Some official remarks:

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“Choosing A Chief”

LAPD Police Commission

Community Meeting of September 2, 2009

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Opening Comments by John Mack

Good evening.

I am John Mack, the President of the Police Commission, and it's my pleasure to welcome you and to thank you very much for coming out for the first of five public meetings that the Police Commission will hold to invite your ideas, your thoughts, regarding the next Chief of Police for the Los Angeles Police Department.

We'd like to know what your thoughts are regarding the requisite leadership characteristics that are important to you that you like to see in the next Chief, recognizing that certainly the next leader is going to follow the outstanding Chief of Police, Bill Bratton, who will be officially departing from us on October 31st.

I would like to introduce my colleague, the Vice President of the Police Commission, Andrea Ordin, Richard Tefank, who is our Executive Director, and Isabel Rosas, who is our Commission Secretary.

Yesterday the Personnel Department provided the Police Commission with an overview of the process and a timeline. Their presentation has been copied and copies are available to you. If you have not already obtained one there are copies on the table in the back of the room that will provide all of the information regarding the very steps that we will go through, initially the Personnel Department, its roll and responsibility, by Charter.

The Personnel Department does the initial recruitment of potential candidates for this position, and they will do their do indulgence, vetting the candidates, interviewing the candidates, doing back ground checks and then their responsibility is to submit to the Police Commission a minimum of six or more. It doesn't have to be six. It can be six or more candidates and this is described by the Charter to the Police Commission.

The Commission will then do its work. We will interview those candidates ourselves, and obliviously there will be thorough and extensive background checks that the Personnel Department will be primarily responsible for conducting, but then they will share the results of these checks with us.

And our protective timeline is to have all this accomplished by no later than November 16th at which time the Commission, if we are on schedule, if the process works as we had planned, by no later than November 16th we will then submit our three recommendations in rank order .. one, two, three .. to Mayor Villaraigosa for him to then select from our three recommendations his choice for the next Chief of Police, and the City Council will then ratify by a simple majority to either accept or not accept the recommendation.

But tonight, you are the stars of the show. We want to hear from you, and get your ideas., and we are scheduling these hearings that are going to take course over the next several weeks, two plus weeks, long before the Commission has reached a point that we will be interviewing candidates we will have received your input and your thoughts.

In addition to the public meeting that's being held tonight and then tomorrow night we're holding another one, and then in the next several weeks there will be others, there's also an on-line survey that has been designed by the Personnel Department to obtain the communities input. You may comment tonight and you may also complete the on-line survey if you wish.

The survey can be found at www.lacity.org/per. The site address is also available on the table in the back of the room.

If you have not already completed a comment card for this evening you are encouraged to do so now. We have staff available to distribute the comment cards to you. Each speaker will have a maximum of two minutes to address us. We have microphones and I think what we'll do when we reach that point is we'll ask you to form a line, and we will have a microphone available for you to make your comments.

Our Executive Director, Richard Tefank, will be helping facilitate this meeting, but before we get to that point, it is my honor and my pleasure, to introduce the one and only dynamic City Councilman Tom LaBonge.

Remarks by Councilman Tom LaBonge

President Mack, Ms. Ordin, thank you. Ms. Rosas .. give Ms. Rosas a big hand, she's a great city employee, and I want to say a very special friend to all Los Angeles emplyees.

I want to present a letter to your commission right now, with some of my ideas. I want to welcome you to Friendship Auditorium, here at the edge of Griffith Park, not far from where (unintelligible) lived when he was a young man, working to control the water for the pueblo.

This Friday the city will celebrate its 228th birthday when at that time 44 people walked 9 miles from the Mission San Gabriel the banks of the Los Angeles River . As this city as grown the importance of many facets of life is key and constant, and the most important is that of public safety. Whether it is the fire department or the police department, it is so important to have that public safety aspect here. I want to thank the commission, and especially you, John Mack, who I've known for so many years. And Commissioner Ordin, the work that you have done is so important for all of us here, citizens who spend a lot of time helping us in a way that is so special to community service.

My letter here address's some key points here. I do want to see the next Chief have a great knowledge of the city family, the city business, the city departments, the important roles of the park department, street lighting, public works, water and power. It's key that they have a great clean understanding all the facets of city government, because the Police Chief is often looked at as the head the municipal government and services, but they should have great knowledge of that as well.

I also think we must constantly work with the MTA to improve public safety transit for those who ride our public transit, and also reach out to an emerging community of bicyclists, and the needs to make sure that laws are followed and safety is adhered to, to develop a plan between the LAPD and the Department of Transportation.

You know, I want to do a little quick instant poll. How many people have been a victim of crime in Los Angeles in the last year? Raise your hand. One? Two .. three. How many have been impacted by traffic in Los Angeles in the last 24 hours hours? Everybody. And the Los Angeles Police Department and the new Chief must step up and come up with a traffic plan, with traffic issues related to working with the Department of Transportation. Its absolute key.

Emergency preparedness. We are going to have another earthquake. You're key. You were absolutely brilliant when working with the Fire Department when we had our fire in Griffith Park, in helping to evacuate homes. You were great up in the Angeles Crest area, working with the Sheriff. That's a key, important, positive program.

Implement a relationship stronger with the LA Unified School District.

