Today's Los Angeles City Council meeting had all the earmarks of a high noon showdown between LAPD Chief Bill Bratton and the city's 15 council members. But now that fight won't take place…at least for today.

According to L.A. Times staff writer David Zahniser, City Council president Eric Garcetti and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are working on a possible deal that will cancel next month's Police Academy class while the LAPD will still get the funding to hire new officers to replace cops who resign or retire.

The short term result of that deal will be that Garcetti will push for a delay on the vote to freeze police hiring, according to Zahniser, and Bratton will not be making his sharp-tongued case in front of the city council today.

Zahniser reports that Garcetti has at least 8 council members who are willing to go along with the deal.

Details are still being hammered out, a city hall insider told the Weekly, so a showdown won't happen today.

But if the deal falls through, expect Villaraigosa to pull out his longtime political hammer — one William J. Bratton.

The mayor, though, can only utilize the popular chief until October 31. At that point, Bratton will officially leave the LAPD and take a one-way flight to New York City for a lucrative private sector job.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

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