PARKS' PLEA: `STOP PLAYING INSIDER POLITICS'.

Byline: Rick Orlov and Harrison Sheppard Staff Writers

Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, decrying what he called a corrupt process and a political conspiracy against him, urged the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday to overrule the Police Commission and give him a second term.

In a powerful, 65-minute presentation, with his voice never wavering and showing little emotion, Parks spoke to the council from a lectern reserved for public speakers in a council chamber packed with supporters who listened raptly as he read through a 23-page address.

Dressed in full uniform, Parks recalled the 1930s era of political and police corruption in Los Angeles and pleaded with the council to ``stop for a moment from playing insider politics and fulfill the oath'' of office.

He described what he saw as collusion against his reappointment to a second five-year term involving Mayor James Hahn, aided by the Los Angeles Police Protective League union and the Police Commission.

``I have earned the right to continue as chief of police of Los Angeles by every standard that has been articulated,'' Parks said. ``The only standard I do not meet is the political one, which was not supposed to be part of this process.''

Only Councilman Nate Holden, a Parks supporter, asked the chief a question or responded during the session to his speech. Prior to the speech, the council deadlocked on whether to go into closed session to discuss the legal repercussions of speaking in public on the chief's status.

The council is scheduled to vote today on whether to assert jurisdiction over the matter and remove it from the Police Commission, although the council can act as late as Friday. It will require 10 votes for the 15 council members to take up the matter, and will also take 10 votes to override the commission to give Parks a second term. He is known to have only three secure votes.

Aides said neither Hahn nor Police Commission President Rick Caruso would respond to Parks' accusations.

Late Tuesday, however, Hahn issued a statement denying any effort to orchestrate votes against Parks or working with the Protective League in a coordinated attack.

``That's just false,'' the mayor said. ``I'm disappointed the chief used today's council presentation to engage in personal attacks instead of laying out his vision for another five years.

``I am staying focused on improving recruitment and retention, restoring community policing and implementing real reform.''

An overflow crowd filled City Hall, with several hundred Parks supporters sent to a nearby hearing room with loudspeakers and closed-circuit television. Hundreds of officers, including a team on horses, circled City Hall in case any problems developed. None did.

Parks said he wanted the public session to make his case to the council and public - after the Police Commission refused to have open meetings.

As a result of those meetings and the 4-1 commission vote against his reappointment, Parks said he has been a victim of misstatements and a smear campaign by the commission and others over his record on crime, recruitment of officers, discipline and morale.

The most important aspect was ``how this reappointment process has been corrupted from the very beginning,'' starting with the Police Commission's refusal to have an open hearing, he said.

Parks told the council of a Jan. 30 meeting with Hahn in which he told the mayor he wanted a second term.

``To my shock and dismay, the mayor advised me in that meeting that he had already secured three votes in the commission against my reappointment and that he had also secured sufficient votes in the council to block any reconsideration,'' Parks said.

``I asked the mayor why he had stated publicly this would be a merit- based process. The mayor did not respond to my question. Instead, he went on to advise me that it would be best that I retire and accept the pension I had earned and that it would be in my interest to end my career on a positive note.''

Hahn has said he opposed Parks because of rising crime and the chief's lack of support for community-based policing and reform. The mayor has insisted he did not lobby any members of the commission or council.

Parks said he told the mayor, ``I would not be complicit in what was an apparent conspiracy between the mayor and those that he had already spoken to whose votes he had secured.''

At the same time, Parks said the Protective League was gearing up a TV campaign against him as it received more than $3.5 million in city funds as part of an agreement for it to provide representation of officers accused of wrongdoing. The money was turned over, but the union had yet to take over responsibility for representation from the LAPD.

``I don't know if that money was used for the campaign. It seemed more than a coincidence that it received the money when it did.''

Mitzie Grasso, president of the Protective League, denied coordinating any campaign with Hahn or others, and she disputed use of any city funds.

``The chief knows what we were using that money for and to imply we were using it for anything other than it was intended is ridiculous,'' Grasso said, adding that the campaign was financed through the union's own fund-raising efforts.

The chief said he also recalled a conversation with Caruso at a staff retreat in January at which the commissioner was asked about being independent as a commissioner.

Parks said Caruso told of advice he had been given as a 24-year-old commissioner under former Mayor Tom Bradley that ``to be a good commissioner that he should follow the directions and implement the intent of the mayor, and if he couldn't do those two things it was essential that he return his commissionership back to the mayor,'' Parks said.

``All of the public statements that Mr. Caruso subsequently made about his independence and how his decision was not based on the mayor's public position against my candidacy are in sharp contrast.''

Taken together, Parks said it offers a ``clear, concise overview of why the process was flawed from the beginning.''

Parks said the political approach by Hahn and the Protective League began even before the issue of his reappointment - over flexible scheduling allowing officers to work 12-hour shifts, the restoration of senior lead officers and other programs.

``You as the council members ... will have to determine how many lives should be lost to accommodate a police union as payback for its endorsement of the mayor and to accommodate a small number of community activists who want the Police Department to be at their beck and call,'' Parks said.

``The true question is how much emphasis is placed on the value of life over political agendas.''

Parks said he inherited an agency reeling from the Rodney King beating case and resulting 1992 riots, various reform efforts, continuing population growth and rising crime. In the first two years of his term, Parks said, crime dropped to 30-year lows and is still at a 25-year low.

The chief also defended himself against complaints that he had not done enough to recruit new officers or retain more veterans.

Of those who have retired, he said, they have stayed longer under his administration than other chiefs. As for recruitment, he said, all police agencies are having the same problems.

On morale, Parks said he has never known a period when officers were satisfied.

``I do not believe there is a departmentwide morale problem. The vast majority of police officers do their jobs and do it well, but we cannot ignore the fact that our Police Department has been under significant scrutiny.''

HOW THEY VOTED:

The Los Angeles City Council deadlocked 7-7 Tuesday over whether to consider going into closed session before Police Chief Bernard C. Parks' speech to consult with the City Attorney's Office on legal problems that could arise from his remarks and their response.

The motion by Jack Weiss, seconded by Eric Garcetti, sought to hold the closed-door discussion but failed to get the necessary 10 votes to pass.

YES: Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel, Janice Hahn, Cindy Miscikowski, Alex Padilla, Jack Weiss, Dennis Zine.

NO: Hal Bernson, Nate Holden, Tom LaBonge, Nick Pacheco, Jan Perry, Ed Reyes, Mark Ridley-Thomas.

ABSENT: Ruth Galanter.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, surrounded by supporters, tells City Council members they should put politics aside and award him a second term as chief based on his merits.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Box:

HOW THEY VOTED (see text)