City Leaders Call for Gates’ Firing, Threaten Pay Cut : Police: Yaroslavsky, Woo implore commission to dismiss chief after he says he might not retire this month. Other council members are more cautious.

Accusing Police Chief Daryl F. Gates of trying to sabotage the transfer of authority to his successor, members of the City Council on Saturday called for his dismissal and threatened to initiate actions that could cost the chief as much as $30,000 in annual pension benefits.

Gates’ latest waffling over his stated retirement date, as well as his performance during the riots, could be grounds for the City Council to slash his pay from $177,000 to $133,000, several influential council members said. His pension will be 70% of his salary at the time of retirement.

The mayor, council members and police commissioners expressed their outrage after Gates told city officials he may stay on the job until July 15 over a dispute concerning a list of police captains up for promotion. Previously, Gates had repeatedly said he would step down at the end of June.

If Gates remains through July 15, it is likely that officials will have certified the passage of Charter Amendment F, the police reform measure approved last week by a 2-1 margin.

The law calls for new police chief selection procedures, and its certification while Gates is in office would invalidate the appointment of ex-Philadelphia Police Commissioner Willie L. Williams as his successor.

Political leaders say a lengthy, costly and divisive process would follow. Although Williams’ reappointment is likely, the new selection process could take as long as six months and cost as much as $2 million, said Police Commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum.

A visibly angry Mayor Tom Bradley said: “How many times have we been promised that he’d finally leave? I think the people have had enough of Daryl Gates’ jerking them around.”

The Police Commission scheduled an emergency meeting for this morning to make a formal request for the City Council to appoint an outside attorney to advise the commission of its options regarding Gates. Some council members said the commission should immediately seek Gates’ dismissal.

John J. Driscoll, Personnel Department general manager, said the commission would be allowed to remove Gates “for cause.” He said that is loosely defined in the personnel manual but must be based on “a substantial reason.”

Driscoll said any action by Gates in the past year could be considered by the commission in reaching such a conclusion.

Councilman Michael Woo, among others, suggested that Gates’ performance during the riots justifies his removal “on the basis of dereliction of duty. I think (the Police Commission) should have fired him a year ago. I think they should fire him today if they can,” Woo said.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said Gates’ “dishonesty” may represent sufficient grounds for his dismissal. “If he does not leave by the end of June, he will have lied to the leaders of this city and to the taxpayers of this city. On that basis alone, he should be dismissed.

“It is ridiculous for the city to . . . be placed in the situation that it is in,” Yaroslavsky added. “The Police Department has no professional leadership right now. Gates has been a lame duck for months. That is part of the reason we experienced a lack of response (to the rioting) on the night of April 29. . . . The department is floundering. Decisions aren’t being made. And now he threatens to prolong that untenable situation.”

Mark Fabiani, deputy to Bradley, said Gates “has defrauded the city by reneging on promises he’s made to leave. Those are serious offenses any way you look at them. . . . The city has to do everything legal and appropriate, but everything necessary to safeguard the appointment of Willie Williams.”

He said that could include removing Gates. Fabiani also said there were enough votes on the council to cut Gates’ pay.

Council President John Ferraro, who was involved in negotiations that produced an agreement for Gates to leave after the primary election, said he also believes it is time for the chief to go. “If he’s being stubborn, it’s going to be costly to him and I don’t think it’s necessary for him to be stubborn,” Ferraro said.

Police Commissioner Jesse A. Brewer, a former LAPD assistant chief, said the commission should fire Gates.

“We probably have not moved as aggressively as we should have” to remove Gates, he said. “After the riots it was very clear that he was not performing up to acceptable standards as chief executive of the Police Department.”

Commissioner Ann Reiss Lane also said she supports firing Gates if he stays beyond the end of June.

After the beating of Rodney G. King in March, 1991, and with the release of the Christopher Commission report last summer, Gates agreed to step down on his own terms but deflected attempts to immediately force him out.

But the political climate has changed dramatically in the aftermath of the riots and the overwhelming passage of the police reform initiative. In addition, a Times Poll published May 15 found that Gates’ approval rating had dropped to 16% after the worst urban riots in the United States this century.

“The people of the city want him gone. . . . The passage of Proposition F was an overwhelming repudiation of his performance,” Yaroslavsky said. “He has no friends, and I think he’s under some delusion he can stick it out. He will not stick it out.”

In a telephone interview Saturday, Gates was coy about his retirement date. He said his only motive for balking at leaving at the end of June is “to expose the political manipulation of the Police Department that’s just beginning.” The threatened dismissal and pay cut, Gates said, “is another example. . . If you don’t play ball with the politicians, they wreak vengeance on the chief.”

