Gates Expected to Be Told to Halt High-Level Promotions

Moving firmly to ensure Los Angeles’ new police chief has the maximum opportunity to assemble his own leadership team, the Police Commission today is expected to order retirement-bound Chief Daryl F. Gates to forgo any high-level reassignments before he leaves office.

The commission called a special meeting for today after Gates rejected a request by panel President Stanley K. Sheinbaum to hold off on any appointments during the two months before his successor, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Willie L. Williams, takes the LAPD’s reins.

“You’ve got a new chief coming in,” Sheinbaum said. “He’s the one who should be allowed to fill the positions. . . . You don’t let an outgoing manager determine who the various (managers) should be.”

Said Police Commissioner Ann Reiss Lane of Gates: “I don’t think he should fill any posts. That’s up to the new chief.”

Despite the views expressed by members of the mayoral-appointed Police Commission, which oversees the department, Gates told reporters Thursday that he intends to make reassignments “wherever I see a hole in a . . . position that I think is critical to the health and safety of the city.

“Until I retire,” he emphasized, “there’s only one chief. That’s me. I am the appointing authority by the (city) charter and I continue to do that.”

Gates earlier had indicated he would abide by the appointment moratorium if formally ordered to do so by the Police Commission, according to Sheinbaum. That, the commissioner said, is why a special meeting has been called for this morning.

The dispute over appointments was not the only sign Thursday that Gates’ departure from the LAPD will be anything but quiet.

In New York, it was announced that his “frank, controversial--and newsmaking”--book on his 14-year tenure as chief will be released May 20, more than a month before he is expected to officially retire.

The publisher, Bantam Books, said the 364-page autobiography will be an inside view of everything from the investigations of the deaths of Marilyn Monroe and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy to the “political and media maneuvering” surrounding the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King--the event that prompted Gates’ announced retirement. In a quote released by the publisher, Gates said the book “gives me the opportunity to set the record straight about my life, and my accomplishments with the LAPD.”

Bantam spokesman Stuart Applebaum declined to provide details, but said the book will provide an “inner sanctum discussion” of Gates’ views of City Hall political leaders, including his longtime foe, Mayor Tom Bradley.

The timing of the book’s release means Gates is likely to be conducting a high-profile series of promotional interviews in the weeks leading up to the June 2 election on proposed LAPD reforms, which he strongly opposes.

In response to more immediate events in the chief’s tumultuous career, Gates said Thursday that he would not fill two assistant chief positions--the second-highest ranking jobs in the department--but may well make interim appointments to other positions, including the next tier of deputy chief jobs.

Gates noted he cannot give promotions to higher ranks or pay increases because of a city hiring freeze, but he can move lower-ranking officers to positions of greater responsibility, thereby giving them a leg up when the jobs can be filled permanently.

One such appointment Gates made in recent days was naming Capt. Charles Labrow, president of the Command Officers Assn., as commanding officer of the North Hollywood station. Labrow said Gates made the reassignment last Friday, the day after Williams’ appointment was announced.

Gates also recently elevated a captain to acting commander in the Valley Bureau and has at least two other area commanding officer jobs currently open.

Police Commissioner Jesse Brewer, a former LAPD assistant chief under Gates, said the reassignments should stop because they create expectations among those receiving them that the temporary appointments will become permanent when the hiring freeze is lifted. Gates is “kind of telling people . . . (it will) be yours when the freeze is over. He’s promoting people in effect,” Brewer said.

Labrow said he certainly expects to receive a promotion to the highest grade of captain because of his reassignment.

“I really don’t understand why it’s become such a political thing,” he said, “because really there are going to be a lot of vacancies and (Williams) is going to be able to select many top, top-ranking officers. They can’t leave these (area commander) positions vacant . . . there has to be somebody sitting there.”

Gates also indicated that he is considering putting his chief press spokesman, Cmdr. Robert Gil, in charge of the Office of Special Investigations, a slot now filled by Deputy Chief William Booth, who has announced his retirement.

Williams met privately with Gates Thursday morning at police headquarters, but later sidestepped the controversy, saying Gates is still chief and he has to run the department.

“I’m not going to voice my comments on whether I mind,” he said of the reassignments. “That’s a decision between Chief Gates and the Police Commission and the City Council.”