Bradley-Gates Struggle Has Old, New Twists

It’s summertime, and the sequels are here. On Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley could be found in his City Hall office with movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, posing in futuristic sunglasses to promote the U.S. Olympic Festival and, at least subliminally, the actor’s new film, “Terminator II.”

Another noteworthy sequel was in the works at City Hall on Wednesday--the effort by Bradley and others to push a stubborn Daryl F. Gates into retirement.

Three months have passed since the mayor and his top deputy, Mark Fabiani, made their last run at Gates, a carefully staged campaign that ended with Bradley politically damaged, the City Council emboldened, the Police Commission tarnished--and Gates, like the Terminator character Schwarzenegger has made popular, proving indestructible.

Now Bradley is trying again. The mayor went on television late Tuesday afternoon and called on Gates to follow the recommendation of the Christopher Commission Report and begin taking steps to retire. By Wednesday, the battle was spreading, with city and community leaders again lining up on the now familiar issue of what should be done with Gates.

Bradley-Gates II promises to be different. The mayor, humbled in his last campaign, shows no signs this time of taking council support for granted, and already has served up two of his closest allies on the Police Commission as, in the words of Urban League President John Mack, “sacrificial lambs.” Last month, he also gained two new allies who were elected to the council.

Moreover, the findings and recommendations of the Christopher Commission have bolstered Bradley’s position and undermined Gates’ defense that the March 3 Rodney G. King beating was an “aberration.” At the same time, the seemingly exhaustive report makes it difficult for council members to assume, as some had previously, the position that it was not fair to pass judgment on Gates until all the facts were in.

Some things, though, have not changed. Once again, the steps of City Hall were visited Wednesday with groups from three different ethic coalitions demanding that Gates step down. And once again, the stubborn chief seemed wholly determined not to do so.

Veterans of the last campaign said that Bradley and other community leaders should have learned that press conferences and protests only serve to steel Gates’ resolve not to flee police headquarters during a crisis.

“Clearly, the more people demand his resignation, the less likely he will resign,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. “Nobody is going to force him to do what he doesn’t want to do. On the other hand, how long can the city take it?”

The mayor misstepped badly, several council members said, when he announced Tuesday that he had directed the city personnel office to immediately launch a nationwide search for Gates’ successor in the wake of the Christopher Commission Report.

“How can you have a national search when you don’t even have a vacancy?” said Councilman Richard Alatorre. “Continuing to isolate the issue on Tom Bradley and Daryl Gates is not going to accomplish anything.”

On Wednesday, Bradley clarified his statement, saying that the Personnel Department needed to lay the groundwork for any search before the chief’s job is vacated.

Council President John Ferraro, who earlier arranged a public truce between the mayor and police chief, said that he embraced the Christopher Commission findings and is interested in again pursuing the role of mediator. But Ferraro appeared in no hurry to broker a deal to secure the chief’s retirement anytime soon.

“This city is being driven into smithereens by some of the things being said. Nothing is being said positive about the Police Department at all . . . I don’t hear anybody saying what a good job Daryl has done. He’s been an outstanding chief,” Ferraro said. “I think we have to let this thing play out. It’s going to be a matter of time before Chief Gates retires.

“He is a proud man. I think they ought to respect that.”

Ferraro said he was concerned that controversial Police Commissioner Melanie Lomax, in her resignation letter, seemed to hinge her resignation Tuesday on a departure by Gates. If so, Ferraro said, “the battle is long from over with.”

Michael Woo, the only councilman who previously called on Gates to resign, said the chief squandered an important opportunity to “make a graceful exit” after the release of the Christopher panel’s report. Woo was among numerous city leaders who expressed hope on Wednesday that Gates’ friends and closest supporters “send him the message that it would be best not to drag out the transition process any longer.”

Indeed, many people who want the chief to leave believe that the best hope of persuading Gates to set a retirement date now rests with business and civic leaders who have the chief’s ear. These leaders include Richard Riordan, a prominent attorney and longtime Bradley commissioner, and Ray Remy, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and a former Bradley aide.

Riordan said he would be willing to urge Gates to agree to a timetable for retirement--as long as the mayor appointed two new police commissioners to oversee the department that the community could agree on.

“I think Daryl Gates has been a great chief in most ways,” Riordan said. “However, for the good of the city, he should make room for his successor. But it also is important that all citizens have confidence in the makeup of the Police Commission and its ability to pick the best possible successor.”

Remy said he supports many recommendations in the Christopher Commission Report and will discuss them with the chamber board in a meeting today. To the extent that he can help work out a compromise with Gates, he said he is available.

“Frankly,” Remy said, “I don’t know of a way that, if Daryl says he doesn’t want to retire, that he can be forced to retire. It would be terribly divisive. It seems to me the chief ought to look at the unanimity of the report and his own time frame and how he can best serve the city.”

A previous effort to persuade business leaders to urge Gates to step down was launched by Bradley months earlier. It failed, largely because Gates had rallied support among conservative elements in the business community.

Business leaders, along with council members, also were angered by the behind-the-scenes efforts of Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani to pressure Gates into retiring.

Bradley, the Urban League’s Mack said, now has a second chance to exert his skills as a “quiet diplomat.” He said that this time the mayor should make certain that Fabiani will “cool it” and not orchestrate “something that gives the chief more opportunity to become more obstinate.”

Fabiani, who has kept a low profile in recent weeks, refused to be interviewed for this article.

Mack said he and other minority leaders find themselves in a “Catch-22” over how to react to the Christopher report. On the one hand, the document gave them new ammunition in their struggle to oust Gates.

“(Tuesday) was a very important day in the history of Los Angeles,” Mack said to a crush of reporters and television camera crews. “The Christopher Commission gives us new hope for a new beginning.”

But, while calling for the chief to resign, Mack acknowledged that such press conferences as the one he was participating in would likely make Gates even more stubborn.

“Here is where I’m struggling,” Mack said. “I don’t want to get into a thing about the chief . . . He is known to play his political cards.”

The support Gates has enjoyed until now on the City Council appears to be waning. The council’s two newest members, Rita Walters and Mark Ridley-Thomas, strongly favor the chief’s removal. Several other council members who blocked an attempt by the Police Commission to oust Gates now support the chief’s retirement with the release of the Christopher Commission findings.

“The best thing that Daryl Gates can do now in a short span of time is announce that he is going to retire and set the date,” Yaroslavsky said. “If he wants to thumb his nose or defy the business community and many of his own subordinates and elected leaders of the city, he has the ability to hold the city and Police Department hostage to his own ego.

“Daryl Gates has nine lives. The question is, how many of them have been expended? Has he expended all nine or is he at eight? Nobody knows.”