Times: Bratton to leave, head security firm

Police chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have a 12:15 p.m. media availability in the mayor's office. The Los Angeles Times' Joel Rubin reports "Bratton is expected to announce plans to resign as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department today to take over as head of a private security firm, sources have told The Times....As Bratton flew back to Los Angeles from a personal trip to New York Tuesday night, aides to his boss, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, said Villaraigosa knew nothing of the planned departure. Likewise, members of the civilian panel that oversees the LAPD, as well as the deputy and assistant chiefs whom Bratton entrusts with the day-to-day operations of the department, were caught off-guard when asked about Bratton’s imminent resignation." Bratton has three years left on his term. He recently denied that his home was on the market for any reason other than to move somewhere else in L.A. without a swimming pool.

KFI's Eric Leonard had it up at about the same time.

Also at City Hall: Villaraigosa's vacation trip to Iceland last week included Keith Brackpool, the mayor's close pal and former employer who has that water banking scheme in the Mojave Desert, and Richard Katz, the close Villaraigosa adviser who also has pushed Brackpool's Cadiz scheme. The mayor's office had refused to say who was along on the trip. Here's a new Cadiz analysis from ex-L.A. Times enviro writer Emily Green.