More Than the Pacers in Lakers’ Path

Ron Deaton may have been the only Lakers fan who was relieved Sunday, when the hometown team lost the third game of the NBA finals to Indiana.

Deaton, of course, wants the Lakers to win. But as the city’s chief legislative analyst and the City Council’s top problem solver, he has the suddenly unenviable task of planning the team’s victory parade--something that has to be done, even though the series’ outcome remains uncertain.

Figuring out a possible parade route is no easy task because many of downtown Los Angeles’ major streets are torn up and City Hall--the traditional terminus for such events--has become the civic equivalent of a kitchen remodeling, a bottomless pit into which time and money simply disappear.

After spending the last few weeks looking for an acceptable parade route, Deaton welcomed Sunday’s reprieve, which translates into an extra week to plan the procession--though there are people in Indiana who happily would relieve him of the burden entirely.

“The heat is off a little bit,” said Deaton. “If the Lakers swept the series, the parade would have been on Thursday. Since they didn’t win, it won’t be until next week.”

If they do clinch the championship, Deaton and his staff may consider starting the parade at the city’s Department of Water and Power building on the corner of 1st and Hope streets. The procession would then head south down Figueroa Street and end about 1 1/2 miles away at Staples Center.

There are lots of things to consider, Deaton said, such as making sure that there’s enough parking and that the route is large enough to accommodate thousands of gold-and-purple-clad revelers.

Figueroa seemed like a natural choice, Deaton said, because “it’s a nice, wide street.” And the fiber optic cable installation--which for months turned the street into a giant pothole--is finally completed.

Deaton and other city officials have been mulling the idea of this celebration for a couple months. “During that third quarter with Portland, I thought, ‘This isn’t going to be much of a parade,’ ” Deaton quipped.

The topic has also been the center of good-natured discussions between Deaton and Kelly Martin, Mayor Richard Riordan’s chief of staff. The two are often at odds over city policies. So when Deaton proposed his plans for the parade at a recent lunch with Martin, the mayor’s top aide offered a different route--just for the sake of debate.

Once word got out in the council chambers, the city lawmakers congratulated Deaton for once again taking a different direction than the mayor’s office.

All the bantering about a victory party is certainly a change of pace at City Hall, where officials have been grappling with the fallout from the Rampart police scandal.

On Thursday, city officials are scheduled to meet once again with the U.S. Department of Justice, which is pushing for a consent decree directing reforms in the Los Angeles Police Department.

In fact, if the Lakers had swept the series, the parade would have been held at the same time the city was set to meet with the Justice Department.

“That would have been fun,” Deaton said. “We would have given them a float.”