officers - The Black Vault

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Fabiani: The Quiet M~v in. a
Bitter ControversY
'By DAVID FERRELL
TIMES STAff WRITER
'He has been a man in the
shadows-seldom quoted by
reporters, never seen on television
despite the continuing furor over
the police beating of Rodney G.
King.
He was not in attendance when
:the Los Angeles Police Commis­
... sion acted Thursday to put C.hief
'Daryl F. Gates on 60-day leave;
nor was he at a crowded City
Council meeting on Friday, when
angry council members moved to
effectively reverse the corpmission
action against Gates.
Yet Mark D. Fabiani, Mayor Tom
Bradley's chief of staff, has been an
"important combatant in a political
fight that lately has been cast as a
. clash pf just two heavyweights,
Bradley and Gates.
· · "Uhink he's calling about all of
the shots," an irate Councilwoman
Joy Picus asserted on Friday,
echoing what .other~ at City Hall
are saying about the No. 2 man in
· 'Bradley's administration. At 33,
Fabiani is seen as a brilliant intel­
.lect-who might also be an unsettling
force in the delicate politics of
·trying to pull the city through such
.;sensitive times. ·
· With his slicked-back hair, Harvard
Law School education and
reputation for forceful behind~the­
.scenes politicking, Fabiani pur­
:posely shuns the spotlight, keeping
:Bradley's name before the news
·cameras. Even so, the ·sharptongued,
quick-witted Fabiani has
made more than a few enemies at
:-GitY Hall. He became embroiled in
·a long-running conflict y.rith Gates
long before anyone had ever heard
of Rodney King or the beating that
Los Angeles officers gave him on
·March3. ·
The administrative feud began
last fall when Fabiani joined the
'mayor in calling for a sweeping
management audit of the 10,000-
member Police Department.
A defensive Gates responded by
·blasting Fabjani as "a slick-haired
... young kid" of unproven capa­
, bility ..
Fabtam also alienated City
: Council President John Ferraro
; ,several times last year, once by
stepping in as m~y.or when Bradley
was out of town-a duty that,
under the City Charter, belongs to
the council. president. ,
The personal conflict . appeared .
to deepen on Thursday when Fe~.­
raro stepped in as acting mayor
while Bradley was in. Sacramento
to discuss the city buqget: . .Jn his
fill-in role, Ferraro asked ·ihe Police
Commission to withhold any
action on Gates until· commission :
members.cmild meet Wifh.the-tity .
Council in a closed-door· session
Friday. • · ·
The commission ignored the rE;!­
quest and suspended Gates, a re~
buf~ that Ferraro attributed largely
to Fabiani's lobbying. ·
"I think he and the mayor have
orchestrated the whole thing," said
an angry Ferraro, who ran against
Bradley in a mayoral race several
years ago. Ferraro added that he
has "no idea why there's ·bad
blood" between Fabiani and Gates.
"He's JUSt a httle k1d," the council
president said of Fabiani.
When asked about the timing of
Date: LOS ANGELES TIMES
Edition: SAT APRIL 6, 1991
FRONT SECTION, PAGE 24
Title:
FABIANI: THE QUIET l"IAN
IN A BITTER CONTROVERSY
Character:
or
Classification:
CIVIL RIGHTS
8 0-3 3B
Submitting Office:
IDS AK'GELES
Indexing:
~S~-R~C~HE-0------~~N~D~=E=D----~
SERIAU~ED:....--- fll.fD., ____ ,
APR 1 0 1991
FBI
the Police Commission vote, Fabi~
ani acknowledged that he spoke
wit}) commission .president Dan
Garci~ before· Thursday's action,
but denied influencing the panel to
.proceed with Gates' suspension:
, ·"J had no r.ole in the decision,"
Fabiani said. "Dan Garcia called.
.. from the middle of the commission
~eeting to let me know that he had
just received a letter from Ferraro
and, as actipg mayor, that Ferraro
:Jlad made a request: I told Dan . . .
that he ·ought to regard that request
in the same way he would
• regard a request from the mayor.
He ought to do what he felt was 'in
.the commission's best interest to
do."
qoul}cilman Nate Holden, who
said the vote "bothered the whole
council," attributed it to influence
· by Bradley or Fabiani. "There's no
oad. ·blood in my book," Holden
said. "It's called the art of politics,
~md th,at's what everyone is playmg.''
Several other council members,
h9wever, conceded that the com~
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