Riordan Calls for Mediator in LAPD Sickout

Los Angeles police officers staged Day 2 of their mass sickout Tuesday, causing only minor disruption of public service but exasperating city officials and prompting Mayor Richard Riordan to call for a mediator to step in.

In an unusual joint appearance designed to signal the seriousness and solidarity of the city’s leadership, Riordan appeared with seven council members standing behind him as he spelled out the city’s budget woes.

“The city respects the police and wants to give them a raise and reward them for a job well done,” Riordan said. “(But) the city is facing the gravest financial situation since the Great Depression.”

The mayor called on the officers union, the Police Protective League, to permit an impartial mediator to settle the two-year dispute.

“If mediation is rejected, the council will have no other choice in my opinion and I believe they will vote for an impasse,” Riordan said.

After the declaration of an impasse, the city could call in a mediator without the union’s approval; if mediation fails, the city could impose a contract unilaterally.

Although officially unsanctioned by the officers union, the job action known as “Blue Flu II” enjoyed wide support from the rank and file Tuesday: Of 548 officers scheduled to report to day watch duty, 248--or 45%--called in sick. (Other officers were ordered to work double shifts to cover for their “ailing” colleagues.)

Riordan’s show of solidarity with City Council members angered unhappy officers even more, to the point that all but three West Valley Division officers scheduled to work the overnight “morning watch” called in sick, according to an officer in the station who declined to give his name.

At the LAPD’s six Valley divisions, more officers failed to show up for work on day shifts Tuesday than had stayed away the day before--44%, up from 39% Monday.

Union leaders denounced the mayor’s suggestion that a mediator be appointed, condemning it as a stalling tactic that would escalate the dispute. They also decried the increasingly rancorous tenor of the management-labor dispute.

“This should be a civilized discussion,” said Geoffrey Garfield, spokesman for the Police Protective League. “Instead, it’s become a jungle--the back-and-forth, the heightened tensions, the sickout. The city is banging its chest saying it wants to be king of the jungle and we’re doing the same. Meanwhile, the citizens are wondering what’s going on.”

In fact, most citizens are feeling the sickout’s effects lightly--if at all. But some apparently are being spared traffic citations.

Nearly a third of the 34 officers assigned to the Valley Traffic Division failed to report for the day shift Tuesday.

“We probably have fewer traffic enforcement officers out there so we might not be able to write as many tickets as we usually would,” said Lt. Joe Rezzo. “But we’re in real good shape as far as coverage to the community is concerned, and we are well-prepared to respond to any emergencies.”

At Foothill Division’s detective bureau in Pacoima, investigations of some crime reports--especially those involving misdemeanors--were being delayed at least a day, said the station’s chief of detectives, Lt. Gary Halden. Fewer than half the detectives and other inspectors employed there arrived for work Tuesday.

“It would be a tremendous impact if it was more than just one day,” Halden said. “We had enough people to manage the workload for one day, but if it lasted any longer it would be difficult.”

The three-day sickout was scheduled to enter its final stretch with the Tuesday evening shift calling in sick. Officers plan to continue their protests tonight by picketing at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, where Riordan will deliver a speech on his public safety plan.

For the second consecutive day Tuesday, the West Valley station was the hardest hit in the Valley: more than two-thirds of the officers scheduled for duty called in sick, forcing many from the graveyard shift to remain on overtime.

But those who did show up remained upbeat.

“They’re just hanging in there like troopers,” said Sgt. Stephanie Payne, the day watch commander. “When they know they have to do something, no one complains. It’s like a normal day, really.”

Others were more circumspect. “It could get a little old if this thing drags on,” acknowledged one officer, who declined to give his name.

At Rampart Division--which had one of the highest sickout participations of any station--a large, middle-aged man sat in the lobby, waiting for the release of a friend who had been arrested over the weekend on charges of being drunk and disorderly.

Despite his friend’s arrest, the man said he was on the side of the police when it comes to their contract dispute with the city.

“They should give them a raise, putting their life on the line like they do,” said the man, who did not want to give his name. “It’s been a long time since they had a raise. The way things are happening in the street, you can’t blame them for wanting more money. There’s a lot of weirdos out there.”

At the front desk of the station, two policemen patiently answered the telephone in between filling out complaints for people standing in line.

“He’s not here,” one said into the telephone. “He’s ill.”

“No, he’s not here today,” said the other, a few minutes later.

Both men, who had been carried over from the previous shift, said they had been instructed not to talk to reporters. But one produced a roster of the officers who were supposed to have shown up.

“Seven officers showed up and three of those were probationary officers,” he said. “You’re talking about 40 officers calling in sick.”

Although imaginary ailments were the order of the day, some came up with iron-clad excuses.

The officer whom the city has labeled the underground organizer of the sickout, Gary Morgan, scheduled a legitimate minor surgery for Tuesday morning to avoid any possibility of discipline.

At the city’s request, a judge had banned Morgan on Friday from encouraging officers from participating in the blue flu.

Other officers insisted that their “sickness” was real--but tied directly to the contract talks.

“We feel we either had to act or continue to be taken advantage of,” said one veteran patrol officer who did not report to work. “We don’t like calling in sick but we feel backed into a corner.”

The LAPD says it will seek doctors’ notes from all the officers who called in sick during the blue flu and may dock the pay or take disciplinary action against those who stayed out of work improperly.

Officers, however, said it was easy to make absences appear legitimate.

“You tell a doctor you have a migraine headache and they’ll write it up,” an officer said. “They can’t prove whether you have it or not.”

Council President John Ferraro said the city ought to go after the doctors who are providing notes certifying questionable ailments.

He was not the only council member taking a get-tough tone.

“We are offering the police officers something that no other employee group has gotten and that is a pay raise out of the city’s general tax revenues,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who chairs the council’s budget committee.

The city has offered 3% raises over the next two years. The union is seeking retroactive raises for the two years that officers have worked without a contract. A rookie officer earns about $33,000 a year.

Clearly frustrated, Yaroslavsky noted that only Department of Water and Power employees have received a pay raise--9% over four years. Money for that increase comes from utility receipts that have been more resilient during the recession than property and sales taxes that are used to pay police and other employees.

Trash haulers and other blue-collar workers have agreed to no pay raise this year and next year. Firefighters, who are also without a contract for the fiscal year beginning July 1, have been promised a raise comparable to that offered to the police.

Yaroslavsky, who is a member of the council’s negotiating team, said it is important for the public to compare treatment of police with that of other city workers.

“We are not being stingy and cheap and ungrateful to our police,” Yaroslavsky said. “It’s as if, no matter what we put on the table, it’s not good enough right now.”

Although disruptive and costly, this week’s job action increased overall LAPD staffing levels because the “modified tactical alert” declared by Chief Willie L. Williams allowed the department to keep entire shifts on duty to cover for those calling in sick, officials said.

“I don’t think public safety was compromised in any way,” Cmdr. Dave Gascon said. “We always felt that we had a significant number of options available.”

Among those options was a full tactical alert, during which routine police calls could have been ignored to free up officers for only high-priority incidents.

The LAPD also had its emergency operations center activated to respond quickly to any developments. As the city’s request, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had deputies on standby as needed.

Times staff writers Timothy Williams, Chip Johnson and J. Michael Kennedy contributed to this report.