Council Expected to OK Bratton Today

After days of behind-the-scenes questioning by Los Angeles City Council members, police chief-nominee William Bratton--a career cop credited with dramatically cutting the crime rate in New York City--is expected today to receive the eight votes necessary to confirm his selection as head of the LAPD.

Alex Padilla, president of the 15-member council, said he would back Bratton and predicted that a majority of his colleagues would as well.

“As important of a decision that this was for the mayor, it is also an important decision for us,” Padilla said. “Mr. Bratton has an unmatched resume in the world to take on this job. I’m confident he will do a good job. He has earned my support.”

At Mayor James K. Hahn’s request, Bratton began meetings with council members last Friday. Since then, council members have taken the Boston native on tour after tour of their districts, introducing him to Los Angeles even as they questioned him about his policing philosophy and plans for the LAPD.

In the last few days, Bratton good-naturedly listened to Councilman Tom LaBonge’s soliloquies about the virtues of Los Angeles. Bratton and his wife dined with Councilman Eric Garcetti and his fiancee at the Pig ‘n Whistle on Hollywood Boulevard. (Bratton ordered French fries with his cheese pizza.) And the chief-in-waiting spent hours inside Dennis Zine’s City Hall office, its shelves filled with police memorabilia.

Zine, a longtime LAPD officer and Police Protective League official, said he and Bratton bonded, “cop to cop.”

By the end of his meetings with the council members, Bratton--who turned 55 Sunday--had won over many skeptical city lawmakers with his pledges to revamp the LAPD’s efforts to manage its officers and to cut crime by importing some of the programs that worked in New York City.

Councilman Nate Holden, a staunch supporter of former Chief Bernard C. Parks, is the only member of the council who refused to meet with the nominee.

Although Bratton is still expected to get a long grilling from council members in open session today, most of the 15 lawmakers have indicated that they will give Bratton the thumbs-up to start work Oct. 28.

“I was very pleasantly surprised from our meeting,” said Garcetti, who was initially among the council members encouraging Hahn to give the job to Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez, a veteran of the LAPD. “I think Bill Bratton is going to be a real change agent. He’s very open to broad-based policing with community partners. I’m pretty psyched. It’s going to be good.”

Zine, another Lopez supporter, said he, too, had been won over by Bratton.

“He had all the right answers to all the tough questions,” said Zine, who met with Bratton on Monday evening. “I’m going to vote affirmative. I’m not impressed just because he tells a story, but when I go beneath the surface on law and order issues, he has great answers. I feel comfortable that he can handle the job.”

In addition to Garcetti, Zine and Padilla, other council members who say they support Bratton are Cindy Miscikowski, Jack Weiss, Wendy Greuel, Ruth Galanter, Janice Hahn, Hal Bernson and LaBonge.

“I was impressed with his background and his personality,” Bernson said. “He understood that he wasn’t my first choice. I felt it should have been someone who came up through the ranks of the department. But I told him I would support him. It’s a foregone conclusion anyway.”

Council members who said in interviews that they were undecided on Bratton’s candidacy are Nick Pacheco and Ed Reyes, who both supported Lopez for the job, and Jan Perry and Mark Ridley-Thomas, who were strong backers of former Chief Parks.

“There is reason to be impressed, and there is reason to be concerned,” Ridley-Thomas said. “He really does have to learn the city and the department.”

Pacheco said he plans to ask Bratton to give a timeline on how quickly he can reduce crime in the city. “I want specifics,” he said.

Meanwhile, city officials say they expect Holden to vote against Bratton’s confirmation. Holden, who sharply criticized Hahn’s decision to oppose Parks’ reappointment, declined to be interviewed.

Bratton was chosen for the position after a nationwide search attracted 51 applicants. The Police Commission--which voted in April to deny Parks a second five-year term--eventually winnowed the list to three finalists and sent the names to Hahn for the final pick.

Hahn announced Oct. 3 that Bratton was his choice for the job. Also up for the position were Lopez, who spent the bulk of his career in the LAPD, and former Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney, who was second in command under Bratton at the NYPD.