Work of Panel Probing Fire Dept. Put on Hold

The work of an independent panel appointed to study affirmative action issues in the Los Angeles Fire Department in the wake of a scathing city audit has been put on hold because officials have already begun to address the concerns raised in the report.

Since the audit was released last month, the City Council Personnel Committee and the Fire Commission have held several hearings on alleged discrimination in the department’s training and promotion practices, and treatment of women and minorities. The department also has expanded an existing committee to adopt recommendations in the audit.

“At this point, it doesn’t make sense to have us replicating the efforts,” said Los Angeles attorney Gilbert T. Ray, who is heading the panel.

A sharply divided Fire Commission approved the panel Nov. 22 at the request of board President Elizabeth Lowe, who called for the action after being told by Fire Chief Donald O. Manning that the audit’s findings were inaccurate.

Manning has dismissed the Personnel Department audit as a “hatchet job” based on unscientific methodology and the grumblings of a few firefighters. He put forth his own report containing data that he said contradicted the audit.

But in preliminary observations, Ray’s panel found that the audit--although not an exhaustive analysis--did provide useful information about perceived discrimination problems on the 3,100-member force.

“The Fire Department’s own report is useful in supplying some explanations and some selected statistics in rebuttal to the Personnel Department report, but it too is not, and does not purport to be, a comprehensive or in-depth treatment of the issues,” Ray said in a letter that will be discussed today at a Fire Commission meeting.