Police Union Accuses Mayor of Interference

The Los Angeles Police Protective League accused Mayor Richard Riordan on Sunday of putting “tremendous personal pressure” on the mediator in the police pay dispute to rescind a recommendation he reportedly made for a 9% pay increase and reopen mediation efforts.

But the mediator, John M. Caraway, sharply denied that he had been pressured and called news reports that he had made such a recommendation “factually incorrect.”

Several sources in the dispute said Friday that Caraway, of the state Mediation and Conciliation Service, had recommended police pay increases totaling 9% over the next 18 months, along with $1,000 “signing bonuses” for all officers and additional stipends for those who work patrol.

But an exchange of statements Sunday indicated that while the police union was anxious to lock in such a settlement, city officials--and the mediator himself--insisted that any terms discussed did not constitute a final recommendation.

In an unusual public statement for a mediator in labor negotiations, Caraway said he had “discussed a wide range of possible solutions” to the protracted pay dispute, but had informed both parties that he will not make a final recommendation of his own “unless both parties ask me to.”

And while he did not deny having a conversation Saturday with Riordan, Caraway said: “I can assure you I’m not an easy person to pressure. This is an ongoing process and I’m not aware that I have been pressured by anyone.”

Caraway was reached for comment at a Los Angeles hotel after the Police Protective League issued a statement that declared:

“Mr. Caraway has been under tremendous personal pressure from Mayor Riordan, whom, it is our understanding, spoke with Mr. Caraway for over an hour on Saturday to pressure him to rescind his obligation to present his final recommendation, and attempt to return to the mediation process.

“If this is in fact true, this action on the part of the Mayor is tantamount to jury tampering, irrevocably tainting the whole mediation process. . . . We are discussing with legal experts the possibility of demanding an investigation by the Attorney General into this matter of tampering with the settlement adviser (Caraway) by Mayor Riordan, his staff and (the) City Council.”

When Caraway was read the police union statement, he interjected: “That’s ridiculous.”

But Danny L. Staggs, the president of the Police Protective League, said later that it continues to be his understanding “that the mayor has put pressure on the mediator.”

“If that has happened, I’m disgusted,” Staggs said.

“It appears that the process was fine until the mayor interceded, that both sides had come to an agreement to be presented to the council on Tuesday,” Staggs continued. “Everyone believed that the process had succeeded and that everyone had agreed. But when they learned about it, several council members were irate, and they prevailed on the mayor to pressure the mediator.”

Deputy Mayor William McCarley, reached at home, said that Riordan was out of town and unavailable for comment.

McCarley said the Riordan Administration wants to keep the negotiating process confidential and that the Administration would have no further comment for now.

But two other ranking city officials--both on the city’s negotiating committee--supported the Administration’s argument that there had been no final 9% recommendation.

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky accused the Police Protective League of trying to “use the press” in the matter. If any recommendation has been made calling for 9% hike--and other payments--”it will be dead on arrival” before the council, the councilman said.

City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie said that, in fact, “there has been no recommendation” from Caraway and that he had been told by the mediator that he felt “he was put in a very awkward position” by news reports.