Some accused the chief of acting out of self-aggrandizement and spite. Some noted that this new twist in the long-running civic soap opera will not hurt sales of his autobiography, now No.2 on the New York Times bestsellers list.

Gates’ mercurial comments have forced officials to wonder whether he is serious or bluffing.

Richard Alatorre said that his fellow council members were blowing the dispute over the list out of proportion. And Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores said she thought Gates was posturing and would back down.

“I think he was angry and I think he saw this as an opportunity to say that what he had predicted about Proposition F was coming true,” Flores said. “I think saying he might stick around was just adding fuel to that.”

Councilman Nate Holden said it would be “grandstanding” for the City Council to dock Gates’ pay, and that any changes in the chief’s employment status should be made by the Police Commission.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter said she would support a commission action to fire the chief but said the council should let the commission act before trying to dock the chief’s pay.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said he would support a range of disciplinary actions against the chief, including docking his pay or firing him. “I think we ought to go at Daryl Gates with everything we have that is legal, to show him who runs this town.”

However, Gates’ lawyer, Jay Grodin, suggested that council members were overreacting and that Gates was already packing boxes in his office in preparation for his departure. But, Grodin warned, “if they took a disciplinary action against him, my guess is he’d probably fight it, and that could really delay things.”

Under merit pay guidelines, the City Council and mayor have the power to reduce Gates’ pay if his job performance is deemed unsatisfactory by the Police Commission, said Yaroslavsky, chairman of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee. The “superior” job ratings that Gates has received in past reviews have lifted his annual salary to $177,000. That amount could be reduced to the low end of the scale--about $133,000.

Even if the council does not reduce Gates’ compensation, he will lose a 3.6% increase in his retirement benefits if he stays beyond June 29. The city grants such increases to pensioners every July 1; if Gates were on the job, he would not be eligible for the boost until the end of the next fiscal year.

Still, Yaroslavsky said he does not believe Gates is bluffing.

“There are many people around the city who believe he has been waiting for an excuse, a provocation, to stick it out anyway. That he always wanted to sabotage the selection of Willie Williams. I have not been in that camp,” the councilman said. “I am in that camp now.”

Williams, reached in Philadelphia where he has resigned as police commissioner, declined to comment until he could learn more about Gates’ plans.

Sheinbaum said he spoke to Williams about the situation. “He has left his job and is moving out here the middle of this week with his entire family . . . and I was awe-struck by the balanced, calm way he received the news . . . that he may not have a job on June 30,” Sheinbaum said.

The latest confrontation between Gates and the city’s political Establishment is rooted in a Civil Service promotion list set to expire today. Gates urged the City Council, the Personnel Department and the Police Commission to extend the life of the list for a month, but was rebuffed. That triggered Gates’ comments about leaving after the expected date.

Keeping the list valid for another 30 days would give seven captains the chance to be considered for two openings for commander, and a third commander slot that is expected soon because of a pending retirement. Gates has been barred from filling those jobs because of Police Commission orders and a city hiring freeze.

Gates said letting the list expire would be unfair to candidates who have been on the roster for two years. He added, however, that he intends to allow Williams to make the appointments.

But Councilwoman Joy Picus accused the chief of “acting in bad faith,” noting that Gates had refused to sign an agreement to let his successor name the new commanders. Had he done so, Picus said, it is likely the council would have gone along with Gates’ demand that the list be extended.

In any case, Yaroslavsky indicated that the promotion issue is a smoke screen. “The city is broke. We are not promoting people unless they’re absolutely necessary,” Yaroslavsky said. “Daryl Gates has some favorites on that list that he wants to see promoted, and he is prepared to put the city through this kind of tension, sabotaging the (police chief) selection process, in order to get his way.”

Gates said extending the deadline would make it easier for Williams to quickly move to fill commander vacancies. Sheinbaum disputed that, noting that if the deadline had been extended one month, it would still expire July 6, only days after Williams was to take over.

Yaroslavsky said if Gates “cared about the department and the city, he would have left a long time ago. All he cares about is his own image, his own ego, his own royalties from his book.”

Gates, asked Saturday about when he intended to step down, said: “I suppose everybody will just have to wait and see until I retire. After 43 years, people ought to give me a little grace to retire when I want.”

Now, Gates added, “Vengeance is taking place. Vengeance.”

Times staff writers Josh Meyer and Amy Louise Kazmin contributed to this story.