Panel Fails to Agree on Severance Offer

The group charged with deliberating the issue of a possible severance package for Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams concluded its work Thursday without agreeing on a recommendation but intends to forward the matter to the City Council next week anyway.

Council members will then get the chance to deliberate in closed session on the merits of various proposals to pay Williams for the balance of his five-year term, which ends in July. Among the options are proposals to allow Williams to leave early but still pay him his salary through the end of his term or even beyond, as well as to provide a pension bonus and possibly to help him with legal and other expenses.

Suggestions for a severance package have ranged from those of officials who believe Williams should receive nothing to proposals that he receive as much as $830,000.

Few council members seem likely to support a deal at the high end of that range, but a number have indicated support for a payment of $60,000 to $200,000. Mayor Richard Riordan, who briefly attended the session Thursday, has said he will support whatever deal the council can agree upon.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, a member of the group that met Thursday, said any deal to pay the chief will depend on whether a majority of the council can agree on a package. If so, Williams would then have to consider the offer and decide whether it would satisfy his concerns.

Neither Williams nor his lawyers attended Thursday’s meeting.