Administer home-town security. I'm for Homeland Security. I understand the threat, the international threat, but don't forget the home town. I want to make sure we have that support on neighborhood policing which is so key.

Also be strong to support to the community based form of neighborhood councils and neighborhoods associations that also work with your various police athletics leagues and other police related groups.

Promote the broken windows principles and concepts which is so important for the new chief to have. That certainly was something that was embraced by Chief Bratten and should be embraced by all candidates for this job.

And promote diversity within in the community as well as the LAPD in regard to race, creed, color, gender or sexual orientation.

I just want to say that its real important that we open our arms as wide as possible to all people who live in this city, where ever they come from, that we work with them to enhance the quality of life through a good Police Department which must be lead by an individual that has those skills.

Additionally, on a local matter, in this particular neighborhood it is Northeast Area. And we have Al Polanki, Mark Allen, and Gena Shiman, our Senior Leads who are here .. give ‘em a hand, back there. They're the local Chiefs of Police in their Divisions, as you know, the Senior Lead program is so important.

But on a local matter, this area goes from Colorado and the city of Pasadena, and Figueroa all the way to Santa Monica Boulevard and Normandie. It's 25 square miles plus, it's as big as the city of Boston. In the future, and it make ten years, but I'm committed as long as I can to help you create what would be a Northwest Division. To split this Division because it is too big, The traffic on Los Feliz, on Hyperion, on Glendale .. the good response that is necessary for officers, and for the citizens service and officers safety .. we do need a new Division in this area and I am committed to work with you on that.

I want to again welcome you to Friendship Auditorium and I am also personally proud because my grandfather, whom I am named after, Thomas Joseph Learnahan, a great Irish-American, was on the LAPD from 1919 to 1943. And I am proud of his heritage, which also led to my service to the city.

And I especially thank you Commissioners for the hundreds of hours you give to the city of Los Angeles. Thank you.

And I welcome all the comments from the citizens who've come out tonight. I know because of the challenges in the firestorms people's attention may not be all there, but the on-line and the outreach, you should be commended for.

And lastly Mary Rodriguez, my deputy, please give her a hand, she will be here for the balance of the meeting as well.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: During this meeting, LA Community Policing did a live "Community Matters" talk show, recorded the entire meeting on audio tape and also did some video recording! We'll have much more on this and the other community meetings soon (and we'll be attending them all!).
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“Choosing A Chief”

LAPD Police Commission

Community Meeting of September 9, 2009

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Remarks by Councilman Bill Rosendahl

Let's give John Mack a round of applause. He was one of the major creditable figures in the City. As you know before Bratten came on board there was a lot of turmoil, a lot of confusion, a lot of feelings that were not very positive about the LAPD. But we knew that when John Mack came on this, there was a civilian, one of us that was keeping an eye open.

Then of course we have had seven years of Bill Bratten who has totally changed the entire Department where we do have the strength in our own ranks for world class act to follow. There are some sitting in the room right now that are candidates in my mind for the new Chief.

The Police Dept reflects now the kind of community it represents. It's the key part on how the policing needs to be done. It can identify with the folks that they have to work with, look like them that live in their communities. Its been a major transformation of the LAPD.

I was kind of joking as I came in. Bratten has a good sense of timing and the timing works perfectly at this moment for him. But were the ones that have to deal with the future and the future deals with serious budget issues that are going to become more public this Monday at the Budget Committee and then all day Tuesday the Council is meeting. The rubber has literally hit the road on all aspects of the various parts of the package that represent the City's 7 million dollar budget.

So all of this is a fact for major discussion.

My vote is that the process which John outlined will be followed to the letter which it will be an open, transparent conversation throughout the City and this is one of those conversations. I expect that the people in this room be open and candied and continue to connect in this process as we go forward.

My colleague, Paul, just on the other side of the 405 who some of the folks here relate to, he is dealing with that water issue, remember? We still have that water issue that came up a three or four days ago. Which is, of course, another issue. We have hundreds miles of big pipes and we have 7 thousand 2 hundred miles of other pipes and all of our infrastructures that are in question. He's holding a town meetings right now to discuss that or he would be here right now.

It is my expectation as this process continues you will have more than just this moment of input. This is a moment for the West Side to talk about where you go next, and talk about what kind of leadership you are looking for.

So I am going to welcome you all here and to look forward your interaction. I look forward to us as a City. You heard his last comment, the Mayor picks, and we either go for it or we don't. My hope is by the time the Mayor picks a candidate that all of us on the Council are all on board so that there is a unanimous sense as a City we did the right thing to move forward.

The key element frankly is going to be the discussion with you people, those that have been part of various booster groups and community groups who have dealt with the LAPD. We have great Senior Lead Officers who many of you know and have been interactive with. This is a great part of the LAPD to have Senior Leads to be connected with the community and be active here. We have Chief Haro, who is Bureau Chief of the whole are here, and so we have a good mix of ourselves.

So have a good evening. Ask questions. Hear what you hear. If you have any thoughts that you want to share with me over the sixty days please don't hesitate to be in contact with me to share your thoughts and ideals to help pick the next Chief of Police who continues to led us in the direction that were all very proud of that's happening to us.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: During this meeting, LA Community Policing did a live "Community Matters" talk show, recorded the entire meeting on audio tape and also did some video recording! We'll have much more on this and the other community meetings soon (and we'll be attending them all!).