A City With No One in Charge : Post-riot report is said to focus on L.A. government’s structural illogic

Everyone knows that Los Angeles’ city government and Police Department flunked the test last April. The contagious looting, the unchecked fires exposed just how unprepared Mayor Tom Bradley and then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates were when not guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King case sparked rioting.

Everyone knows that; the real question is: Could such a breakdown happen again?

That’s one of the key questions before the special investigating panel led by ex-FBI Director William H. Webster and Hubert Williams, president of the Washington-based Police Foundation. For five months they have been reviewing the riots. And, according to Times staff writers Rich Connell and Richard A. Serrano, their report, scheduled for release next week, will answer the key question in the affirmative. Which is to say: Unless Los Angeles has in place a better system of emergency response, history could repeat itself.

The report is expected to focus on the city’s Byzantine system of emergency preparedness that is long on bureaucracy and complexity and short on streamlined responsiveness and clear-cut accountability. The 300-page report is also expected to emphasize a point long made by neutral government officials and informed academic experts: that L.A. government is beset with deep structural problems. To be sure, the report won’t shy away from assigning blame: Bradley and Gates surely will receive the bulk of the individual criticism--quite justifiably, of course. But even though Gates is gone and Bradley is going, the panel will suggest that much more work is needed.

That’s because, feuding personalities aside, Los Angeles’ basic governmental system is flawed. At its center is a mayor without adequate power. Add to that the awesome City Hall bureaucracy and what develops is a situation in which no one is in charge during a crisis.

The conclusions of this distinguished panel will deserve the most deeply serious consideration. If it took fearsome riots to awaken the nation to the need to do more for its cities, perhaps this report will prompt Los Angeles to realize that it needs internal reforms to take care of itself in the future.