officers - The Black Vault

F0·350 (Rev. 5·8·81)
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LOS ANGELES THiES
Date: FRI. ~1AR 29, 1991
Edition: METRO SECTION, PAGE 7
Unjustified Means
: • Government: Mayor Bradley,
·:in apparently using the Civil
: Service Commission to pry the
:chief from his job, undercuts an
:important principle.
:By RONALD B. TUROVSKY
-.
When former Civil Service Commission-
: er Clare Bronqwski first saw the Rodney G.
: King beating on television, she probably
:had no idea that the incident meant her
days on the commission
were numbered. But on
Tuesday, she was "transferred,"
after six months of
service, to the Municipal
Audi torium/Con.vention
Center Commission. Bronowski,
a good soldier, had no
~boice but to agree to the
switch. .
' ·The transfer sets an enormously
bad precedent. May­
~9r Tom Bradley has either
stacked the deck in order to
influence a hearing on Police
~hief Daryl Gates or has
attempted to send a message
to Gates and the public that Mayor Tom Bradley .
he is determined to get
Gates out. While Gates' removal
may be a worthy goal, Bradley's
·decision underc~ts the very idea of citize11
:commissions.
· Bronowski, while not at odds with the
mayor, · has no ties to him. She was
nominated by City Council member Joy
Picus, for whom Bronowski served as an
aide. Six months ago, the mayor probably
thought not at all about Bronowski's
appointment to the obscure commission.
Now the commission is not obscure. If
· the Police Commission were to recommend
·disciplinary action against Gates, or his
dismissal, that recommendation would be
·referred to the Civil Service Commission
for a hearing.
· It is easy to imagine the mayor review­
·ing the commissioners to see how that
hearing would turn out. One commissioner
is Julie Depoian, the wife of a Bradley aide.
Another is the Rev. Kenneth Flowers, a
minister whose congregation has called for
'Gates' resignation. Two likely votes
~gainst Gates.
· ' The other two are commission President
t:asmiro Tolentino and Vice President
,Anthony de Los Reyes. Both are question
marks to the mayor. Both have been on ~he
commission for years, however, and it
would have been difficult to dismiss them.
So Bronowski was the obvious target. She
is to be replaced by Larry Drasin, a
longtime Bradley supporter, giving the
mayor three sure votes. ,
Since there is only a slim chance that.the
Gates matter will get as far as the commission,
it's more plausible that in the Bronowski
transfer Bradley is sending a strong
message to Gates and to the public.
The transfer, whatever the motive, sets
a dangerous precedent. While commission
appointments are political to' start with,
this is different because the
transfer appears intended to
influence the outcome of a
specific hearing. ·
.> This tinkering makes the
- '=·:~.:~ .{:ommission's task impossi-
' · ble, since. its purpose is to
provide a fair and impartial
hearing before disciplinary
action is taken. ·
'The transfer is com parable
to allowing the mayor to
choose the judge assigned to
a specific case. Yes, individuals
are often appointed .to
the bench based on their
overall political Views, and
that .is part .of the system.
That's a far cry from select-
ing a judge to decide a specific
pending case based on the judge's
political views. Would we want the mayor
to choose the judge handling the trial of the
officers indicted in King's beating? ·
Tpe message to commissioners is clear:
The mayor can remove them in order to
ensure the outcome of decisions or replace
tliem if he disapproves of their decisions.
But commissions must be above that in
order to do their job-particularly in highly
charged cases. If the mayor is considering
the appointment of an independent commission
in the King beating, what message
has he sent? •
Since Bronowski has resigned, the only
practical control left is for the City Council
to reject the mayor's new appointment to
the Civil Service Commission. That will be
difficult because the action might be perceived
as "pro-Gates." But it is not prqanycine
to let the commission work without
tampering. It is called "due process,"
something that applies even to the chief of
police. ·
Rorwld B. Turovsky is a lawyer in Los
Angeles.
T~:AN
UNJUSTIFIED MEANS
Character:CIVIL RIGHTS
or
Classifteation: 80-3 3 B
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELES
Indexing:
SEARCHED INOEXED·---1
SERIALIZED·--- fiLE0•----1
APR 13 1991
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LOS ANGELES