Police Commissioners Reject Council’s Offer : Beating: Proposal would have ended dispute over Gates. It provided nothing new, a panel member says.

Los Angeles Police Commissioners, refusing to back down in an extraordinary City Hall power struggle, rejected on Tuesday a City Council offer to end a legal dispute over the status of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates in the wake of the Rodney King affair.

The commission rejection came about two hours after the council voted unanimously to make a settlement offer that would have given the commission $150,000 for an investigation of the chief and the department hierarchy, while leaving him in office. The offer also would have paid Gates’ legal bills and barred the council from interfering with the commission’s investigation.

Council members had hoped that the last-hour proposal would end a divisive legal fight that has pitted branches of city government against each other for the past month. Instead, the matter will come before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald Sohigian in a hearing today.

The commission had wanted, as part of any settlement, assurances that the council would not interfere with commission decisions about Gates after it completes its investigation. Council members said that they could not under the City Charter make such assurances.

The legal wrangling was set off April 4, when the commission voted to place Gates on a 60-day paid leave while it conducted a wide-ranging investigation prompted by the videotaped police beating of King.

The following day, the council voted to reinstate Gates as part of a settlement of a lawsuit he was expected to file. He did so the following week. Under the City Charter, the council has the power to settle lawsuits against the city, but does not have the authority to overrule Police Commission decisions.

At issue in the contentious litigation are both Gates’ job and the authority and independence of the Board of Police Commissioners, a civilian panel appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley to oversee the 8,300-member Los Angeles Police Department.

The council met for 90 minutes Tuesday in executive session and when it was over, council President John Ferraro emerged saying, “The ball is now in the commission’s court.”

But a few hours later, Commission President Dan Garcia left a closed-door meeting at Parker Center, where the commission had just been told of the offer, and said the settlement “wasn’t agreed to by anyone but them.”

“As far as I know, nothing has changed,” Garcia told reporters. “I’m not too sure it isn’t too little, too late. It takes two parties to settle something.”

Commissioner Melanie Lomax said Tuesday the “collective wisdom” of the commission was that the settlement proposal “didn’t provide anything new.”

“It does not provide any assurance that the City Council won’t try to usurp the commission’s authority again,” Lomax said. “All we’re asking for is to let the court decide.” Lomax added that the commission has instructed its attorney to be in court today.

Vallee Bunting, a spokeswoman for Mayor Tom Bradley, said the mayor would leave it up to the commission whether to accept a settlement. Bradley, whose office has taken part in the negotiations, also wants the independence of his commission upheld.

Meanwhile, after learning that the commission turned down the offer, Ferraro said the council would not take the matter up at today’s meeting. “It goes to court,” Ferraro said.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, who voted against a similar settlement proposal last week, said Tuesday she was “disappointed” by the commission’s action. “I made some concessions in the spirit of cooperation and harmony and if the commission couldn’t make some concessions, I hold them accountable,” Picus said.

Picus, who had strongly opposed allocating $150,000 for a commission investigation, said she changed her mind to end this “terrible polarization in this city. . . . A lot of us swallowed our problems with it in order to do that.”

Councilman Joel Wachs said the unanimous council vote “indicates that this council wants to get on with the larger, fundamental issues raised by the Rodney King incident, wants to bring about positive changes and restore confidence both in the department and in city government.”

“Some of us had to hold our noses and vote for this,” said Councilman Hal Bernson.

The latest settlement offer was essentially the same proposal rejected by council members one week ago during a lengthy closed session. The agreement would reinstate Gates in his job and prohibit the Police Commission from taking any action on the chief’s job status for at least 90 days. The city would pay “reasonable” legal fees to Gates’ attorneys, but no amount was specified.

Gates said Tuesday he was pleased by the council’s offer to pay his legal fees.

“I had made known my wishes to pay my own lawyers at the beginning of this, then . . . everything got complicated,” Gates said. “I don’t think I’m responsible for that.”

Lomax said the commission did not approve of paying Gates’ legal bills.

“We don’t think it’s appropriate,” she said. “But I don’t think it was the deal-killer.”

In other developments Tuesday, Gates told the Police Commission that he is continuing with his “10-point plan” to improve the LAPD despite the fact some parts of the plan were turned over to the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department. That commission was formed last month by merging two panels--one created by Gates and the other by Bradley--to do a sweeping investigation of the LAPD that focuses on excessive use of force.

The commission, headed by Los Angeles attorney Warren Christopher, is scheduled to hold its first public hearing today.

Police Cmdr. Rick Dinse, Gates’ liaison with the Christopher Commission, told the Police Commission Tuesday that personnel files of the 21 LAPD officers who were at the scene of King’s March 3 beating were being withheld until a court ruled on whether or not some of them should be released. Four officers indicted in the King case have challenged the appropriateness of turning over their files to outside bodies.