Ban on Explicit Sex Material in L.A. Firehouses Sought

The president of the Los Angeles Fire Commission declared Thursday that he wants all sexually explicit material out of the city’s firehouses because they are public workplaces supported by taxpayers.

“Every taxpayer should be able to walk into a firehouse and not be embarrassed by what goes on there,” Harold J. Kwalwasser said. “And if there’s any conduct inconsistent with that criteria, the conduct stops.”

Kwalwasser spoke at the regular Fire Commission meeting during consideration of a proposed Fire Department policy banning sexually explicit material on all departmental property.

The board referred the policy back to the Fire Department and the city attorney’s office for review, including a determination on its constitutionality, and is expected to take up the issue again at its next meeting.

Definition Given

As drafted, the proposal defines sexually explicit material as:

“Any book, magazine, newspaper, video or other publications, or any other matter containing photographs or pictorial representatives of sexual organs or sexual acts. ‘Sexual organ’ means any depiction of the anatomical parts of a person’s breasts, genitals or anus. ‘Sexual act’ means any depiction of sexual intercourse, anal intercourse, oral copulation, sodomy, bestiality or masturbation, whether actual or simulated.”

The commission acted two days after a departmental disciplinary hearing found a veteran firefighter guilty of six misconduct charges, including allegations that he tried to touch a woman firefighter’s breasts, slapped her buttocks and simulated masturbation while on duty at a Westchester fire station.

Received Complaint

The incidents involving the woman firefighter were uncovered in an investigation prompted by a woman paramedic’s complaint that sexually explicit material was being viewed in the station’s television room.

Commissioner Ann Reiss Lane, the senior member of the commission with 10 years’ service, joined Kwalwasser in vigorous support of the ban. She said sexually explicit material is “not appropriate for a fire station, period.”

“I personally believe that if you encourage the availability of this kind of material, it conceivably establishes an environment in which sexual harassment is more acceptable,” Lane said.

The board members discussed how to put the policy into effect, whether as a provision of the commission’s detailed rules and regulations for operation of the Fire Department or as a directive issued by Fire Chief Donald O. Manning.

“I think all I would have to do is put out a directive that would clarify what is existing department operating procedures and to ensure that we have uniformity in observation for that,” Manning told the board.

Too Early

An official of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, Jerry Hill, said it was too early to express a union position on the question, but he observed that the department and Fire Commission are trying “to do something that the Supreme Court has trouble doing.”

“It will be interesting to see what the city attorney says,” Hill said. “If the city attorney comes up with what is our normal policy, there won’t be any problem. We can’t have pornographic material in a public place. . . .”