Political Briefing : Ex-Chief Davis Rejects Picus: ‘What Goes Around, Comes Around’

Pay-back time: Three weeks ago, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus--locked in a fierce reelection struggle with ex-aide Laura Chick--called retired Republican state senator and ex-Los Angeles Police Department Chief Ed Davis at his Morro Bay home, asking for his endorsement.

Until he left the Senate last year, Davis’ district overlapped Picus’ in Woodland Hills, and his blessing could give her a boost among GOP voters and law-and-order types in the southwestern San Fernando Valley. Picus, a Democrat, has been generally supportive of the Police Department, and Davis endorsed her for reelection in 1989.

But Davis turned Picus down flat this time around--because of an off-the-cuff comment she made about him more than a year and a half ago.

Back in September, 1991, Davis testified before the City Council that the Police Department had been hurt by what he called hiring quotas for women and minorities. Davis said quotas had prevented some qualified people, presumably white males, from joining the force.

The next day, a newspaper account paraphrased Picus as saying Davis’ views on affirmative action were “antiquated” and quoted her as saying that women and minorities “perform superbly as police officers.”

Davis, a 76-year-old conservative, didn’t like being called “antiquated” one bit, and he’s still steamed over the incident. When Picus called, he told her so.

“I said, ‘You certainly don’t want to be endorsed by someone who is irrelevant or antiquated,’ ” he said.

Picus said she never intended to slight Davis and that she made the remark to a reporter “on the run, . . . without full control and full thought” while trying to catch a plane.

She said that although Davis’ endorsement would help in her tough battle with Chick, “I don’t think it hurts that I don’t have it.” Another former Los Angeles police chief, Tom Reddin, is backing her, she added.

Davis said that while he has never met Chick and obviously is not familiar with her (“Laura Chick? That’s her name, isn’t it?”), he is endorsing her in what he admits is pure political pay-back.

“What goes around, comes around,” he said, chuckling.