Interim Chief Plans Staff Shuffle

Vowing not to be a “caretaker� of the office, interim Los Angeles Police Chief Bayan Lewis said Tuesday he will reorganize the department’s top leadership positions this week and immediately address issues that have been “languishing over the past year.�

“I need to design a dynamic team that I feel comfortable with [and will be] competent in effecting quick, responsive change,� Lewis said after a ceremonial swearing-in at his first Police Commission meeting.

Over his likely 2 1/2-month tenure, Lewis said he will work on a merger with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, review flexible work schedule proposals for officers, implement recommendations from a 1991 blue-ribbon reform panel and prepare the department for a smooth transition when a permanent chief is hired this summer.

“A caretaker would just sit around and look pretty, which I am fully capable of doing,� Lewis joked during a news conference after the ceremony, “but which I refuse to do.�

Although Lewis, 55, declined to discuss the personnel changes he is expected to announce today, department officials said he plans to demote Assistant Chiefs Ronald C. Banks and Frank Piersol to the rank of deputy chief.

He is also expected to move Deputy Chiefs Mark Kroeker, David Gascon and Bernard Parks--all of whom are candidates for the permanent chief’s job--into higher-level positions.

Parks, who is in charge of the Bureau of Special Investigations, is expected to head the Office of Operations, which Lewis vacated when he accepted the interim chief position, sources said. Kroeker, who heads the South Bureau, is expected to take over the Office of Administrative Services, which is currently run by Piersol, sources said. Gascon is expected to leave his position as head of the Human Resources Bureau and become Lewis’ chief of staff.

According to sources, Banks and Piersol would be reassigned to lower positions and face possible reductions in pay if they do not retire by July 1. Both officers are under investigation by the Police Commission’s inspector general for allegedly requesting raises for which they were not eligible.

“Staffing changes are put in place to fill my need for the short period of time,� Lewis said. “Two and a half months is gone like that.�

Banks and Piersol could not be reached for comment.

Lewis said the new chief “should be able to step in that first week to promote their own senior key staff and press forward with what I have started, rather than put the pieces together and start the . . . process from the ground up.�

The staffing changes, he added, “should not have any tangible effect on what the officers do on the streets.�

Lewis said he plans to retire when the new chief is hired and move to Nevada, where he owns property. Currently, he is a finalist for the chief’s job in Reno.

Meanwhile Tuesday, the Police Commission announced it had hired one of its former grievance investigators to head a newly formed discrimination unit, which will be responsible for investigating allegations of racial, sexual, religious, age and gender discrimination.

Karen Jenney, who worked for the commission from July 1992 to October 1994, will head the Discrimination Complaint Investigation Unit beginning in late June or early July, officials said.