Council Fails to Decide on Severance Offer to Chief

After nearly three hours behind closed doors Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council emerged without a decision about what sort of severance package to offer departing Police Chief Willie L. Williams.

The council invited Williams’ attorneys to join them for another secret session today, and several lawmakers said they expect that meeting to yield a decision.

Sources said that five council members, including some of the chief’s strongest backers, were promoting a deal that would pay Williams up to $450,000 on the condition that he not sue the city. That figure would include compensation for the loss in value to his San Fernando Valley house and pay him as a consultant for a year, among other things.

At least five other members, however, are steadfast in their opposition to paying Williams anything beyond his salary through the end of his term July 6, sources said.

Left to make the eight-vote majority required for a council decision are members Richard Alatorre, Hal Bernson, John Ferraro, Ruth Galanter and Nate Holden.

Alatorre and Bernson have previously said they oppose any settlement beyond his remaining salary, while Galanter is considered likely to support a more generous severance package. Holden, the chief’s most vocal backer, is a wild card because he has said he would rather see the chief pursue his case in court than at City Hall. Ferraro, the council’s consensus builder, has only said he wants Williams to “depart with dignity.”

Sources predicted a possible compromise that would pay Williams about $250,000. Mayor Richard J. Riordan has said he would follow the council’s lead on a buyout.

“The question is what will it take to avoid a lawsuit?” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who sources named along with Marvin Braude, Jackie Goldberg, Mike Hernandez and Rita Walters as supporting the $450,000 deal. “We must be fair to the chief on the one hand, and on the other hand fairness must be defined on the basis of what we do with taxpayer dollars.”

Council members said they spent most of Tuesday’s session talking not about numbers, but the broader issues of whether the city could be found liable for Williams’ financial woes or damage done to his reputation since he came to Los Angeles in 1992. Among the items under discussion was whether the city should have built some kind of cushion into the deal originally, knowing that the chief might leave after just five years.

“It’s mostly about what’s fair,” Goldberg said of the discussion. “Are there damages? Is there severance? There was a broad general discussion of how to look at it.”

But Bernson and Joel Wachs both said afterward they believe Williams should simply fulfill his term and collect his regular paycheck.

“We had a contract. We live up to our end of the contract, he lives up to his end of the contract. Anything more is a gift,” Bernson said. “I don’t want to give him a gift. I don’t think my constituents want me to give a gift to him or anyone else.”