Mayor OKs Gift of Safety Sirens to Workers : City Hall: Riordan will accept a Phoenix-based firm’s donation of 1,000 anti-crime devices. He will avoid the issue of city liability by arranging for alarms to go directly to employees.

Despite concerns from some city officials, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan plans to accept a donation today of 1,000 “personal alarm attack devices” from a company that will distribute most of the anti-crime sirens to City Hall employees.

Although some Riordan aides said that rumors of recent attacks against female city workers prompted the distribution, other Riordan officials said safety in City Hall had nothing to do with it.

“The mayor is concerned about the safety of the entire city,” said Riordan spokeswoman Annette Castro. “Los Angeles needs to be made safe--including City Hall.”

There have been rumors around City Hall in recent weeks of attacks against several female employees. City security officers and police officials say they have received no such reports, but the officials say there have been cases of women being followed or accosted by transients.

The Phoenix-based company, Quorum International, offered the tiny devices--which emit a 103-decibel siren when activated to scare off would-be attackers--as part of Riordan’s Project Safety L.A. program announced earlier this month.

The company will distribute about 700 of the devices to city employees who report to all 15 City Council members, City Atty. James Hahn, City Controller Rick Tuttle, City Clerk Nancy Russell, Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton and City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie.

About 300 more probably will be distributed to the public at community meetings, officials said.

The City Council’s Public Safety Committee refused Monday to accept the devices from the company as a gift, concerned that doing so would subject the city to legal liability if someone were injured with the alarm.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, who has one of the devices, said committee members did not want to appear to endorse the alarms, which cost about $35. So the committee, which also includes council members Marvin Braude and Mark Ridley-Thomas, referred the matter to the city attorney and the chief administrative officer for review.

But Riordan intends to go ahead by having the company donate the devices directly to the employees. Gifts to the city itself would require council approval.

“Our hands are not going to touch them,” said Geoffrey Garfield, Riordan’s assistant deputy mayor for public safety. “We are just going to say thank you.”