Cooperation Among City Agencies Is Urged : Government: Council panel calls for new policies in reaction to DWP’s refusal to help police in insurance-fraud investigation.

Responding to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s refusal to help police in an insurance-fraud investigation, a City Council panel Monday called for new policies to improve cooperation among city agencies.

The call for increased cooperation was in response to a November police investigation of a Cadillac that police believed had been buried under tons of tree clippings in Pacoima as part of a scam to collect insurance money.

Working on a tip that the 1988 Cadillac Allante convertible was hidden in a 2 1/2-acre wood pile behind a Pacoima wood-grinding business, investigators with the Los Angeles Police Department asked DWP workers at a nearby equipment yard to use their machinery to unearth the car.

But the DWP rejected the request, telling police to hire their own independent contractor for the job. The car eventually was uncovered but only with the help of employees and equipment from the wood-grinding business.

At Monday’s meeting of the council’s Public Safety Committee, council member Laura Chick called the DWP’s action “seriously wrong” and asked the city’s chief legislative analyst to study ways to increase cooperation.

“One example of one agency not cooperating with another agency is one example too many,” Chick said.

The analyst is expected to return to the committee with a report by March 14.

Michael Moore, a DWP director, said the lack of assistance was a mistake, which he attributed to DWP workers’ confusion about the agency’s policy to help police.