Coercion and the Tug of War Over Proposition F

I hate to accuse cops of anything as shady as coercion, but I don’t know what else to call it.

The story begins with negotiations over whether the Police Protective League, the powerful police union, would support Proposition F. That’s the proposed City Charter amendment on the June 2 ballot that would increase civilian control over the Police Department, as recommended by the Christopher Commission after the Rodney G. King beating.

Commission Chairman Warren Christopher, City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie and Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani all told me that the union asked the deficit-ridden city for increased police fringe benefits in return for its support.

“It was clear that the Police Protective League support for Proposition F could have been bought,” Fabiani said. “The question was how much would it have cost the city and the taxpayers.”

When I asked Bill Violante, the league president, whether the union had proposed a benefits-for-support trade, I couldn’t get a straight answer. “We discussed a number of things, a number of issues on how to implement the report. . . We were trying to implement things in the . . . report . . . ,” he said.

Mayor Tom Bradley and the City Council turned the union down. So the police union is now leading the campaign against Proposition F.

That is a tremendous break to the opposition campaign, which had consisted of Chief Daryl F. Gates and a comparatively small number of poorly financed supporters. The police union backing gives this band a large, well-financed ally, capable of paying for television and radio commercials and putting thousands of off-duty cops and their families on the streets for grass-roots politicking.

League sources say the union is prepared to put $500,000 into the campaign.

There aren’t many people in L.A. who are as tough and skilled at City Hall politics as Violante and his fellow league leaders.

They proceed on their daily rounds with the care of old-time political ward bosses who never forget a birthday or bar mitzvah. No detail is too unimportant. City Hall staff members tell me that Violante and other league leaders drop in on council offices with flowers, candy and other gifts for the staff. For that, the police union crew gets to use the office Xerox machines and telephones, and has access to their staffs.

The league also helps favored council candidates, contributing $54,900 to city campaigns since 1984.

All this helps when the police union negotiates labor contracts with the City Council. And such negotiations were necessary in the preparation of Proposition F.

That’s because the many changes proposed by the Christopher Commission--especially those dealing with discipline--changed police working conditions that were established in their contracts.

Negotiations were tough. The council backed down on many of its demands.

According to City Administrative Officer Comrie, at this point the union brought up an unrelated issue--improved health insurance coverage.

Comrie examined the union proposal, which would have provided cops with full city-paid health insurance no matter when they retired. Now, the city doesn’t take over retirees’ payments until they reach 55.

So if a cop retired at the age of 44 after 20 years, he’d have free health insurance.

Comrie recalled that the union said it would support Proposition F if the health insurance coverage was extended.

“We told the mayor and the council it would cost between $5 million and $10 million a year,” Comrie said.

With negotiations stalemated, Christopher entered the picture. “I heard it was about to break down,” Christopher told me. “So I asked for a meeting with Violante to try to bridge the gap. They were down to a few issues.”

At breakfast on Feb. 24, Christopher told Violante that “there was room for compromise” on working condition issues. But, said Christopher, Violante brought up a “benefits package. . . . I told him I couldn’t help on the money issues. In my opinion, it was the money issues that were very important to him.”

This is crass, pocketbook talk and I’m sure you won’t find it mentioned in the league’s campaign against Proposition F. Rather, the union will emphasize preserving the “thin blue line against City Hall politicians.”

But I’ve got three good witnesses who say it happened, and their memories of the negotiations are as vivid as the flowers that Bill Violante brings to City Hall offices on his political rounds.