Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has named a new deputy mayor for public safety, installing former FBI official Robert Clark as her top aide overseeing police and fire issues.
The news comes nearly four months after Clark’s predecessor, Brian K. Williams, was placed on administrative leave after being accused of making a bomb threat against City Hall.
The Los Angeles Police Department identified Williams as the likely source of the bomb threat made last year before referring the case to the FBI because of the department’s working relationship with Williams.
Speaking through his lawyer for a prior Times story, Williams strongly maintained his innocence. No charges have been filed, and FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller said Monday that the matter was still under investigation. Williams’ lawyer, Dmitry Gorin, did not immediately respond to The Times on Monday.
Williams remains on the city payroll but “is retiring,” Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl said. Seidl did not respond when asked when Willliams planned to retire or how long he would remain on the payroll. The city is contending with a budget shortfall of nearly $1 billion.
In his new role, which he began on Monday, Clark will have a hand in helping the city recover from the Palisades fire. He joins the administration at a time when Bass has touted a drop in homicides and shootings.
As an FBI special agent, Clark led anti-gang efforts in Los Angeles.
“I don’t see myself separate from a lot of people that I work with and a lot of the people that I’ve met in the community. I see myself as one of them,” Clark said in a video shared by the FBI in 2014. “I used to be one of them.”
Clark grew up in foster care in a world steeped in violence, gangs and drugs, he said. His father, a nightclub owner who worked with organized crime, was murdered when he was 12.
His childhood in inner city Youngstown, Ohio, “and the things that I was able to escape from, I guess you could say, really empowers me to go back and to give back,” Clark said in the video.
Clark left the FBI in 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. He then served as a law enforcement consultant and director of public safety for the city of Columbus, Ohio, among other roles. In the 2017 CBS reality show “Hunted,” he was the commander of a team leading a manhunt.
Times staff writer Libor Jany contributed to this report.
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