the event that Williams is not hired to serve a second term in the top LAPD job. But he would not discuss the specifics of that document, and he stressed that the chief is merely trying to protect his rights, not inject politics into the appointment process.

“We have drafted a complaint to be filed in Superior Court, which we have shared with the lawyer for the Police Commission,” Ostroff said. “It is a complaint that raises certain issues that I would characterize as procedural in nature.”

Even as the prospects for a legal battle over Williams’ reappointment seem to grow by the hour, the political stakes in the controversy are mounting as well.

Thursday, City Councilman Nate Holden, the chief’s biggest backer on the council, and state Sen. Tom Hayden, a candidate for mayor, held separate news conferences reiterating their support for the chief. Both news conferences were held before the release of the letter seeking to disqualify the commission.

Williams, Hayden said, “may not walk on water, but he has calmed the waters.”

Holden, meanwhile, said he planned to ask the Police Commission to brief the City Council regarding its decision on the chief’s reappointment--regardless of what that decision is.

“Chief Willie Williams should be guaranteed a fair hearing,” Holden said at a City Hall news conference. “The idea is to avoid the continuing contentious litigation and dispute. We need to have an environment in this city where the police chief, the Police Commission, the council and the mayor’s office are not in a contest.”