L.A. Fire Chief Disputes Audit’s Claims of Bias

Facing criticism from inside and outside his department, Los Angeles Fire Chief Donald O. Manning and his supporters rallied Wednesday in defense of the department’s affirmative action policies before a skeptical City Council committee.

Manning was called before the Personnel Committee to respond to a blistering city audit finding that white males dominate the department’s top posts and that women and minorities have been subjected to sexual and racial harassment at “rookie kill stations,” where efforts are made to force them out of the department.

The chief disputed the audit’s findings, telling council members that the department works hard to diversify its work force and takes quick action against racism and sexism.

“When it comes to our attention, we swiftly deal with it,” Manning said, as about 75 members of the Fire Department--decked out in crisp, dark blue uniforms--surrounded him in the council chambers.

Responding to the audit’s findings is one of the sharpest challenges Manning has faced since his appointment to the department’s top post in 1983.

In many ways, the 62-year-old chief is confronted with a no-win situation. Not only is he facing increased scrutiny by the City Council, he is being sharply criticized by some members of his own department, who feel he has lowered hiring standards to bring in women and minorities.

An opinion poll conducted by the 3,000-member firefighters union found that the membership had “an overwhelming lack of confidence” in Manning because of the department’s affirmative action policies.

“We are being condemned on both sides of that issue,” Manning said in an interview Wednesday.

But there was no lack of support for the chief among those firefighters at Wednesday’s hearing.

“The department has been nothing but supportive of me,” Kory Clark, a female fire inspector and seven-year department veteran, told the committee. Like others who testified in support of the chief, Clark said she had neither seen nor heard of harassment or discrimination in the department, which has 3,100 uniformed personnel.

An incredulous Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said she had a hard time believing that harassment and discrimination do not exist: “You can’t spend all your time denying a problem exists. The reality is not everyone is having a positive experience.”

The union poll conducted last spring by the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City found that the main reason for the lack of confidence in Manning is that firefighters believe he has lowered standards to hire women and minorities, said Capt. John Squire, who chaired a committee authorized by the chief to prepare a report prioritizing the poll’s findings.

“These are people we have to work with side by side, and we know they can’t do the job,” Squire said Wednesday of some minorities and women.

The report prepared by Squire’s committee, which included 21 department members, also said the chief “does not accept dissenting opinions. He has surrounded himself with people who are afraid to disagree.”

Those who speak out, the report said, are met with retaliation.

“If you don’t agree with the chief engineer and his policies, your head is on the chopping block,” said Squire, who estimated that about a third of the union’s members participated in the poll.

Manning vehemently denied that he retaliates against employees or that hiring standards have been lowered.

“I absolutely disagree with that,” said Manning, who questioned whether the poll’s findings accurately represent department-wide sentiment.

Neither the poll’s methodology nor the number of firefighters who participated was discussed in the department summary. Union officials were at a conference in New Orleans on Wednesday and unavailable for comment.

After the poll’s findings were released, Manning took them seriously enough to authorize the formation of the committee, which issued its report in September and will work with the chief to address the concerns.

Many of the union’s findings, such as charges of “nepotism” and “cronyism,” were similar to those in the city’s audit of the Fire Department.

“There must be a concerted effort on the part of Fire Department management to dispel the perception and incidence of nepotism, cronyism, differential application of discipline, differential treatment of women and minorities and a ‘good old boy’ syndrome,” the 300-page audit stated.

The audit was conducted by the Personnel Department at the request of Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who said he had received numerous discrimination complaints from minority and women firefighters who said their promotional opportunities were limited.

Of the top 20 Fire Department officials and administrators, 95% are white men, and there are no Asian Americans, women or blacks, the audit found. Minority representation in those ranks is less than it was in 1990, when white men held 89% of the chief, deputy chief and assistant chief slots, according to the audit.

“A great deal of work remains to be done by the Fire Department, not only to create a work force which reflects the community it serves, but to establish and maintain a healthy, positive working environment which encourages success for all its members,” the audit stated.

The findings were based on an analysis of department hiring practices and interviews with 84 current and former firefighters. Manning said the firefighters represented a scant 2% of the department and offered a skewed view.

Manning presented the council with a proposal for a $2 million department reorganization that would create a human resources bureau to study ways of improving retention rates for women and minorities and improve tracking of discrimination complaints. During the hearing, firefighters told committee members they have never had problems with the department’s promotions process.

“I have never experienced anyone in the department blocking my way,” said Battalion Chief Rick Garcia, an 18-year veteran and one of the highest-ranking Latinos in the department.

The audit’s findings were first reported Saturday in The Times. Many firefighters at the hearing criticized The Times’ report, saying it gave the department an undeserved negative reputation.

Fire Commission President Elizabeth Lowe told council members that she was concerned because the audit said the department has not abided by a court-ordered hiring plan requiring that at least half of all new annual hires be minorities.

Lowe, who said that conclusion contradicts Fire Department data, has asked Los Angeles attorney Gilbert T. Ray to conduct anindependent investigation of the department’s affirmative action programs. Ray was the executive director of the Christopher Commission, which studied practices and policies in the Los Angeles Police Department, and has agreed to Lowe’s request.

But council members told Lowe, who had not read the audit, that she had misinterpreted its findings. The audit’s criticism of the court-ordered hiring plan was directed at the Personnel Department, not the Fire Department, council members said.

Fire Commissioner Leslie Song Winner said she was concerned because Lowe had requested the independent investigation without consulting the commission. “I believe that it is inappropriate at this time,” Winner said.

Lowe said she will ask for the commission’s support at its meeting Tuesday.