Fire Department Trainer Says He Told of Inequity : Bias: Captain testifies that he informed the chief through his chief of staff that female recruits were being treated more harshly. Manning says there was no inquiry made because he believed the tip was anonymous.

A training officer testified Wednesday that he informed Los Angeles City Fire Chief Donald O. Manning’s chief of staff last year that women had been subjected to harsher evaluations in an effort to boot them off the force.

Capt. Bassanio Peters told the City Council’s Personnel Committee that he made the statement to Assistant Fire Chief Randy Wallace during a 12-week training class in which instructors also made a controversial video of female recruits repeatedly failing during drills.

The entire training staff was quietly transferred to firehouses after Peters leveled his allegations, but no investigation was conducted.

Summoned to respond to the accusations, Wallace and Manning said there was no internal investigation because Peters made his allegations anonymously through an intermediary. If the department had investigated, Manning said, it would have discouraged other firefighters from lodging similar complaints.

“If we attacked,” Manning told council members, “we would destroy anyone (from) anonymously coming forward ever again.”

But in an interview after the hearing, Peters insisted that he identified himself to Wallace in a telephone conversation. “I called him directly and spoke to him directly,” he said.

Wallace later said: “I’m not disputing that. I don’t have that recollection. But again, that was 19 months ago.”

Told of the statements, Councilman Mike Hernandez said he was troubled by the apparent discrepancies and “just disturbed that the chief at times seems to be aware of what is going on and other times is asleep.”

Peters’ testimony added fuel to allegations of discrimination against female recruits--a criticism first voiced last month in a scathing city audit.

Among other things, the audit found that the academy, where trainees are grilled in the physical and technical aspects of firefighting during an intensive course, was the focal point of problems in a department in which about 40% of all female recruits have washed out over the past seven years--about twice the failure rate of male recruits.

Wednesday’s meeting was the latest in a series of public hearings focusing on the Fire Department’s hiring and promotional procedures. Each new hearing seems to heighten the controversy and further polarize a group split among those who contend that not enough has been done to advance affirmative action goals and others who believe that hiring standards have been lowered to bring in women and minorities.

During the three-hour hearing, the director of the city’s Commission on the Status of Women was scolded for stating in a report to her board of directors that the video of women recruits failing at training tasks did not appear to show gender discrimination--even before it was revealed that the tape was intended as a hedge against some women who allegedly had threatened sexual harassment complaints.

“If the commission members had no other basis on which to make a judgment, the problem would effectively go away,” Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas told commission Director Paula Petrotta.

“Obviously, I saw the tape before women came forward,” Petrotta said, explaining that she was unable to tell the gender of the recruits in the film.

But the most explosive testimony came from Peters.

“There were attitudes and statements made by members of the training staff that depicted a less-than-even playing field,” the 17-year department veteran said.

Peters recounted fellow training captains allegedly making such statements as, “I don’t believe females belong on the department,” and that women firefighters were only good for “comforting accident victims.”

On another occasion, Peters testified, he was told by a fellow captain “to do the right thing” when he graded female recruits. He said he interpreted that to mean he was supposed to fail them.

“It went against everything I ever learned in my instructor’s training,” said Peters, an avid weightlifter who was the academy’s strength and conditioning coach.

Troubled by the behavior, Peters said, he went to Wallace.

When the academy class ended in June, 1993, the entire staff was reassigned to the field. A number of women who were fired were rehired and put in a remedial weight training program to prepare them for the next academy--an action Peters called “damage control” to protect the department from a lawsuit.

As for the women who graduated, Peters said, they were sent to fire stations--in some cases to be supervised by the very captains who allegedly targeted them in training.

“I’m not a professor or rocket scientist,” he said, “but it seems to me that might be a problem.”

In his response, Manning assured members of the council committee that he would launch an investigation into the matter now that Peters has revealed his identity.

Manning said he initially wanted to determine which captains were involved in the alleged discrimination but that he was hindered by the anonymous nature of the complaint. So, the chief said, he decided that the best course was to transfer the entire staff.

“I clearly wanted to take action,” Manning said.