City OKs New Police Cars, but Lacks Anyone to Put Radios in Them : Finances: Purchase of 327 LAPD vehicles was recently approved. Unfortunately, the jobs of 70 workers who installed communications gear have been eliminated.

In an effort to upgrade the Los Angeles Police Department’s aging fleet of automobiles, Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council recently approved the purchase of 327 new cars, a move warmly welcomed by police commanders.

But while one hand gave, the other took away: An LAPD report obtained by The Times on Tuesday notes that even as the city was approving new cars, it was simultaneously eliminating the jobs of those who would install police radios in the vehicles.

“In discussions with the director of communications, Department of General Services (DGS), it has been learned that due to the loss of 70 positions, DGS personnel will not be available to complete radio installations in any new police vehicles,” according to the report, a monthly document of police activities and issues prepared by the LAPD and forwarded to the mayor’s office.

Without radios, the cars are useless to the LAPD, and officials are scrambling to fix the problem. Although several officials expressed optimism that the snafu can be corrected quickly, the LAPD report warned that “a solution to this problem is critical” in order to avoid delays in outfitting the eagerly anticipated cars.

“The five of us commissioners have volunteered to come in on our weekends and put the radios in ourselves,” Gary Greenebaum, president of the Police Commission, said jokingly. “Seriously, though, it’s sort of a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.”

Greenebaum said he hoped the problem could be taken care of quickly because the state of the LAPD’s fleet has become a serious morale issue within the department. Many officers have to wait for cars to be readied before they go out on patrol, and the cars used to patrol the streets are often badly run-down.

“I hope we can get this resolved right away,” Greenebaum said. “Anything that would delay these new vehicles would be unfortunate and very sad.”

Senior police officers agreed, adding that cars without radios are almost as unhelpful as no cars at all.

“Having a fleet of 327 cars that are not serviceable is not of any use to us,” said Assistant Chief Frank Piersol, who heads the LAPD’s Office of Administrative Services. “There are certain cause and effect relationships that may not have been obvious when these actions were taken.”

Frank Martinez, assistant general manager of the city’s Department of General Services, acknowledged that the cuts to his staff will mean that city workers will not be available to install the radios.

Nevertheless, Piersol, Martinez and other city officials said they believe the issue can be overcome in time for the cars to be put into service on schedule--if only because it takes time to buy the cars and get them ready.

The cars are not expected to be delivered until spring. And the city’s Byzantine purchasing process--coupled with the LAPD’s need to equip the cars with other gear--make it unlikely that any of the newly approved vehicles will be on the streets before summer, Piersol said.

That gives the city several months to take care of the radio installation problem before it has an effect on the delivery of the cars.

To do that, city officials say they plan to contract out the radio installation service. City officials would draft specifications for the job and put the project up for bid. The winning company would perform the work that city employees otherwise would have done.

That contract, of course, will also cost the city money. But even in this time of tight budgets, officials were confident that the money would be found. After all, they said, the alternative would be letting the cars languish in a parking lot.

“If we don’t have the staff, we have to contract it out,” Martinez said. “Somebody needs to do the work.”