2 Members Quit Police Board Over Ethics Law : Government: They resign from the commission rather than reveal their financial assets, calling detailed disclosure ‘an invasion of privacy.’

Two of the five members of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners resigned Monday rather than disclose their financial assets under the city’s new ethics law.

In a letter to Mayor Tom Bradley, Commission President Herbert F. Boeckmann and board member Reva B. Tooley called the law “an invasion of privacy” and said it “puts volunteer public service in Los Angeles beyond our reach.”

Bradley expressed “deep regret” at the resignations, which he said are effective immediately.

The commission is appointed by the mayor as a panel of civilian overseers that sets policy for the 8,400-member Police Department.

Monday’s resignations continue a period of turmoil for the board, which has lost four members in the past four months.

Last fall, during a public feud with Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, Bradley replaced two longtime members with political allies, who are expected to keep a tighter reign on the department.

It was not known on Monday who will be named to replace Boeckmann and Tooley.

“The intrusions into our private lives were so great that I could not continue,” Boeckmann said in an interview. The disclosure requirements, he said, “go well beyond what should be necessary to ensure a person doing his job honestly and properly.”

Boeckmann said he owns several automobile dealerships and has manufacturing, publishing, restaurant and real estate interests.

Elected officials and city employees have long been required by state law to file annual statements disclosing certain financial interests. But under a sweeping ethics-in-government law approved by the voters last June, far greater disclosure is required.

The first filings under the new law were required last week, and many officials and employees have complained about the extent of the information requested, including disclosures about the finances of children and business partners.

Ed Guthman, a member of the Ethics Commission, defended the requirements on Monday and said, “Disclosure of economic interest is the linchpin of any governmental ethics law. . . . It can alert officeholders and the public to possible conflicts of interest and help to avoid such conflicts.”

The financial interests of public officials, he said, “ought to be an open book.”

Boeckmann, a commissioner since 1984, said he decided to step down after he and his family spent several days struggling with the disclosure forms. In many instances, he said, they found it impossible to determine the dollar value of assets.

“You are to disclose every cent of income you make in a year from all sources,” Boeckmann said. “You are to list with extreme accuracy every asset you own. You are to disclose every partner you have including the activity of that partnership, whether or not you are involved in it. . . .

“It’s not the disclosure. It’s the extreme of what they’re asking.”

Attempts to reach Tooley for comment were unsuccessful. Tooley, who joined the board in 1979, is a former journalist who holds a master’s degree in psychology. Her husband, William, is a developer.

Melanie Lomax, a lawyer who joined the commission in December, said Tooley told her on Monday that the disclosure forms required so much detail about financial holdings that they “created very real concerns.”

Lomax said she agrees that the requirements are “burdensome” and predicted other resignations from city government. But she said she filled out the forms and has no intention of resigning.

“I think that it’s tremendously regrettable that two veteran, knowledgeable members of the Police Commission are leaving under these circumstances and for these reasons,” Lomax said.

Many commissioners and other public officials think the ethics disclosure requirements “went too far,” she said, and require reporting of “very remote financial interests, ones that cannot be demonstrated in any way to have any effect on that commissioner’s ability to handle their commission assignment.”

Attorney Dan Garcia, who joined the commission in November, will not resign, but he said he sympathizes with those who did and agrees that the requirements are “an invasion of privacy.”

“You just can’t force people to give up their own privacy and the privacy of their spouses and children, and ask them to live a life of public service, especially on unpaid commissions, without some reaction,” Garcia said.

Times staff writer Charisse Jones contributed to this story.