Waiting for the short list.
Last we heard, the Police Commission was going to give the mayor its list of three candidates tonight or early tomorrow. Now we hear it will likely be today, and that the mayor will make an announcement before sundown—give or take a few rays of light. (It is expected to be around 5 p.m.)
So will the Commission give the mayor a strong threesome or a stacked deck (as it did last time around)? Either is permissible, of course. But with this many interesting candidates, I’d hope for the former strategy, not the latter.
We will know soon. Stay tuned.
By the way, one of the people who is considered to have the best shot of landing on that short list is coming to speak to my USC grad students this afternoon—right about the time that the mayor could possibly be announcing the names. (I ain’t saying exactly who the guest is as that is my students’ story to break—and there is, of course, no guarantee that this person will be on the list.)
In any case, we count on it being an interesting class.
One more thing: I’ve been meaning to comment on the story about the selection of the chief in this week’s issue of the LA Weekly in which the Weekly speculates that George Gascon, the former LAPD Assistant Chief, turned Chief of Mesa, AZ, now the Chief of the San Francisco PD, is one of the two secret out-of-towners being who were interviewed by the police commission.
It would be a provocative idea were it not for the fact that it’s TOTALLY WRONG—which a brief Google search could have told the writer, Dennis Romero, and his editors.
Although he has long hoped to succeed Bratton, Gascon said publicly and succinctly at his swearing in during the first week of August that he would not be applying for the LA job. The timing sucked for Gascon, who was a bit sandbagged by Bill Bratton’s surprise resignation, but he dealt with the matter elegantly. In any case, we have known for months that Gascon did not apply.
Research, people. Research.
UPDATE:
The police commission is going to announce an interim chief at 2:45 3:45 p.m.. They said they weren’t going to have an interim chief. But they thought about it, now they are as we are likely two-weeks out from having a new chief chosen by the mayor and confirmed by the city council, so they decided it would be the prudent choice to have someone officially at the helm for those two weeks.
Also, if one or more of the assistant chiefs—like Jim McDonnell or Earl Paysinger, say— are on the short list, then slightly politically awkward circumstances could arise if there is no acting chief while the selection is being made, and high level decisions need to be made.
So, good call, police commission.
CONFIRMED: Interim chief is Deputy Chief Michael Downing, the only one of the Deputy Chiefs who did not apply to be chief. Right now Downing heads the LAPD’s counter terrorism bureau.
Posted: Tuesday, 27 October 2009 2:23PM
KNX EXCLUSIVE: Michael Downing Named Interim Chief of LAPD
KNX has learned that the new interim chief of the LAPD is Deputy Chief Michael Downing. Downing, however did not put his name into contention as a possible replacement for Bill Bratton, who will officialy turn in his badge on Saturday.
The official announement will come in a news conference on this afternoon.
I’d been reading this name on blogs. makes sense to have an interim chief who’s not in the running because otherwise, it would unfairly influence the decision by giving a candidate the edge (or possibly, the disadvantage if something negative happens meanwhile).
The PPL in its e-blast yesterday linked to the pseudonymous “Jack Dunphy’s” blog, very critical of the commander who was in charge of the last gang sweep for setting up too close and too publicly to the scene and allegedly, tipping off the intended targets who unsurprisingly, took the hint and “absented themselves from home” preventing a shootout that might have ended badly, in “Dunphy’s” opinion. (That individual has since been ID’d as the Hispanic name on the list.) Since this was among the handful of stories Weber chose to highlight for the day’s news, sounds like he’s trying to send the mayor a message?
Whoever it is, he’d better know how to keep a straight face while explaining brutality incidents. It’s the most important aspect of a LAPD Chief’s job.
To Unconcerned Citizen- Still concerned enough to read and post. LOL
Three finalists are James McDonnell, James Beck, and Michel Moore. This is the order in which they were presented in preference from the Police Commission to the Mayor.
WBC,
After reading your comment, I went over and read Dunphy’s column.
To my knowledge, all the commanders for the Rolling 40s raid—which is the one he’s talking about— all came out of South Bureau.
They are Dep. Chief Kurt Albonese and Commander Andy Smith.
http://www.lapdonline.org/south_bureau
Dep. Chief Sergio Diaz oversaw the Avenues raid, which was the one that Dunphy praised as being staged out of Dodger Stadium.
Diaz and Mike Moore are both Hispanic, but neither would have overseen the most recent raid, which isn’t to say that they might not have been there at some point, for some reason or other. But the raid took place in South Bureau thus would have been overseen by South Bureau, together with other agencies like the FBI et al.
Don’t know if that helps.
Celeste, thanks, just know what I read, and the person blamed for the latest (rolling 40s) raid was Diaz – but i didn’t double-check the source, so just shows how reliable supposedly “authoritative” sources can be. Anyway, the issue is now moot with the selection having been made. I must say I was surprised to hear that Michel Moore is “Hispanic” based on his father being from Spain (which to my mind is W. European and not a “minority” in any way), but as always in this race, I hope that individual qualifications trump race, ethnicity and gender. Any of them will make a fine Chief.