Villaraigosa Names 4 to Panel Overseeing LAPD

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled his makeover of the civilian Police Commission on Thursday, picking four nominees who he said would be “vigorous in their oversight” of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The announcement came four days after a fatal police shootout that has raised new questions about the department’s use of force. Villaraigosa noted that this group, if approved by the City Council, would be responsible for reviewing the investigation into the standoff that resulted in the death of a 34-year-old suspect and his 19-month-old daughter, and the wounding of an officer.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Villaraigosa said. “We’re going to examine every fact, [and] there will be transparency throughout. That’s important.”

The new nominees are John Mack, recently retired president of the Los Angeles Urban League; Shelley Freeman, a bank executive; and two former federal prosecutors, Anthony Pacheco and Andrea Ordin. If approved, they will join the sole remaining member of the old board: Alan J. Skobin, a lawyer at a San Fernando Valley auto dealership.

At a news conference in MacArthur Park, Villaraigosa said he expected the group to “set tall goals and ensure accountability.”

“Citizens oversee our department; that’s the way it works,” the mayor said. “And, yes, they’re going to be vigorous in their oversight.”

The commission appointments are Villaraigosa’s first chance to influence the tenor of the Police Department. They also can affect the relationship between the mayor and police chief.

In past administrations, that relationship has sometimes been troubled. So far, Villaraigosa and Chief William J. Bratton have been supportive of each other.

The Police Commission sets department policy and evaluates the performance of the chief. It also reviews internal investigations of officers’ use of force, though it has no power to discipline them.

Its responsibilities have put the board in the center of some of Los Angeles’ most intense political maelstroms, including the police beating of motorist Rodney G. King in 1991 and the Rampart Division corruption scandal.

The outgoing commission, appointed by former Mayor James K. Hahn, has occasionally disagreed with the chief he chose in 2002 -- Bratton -- but never on a high-profile use-of-force incident, board spokeswoman Tamryn Catania said.

However, the group wasn’t just a rubber stamp, said Andre Birotte Jr., the commission’s inspector general. He said that even when the panel had agreed with the chief’s findings, members had sought changes in training or tactical approaches.

“We have been really focusing on reorganizing and beefing up our staff,” Birotte said. “We have been forcing the department to answer questions they haven’t had to answer in the past.”

Some observers of L.A. police politics said it was too early to tell whether the new board would be more aggressive in its watchdog role.

When asked, Villaraigosa said only that the group would comply with the federal consent decree, which lays out strict rules that must be followed during investigations into cases of police misconduct.

“We must ensure that we fully comply with the consent decree, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it will help build and strengthen community partnerships and trust,” he said.

Mack, one of Los Angeles’ best-known African American leaders, said he would ensure that every young person of color was “treated with respect and not viewed as a gangbanger.”

He also had kind words for Bratton, a friend. “We look forward to having an effective partnership with Chief Bratton and providing our oversight responsibilities in a way that Los Angeles truly becomes the model in law enforcement,” he said.

Robert Stern of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies said he doubted that Villaraigosa would put together a board that would be overly critical of Bratton.

Despite a charter that affords the mayor substantial power over the police chief and commission, he said, “Bratton can, if he wants, be very independent and have a constituency of his own.... He could make the job of mayor very difficult.”

Thomas A. Hollihan, a media and politics specialist at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication, echoed Stern’s comments. The new commissioners, he said, “are not bomb throwers. These are rational people.”

They will serve the new mayor’s aim of keeping the status quo, he suggested. “My guess is: Don’t look to see any radical changes,” Hollihan said.

At the news conference, Villaraigosa praised the group for the breadth of its experience and its “deep roots in the reform movement.”

Mack is the best-known nominee. A veteran of the civil rights struggle in the South of the 1960s, he headed the local Urban League from 1969 until last month, overseeing its growth into a job-training, tutorial and placement organization that serves more than 100,000 people a year.

He is typically viewed as a moderate and a consensus builder. But Mack has not been afraid to criticize the police force: After the King beating, he called for the firing of then-Chief Daryl Gates.

Freeman is regional president of Wells Fargo’s Los Angeles Metro Community Bank. Villaraigosa said she would be invaluable for her unique community ties -- she serves on the boards of a number of gay and lesbian and Jewish organizations -- and for her ability to scrutinize police budgets.

Ordin, a former U.S. attorney and ex-California chief assistant attorney general, was a member of the Christopher Commission, which investigated allegations of racism and excessive force in the LAPD after the King beating.

Attorney Jan L. Handzlik, a longtime acquaintance of Ordin and a former federal prosecutor who has been tapped for several examinations of the Police Department, praised her “sound judgment.”

“Andrea brings a fair and reasoned approach to complex problems,” said Handzlik, now in private practice. “She is always the calm in the middle of the storm.”

In examining the LAPD, Ordin, like others who have critiqued the department, has been “concerned with one issue,” Handzlik said. “Accountability.”

Pacheco was counsel to the Rampart Independent Review Panel, which was formed after the corruption scandal broke to look at the department’s institutional failures. He specialized in officer-involved shootings and use-of-force complaints.

Like Ordin, he is in private practice.

If his appointment is approved, Pacheco said, he wants to take a “fresh look” at the LAPD. “I don’t want to make any prejudgments.”

Bratton, in a statement, praised Villaraigosa for choosing an “outstanding group.” And Bob Baker, president of the police union, said he anticipated a “productive working relationship.”

“Of course,” Baker added in a statement, “John Mack has been a vociferous critic of the Police Department and our officers in the past.

“We are actually looking forward to having him on the commission, because we trust that when he sees our issues from the inside and understands their complexity, he will be a powerful communicator for the LAPD and its role in the city.”

Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.