Man Who Supported Parks Reappointed to Police Panel
David S. Cunningham III, the lone Los Angeles police commissioner to go against the mayor who appointed him and vote to give Bernard C. Parks a second term as chief, was reappointed to the commission Wednesday.
Cunningham said he wondered whether Mayor James K. Hahn would back him again after the vote on Parks. The fact he was renominated “says that Mayor Hahn is really a man of his word ... that when a commissioner chooses to exercise independent judgment, he or she is not penalized for doing that,” said Cunningham, 47, a land-use attorney.
In confirming Cunningham for a five-year term, council members praised him for his independence--a quality that Councilwoman Ruth Galanter called “a little too rare” in city government.
In Los Angeles, the mayor appoints and fires police commissioners, but the panel is intended to be independent. It operates like a company’s board of directors, with the police chief as chief executive.
The Police Commission is now working on finding a replacement for Parks.
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