officers - The Black Vault

FD·350 (Rev. 5-8·81)
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,..----------~(~M~o~oo~t~C~~~~~~~g~i~n~S~~~c~e~B~e~b~wL) __________ ~ LOS ~GELES TIMES
Da~~: SAT APRIL 6 , 19 91
City Couricil A.~ts
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~ PLEA BY BRADLEY
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j The mayor swiftly condemned FBI- LOS ANGEusO ....
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! ·legality. His staff and P? ice o!Xl-
• King beating: The vote the council vote and questionced its J!.!f/l :
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of.} 0 to 3 is a major
mission members begJin work1.ng
Friday night on a. 1 Strategy . to
setback for the mayor, attack it. And Garcfa said he might
Hahn andlawye;sfor the chief said
Gates will agree to the terms. Hahn
who is unable to sway the ·resign from the commission. to said Gates could resume his job as
lawmakers. Police chief protest the cpimcil'~ drama.tic
.ea~ly as the next Police Commission
meeting, which i~ scheduled
move.
agrees not to sue the city "They ha:ve now destroyed the forTuesday. . ., · ·
whole Ci'iii ServJce system in one
for monetary damages. fell swoop," ·Deputy Mayor Mark
By JANE FRITSCH
and PAUL FELDMAN
TIMES STI\I'F WRITERS
The Los Angeles City Coupcil
erdered the reinstatement of Police
· Chief Daryl F. Gates on Friday ;Just
one day after the Police Commission
relieved him of his duties
pending the outcome of a wideranging
investigation. . -
The council's action followed an
extraordinary four-hour closed
session at which Mayor Tom Bradley
and Police Commission Pr.esi,.
! , dent Dan Garcia tried to persu·a.de
I · the councrl to back away from
, · plans to thwart the commission's
! action. · .
The 10-3 decision by the cottncjl
.. was a major setback for Bradley,
· who on Tuesday called for Gates to
resign, and. for weeks . has been
working behind the scenes to. orchestrate
Gates' ouster in the af- .
termath of the police beating of ..
· Rodney G. King.
"We wanted to assert our· au-
1 thority," said an elated· Councilwoman
Joy ~icus, who called the
council's action a "political deci-.
. sion."
• Fabial)f said. . .
The reinstatement was a person-.
al victory for Gates, who .had
stubbornly resisted pressure from
Bradley as well as calls by community
activists for his re~igna~ion.' . ;
Council members sa1d their decision
reflected ·their anger at the
treatment of Gates and the secretive
manner in whi~h the commisj
• RELATED STORIES, A24-A25 .,
sion operated. ' · .
Under· questioning Friday, council
members said, Garcia acknowledged
that th~ee commission mem-.
bers met pnvately Wednesd!tY .
night to discuss .putting Gates on
paid leave, before maki_ng the. ~ction
official at a public me~tmg
Thursday morning. ·
, Council President John Ferraro
branded the commissioners' unannounced
Wednesday night session
a violation of· the state's Open
Meetings Act. .
"We did not agree with the
commission's action-they acted
illegally and irresponsibly," Ferraro
said. "They besmirched a publi~
servant of 42 years."
The councjl made Gates' reinstatement
contingent on hjs agreeing
not to sue the city for monetary
damages. City Atty. James K.
1
ne of Gates' lawyers, Harry G.
OMelkonian, said the -chief told
him he was "absolutely aelighted
and anxious to get back to work"
arid that he had no plans to sue for
monetary damages. ''I'm not interested
in any money from the city,"
· Gates told Melkonian. "I just want
to be back in my office."
·"But he still is going to wait for
things to take their course [over
ther;weekend]," the lawyer said.
~·He wants to see it happen first."
.·!.f~chnically, the council voted to
direct Hahn to reinstate Gate~ as
w.t of a settlement of a lawsuit
Gates plans to file against· the
Police Commission on Monday.
Under the City Charter, the council
does not have the power to overrule
the Police Commission's removal
of Gates, but the counf!il
does have the authority to settle
\l,wsuits filed against the comniisf
sion. ·
: .Representatives of the city attorney's
office were in the council
&bambers throughout· the session
and conducted negotiations by
telephone· with Gates' attorneys,
who agreed to the council's terms.
.. · :In· a statement Friday evening,
Bradley said the council's action
threatened the independence of the
Police Commission and the other
~ity panels he appoints .. "I .rurt' FBitooJ
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