Fire Chief Denies Drink Influenced His Decision : Hearing: Westminster’s D’Wayne D. Scott says news reports of rioting prompted him to refuse to send his firefighters to L.A. He also denies ethnic slur charge.

Recalling a series of tense telephone conversations with city officials during the opening hours of the Los Angeles riots, Westminster Fire Chief D’Wayne D. Scott said he was not drunk when he barred his forces from the riot area because he feared for their safety.

In testimony before a weekend session of the city’s Personnel Commission, Scott said Saturday he consumed perhaps one beer with dinner the night he discussed his decision with city officials. He also testified that neither his condition at the time nor his demeanor were questioned by city officials during those conversations.

Scott said that while watching the riots unfold on television on April 29, he told Battalion Chief Harold Raphael that “the situation in L.A. was terrible.”

“I did not want any units from Westminster going there without my approval,” the chief testified, recounting the conversation. “He (Raphael) became very upset and said something about our brothers in L.A. needing us. . . . I didn’t want any of my people shot trying to put out building fires.”

City officials, questioning Scott’s judgment, asked him soon after to take a psychological test to determine if alcohol abuse was affecting his job performance, as some subordinates have complained.

The 51-year-old chief refused to submit to the test and last May was placed on administrative leave. He was suspended in July for 20 days when he did not withdraw his objections to the psychological evaluations, and remains on administrative leave with pay.

The purpose of the public commission hearings, which began Aug. 12, is to recommend to the City Council whether the city has the right to order employees to undergo fitness evaluations. Commission Chairman Earl W. French said the panel could also make a recommendation regarding the chief’s continued fitness for duty.

In the hours immediately after the outbreak of civil unrest in Los Angeles and through the next day, Scott testified, he may have consumed one or two beers, one possibly at dinner on April 29 and perhaps another before going to bed the night of April 30. But he said that his decision-making ability had not been impaired.

Scott said that his decisions at the time, over the objection of other Fire Department colleagues, were influenced only by a concern for the safety of his firefighters.

“There were reports of fire units being attacked with rocks, bottles and guns,” said Scott.

On the opening day of testimony, Westminster Firefighters Assn. President Paul Gilbrook told the commission that Scott telephoned him April 29, demanding to know who had complained to city officials about his decision to keep city firefighters out of the riot area.

Gilbrook testified that Scott used a racial epithet in that conversation and slurred his words as if drunk.

“Absolutely not!” Scott said Saturday, answering the charge in a question posed by his attorney, Richard J. Silber. “I didn’t make any ethnic remarks. . . .”

Earlier Saturday, the chief’s wife, Julia Scott, testified that she believed the trouble engulfing her husband has been the work of the firefighters’ association.

“I believe that with everything in me,” Julia Scott said. “They (association members) want somebody in there that will be under their thumb.”

The commission was tentatively scheduled to continue taking testimony from the chief Tuesday.