City Hall Tense After Council Reshuffles Its Key Employees : Government: New council members elevate patrolman to interim police chief, surprising many. The city clerk is replaced, surprising no one.

BELL GARDENS —  A patrolman has rocketed through the ranks to become interim Bell Gardens police chief, and the suspended city clerk has been replaced, continuing an overhaul of City Hall that began in December with the recall of four City Council members.

In executive session late Monday night, the new council accepted the resignation of Police Chief William Donohoe and fired City Clerk Leanna Keltner, actions that surprised few but rattled a tense city staff wondering who is next on the chopping block.

“Everyone’s nervous,” said City Councilwoman Rosa Hernandez, the only remaining member of last year’s council. “The new City Council has their list of people they want to remove. I feel for the staff.”

Since they took office in March, council members George T. Deitch, Rodolfo (Rudy) Garcia, Frank B. Duran and Mayor Josefina (Josie) Macias have replaced virtually the entire top layer of the city’s administration. They started with City Manager Claude Booker and City Atty. Peter Wallin and continued with Keltner and Donohoe. Each had longstanding ties to the former City Council and had become symbols of the old power structure.

“When Claude Booker went, the rest of them had to go too, “ Duran said. “All of the changes we have made are in the best interest of the community.”

Both Duran and Deitch acknowledged that it was unusual to appoint Ed Taylor, a beat patrolman, as interim police chief, since he had not been promoted in 18 years with the department. Others called it unprecedented, and City Manager William Vasquez said: “It’s real different, but we have a different set of circumstances here.”

Taylor, 50, said he will resign as president of the Police Officers’ Assn., a position he has held since 1987. He said working as head of the officers union created a contentious relationship between himself and the police administration, which held him back from being promoted through the ranks. He moved into the chief’s office Tuesday.

But, Taylor said, he has the support of police officers, the citizens and the business community and is looking forward to the administrative challenge.

“The bottom line is, when the recall took place and the community took over, they wanted me,” Taylor said.

Taylor shrugged off questions about his administrative qualifications. “How do you get experience as a police chief unless you become a police chief?” he asked.

He was appointed interim chief indefinitely and will be evaluated before the council decides whether to give him the position permanently, Vasquez said.

Former Chief Donohoe, who had been with the city for nine years before he cut a deal in 1991 with the former council to work on a month-to-month contract, said it is unheard of for a patrolman with no administrative experience to head the Police Department in a city with 42,355 residents.

“When you are talking about a city the size of Bell Gardens, with the type of criminal activity it has, promoting from the police officer level is highly unusual,” he said. Donohoe would not comment on Taylor personally, but he said “it remains to be seen what kind of chief he will make.”

Councilwoman Hernandez, who voted against Taylor’s appointment, said the only qualification Taylor has to be chief is that he worked for the campaign of the other council members, her political foes.

“The payoffs are continuing,” she said. “Taylor has never been anything but an officer. He comes out of nowhere to be the chief.”

Others on the council defended the choice.

“I feel that he is superiorly capable,” Deitch said. “We wanted to promote from within. He will be a good leader.”

Taylor said his priority as chief will be to bring in more bilingual police officers and to hire and retain employees who will be promoted through the ranks.

“Right now we are a training ground for other police departments,” he said. “As president of the (Police Officers’ Assn.), I fought for career development, and I plan to continue.”