Manning Critic Is Asked to Quit : City Hall: Mayor urges Leslie Winner, the resigning fire chief’s harshest opponent, to step down from the Fire Commission.

Two days after Los Angeles Fire Chief Donald O. Manning’s announced retirement, his harshest critic on the Fire Commission was asked by Mayor Richard Riordan to resign from the oversight panel.

Commissioner Leslie Song Winner said she was asked by the mayor’s chief of staff, William Ouchi, to submit her letter of resignation Thursday only hours before the board began interviewing candidates for interim chief. Winner said she was given no reason for the request.

“I asked for a meeting with the mayor, and it was denied,” said Winner, who was appointed to a second term on the five-member panel last summer by Riordan. “I don’t really understand it because everything I have been striving for is in complete agreement with the mayor’s agenda and in the best interests of the city.”

Winner said that she had not decided whether she would comply with the mayor’s request to step down. If Winner does resign, the commission would be without its main advocate for minority hiring and promotion when a permanent replacement for Manning is selected during the next several months. Affirmative action has become one of the most divisive issues in the Fire Department and contributed to Manning’s decision to leave.

“I think it’s going to be a blow in our efforts to implement reforms,” said David Spence of Winner’s potential departure. Spence is president of the Los Angeles Stentorians, an advocacy organization representing 250 African American firefighters on the city force.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, whose Personnel Committee has been investigating alleged discrimination on the force, said she was very disappointed by Riordan’s action.

“The mayor has not taken any stance on the gender discrimination and harassment issues in the Fire Department, and this will be seen as his first public response,” she said. “It will be read by other commissioners that the mayor doesn’t want people to be active in these roles.”

In a written statement, Riordan declined to say why he asked Winner to resign. “This is not about issues,” he said. “It’s about approach and the teamwork necessary to ensure positive change.”

The mayor’s spokeswoman, Noelia Rodriguez, said he planned to nominate former Police Commissioner Michael Yamaki to replace Winner.

One City Council member, who asked not to be named, questioned whether Winner was offered as a sacrifice by the mayor to those in the Fire Department who supported Manning--a contention denied by Rodriguez.

The commission was scheduled to interview about a dozen interim chief candidates Thursday night and could announce its decision as soon as today. Although commissioners declined to discuss their selection process, sources in City Hall say about a dozen candidates picked by the mayor’s office and commissioners were asked to submit their resumes.

The sources say the mayor’s office has expressed keen interest in four candidates: Battalion Chief Bill Bamattre and Assistant Chiefs John Callahan, Tom Curry and Delbert Howard. Of the four, the sources say, Bamattre is considered a strong contender because of his political experience as a former councilman and mayor of Dana Point.

The interim chief will guide the department during a critical transition period. Not only will he have to deal with the City Council during contentious budget hearings, but he will inherit a force caught off guard by the sudden departure of Manning, who announced his retirement Tuesday in a letter to firefighters.

“People are in a state of shock,” said Capt. Ken Buzzell, president of the 3,000-member United Firefighters of Los Angeles, which represents the department’s rank and file.

In his letter, the chief said he was leaving because of what he called “false allegations and innuendoes” regarding, among other things, sexism and racism on the 3,100-member force.

Manning said his surprise retirement was also to protest $8 million in budget cuts that Riordan has proposed for the Fire Department, the bulk of which would be achieved by eliminating 57 staff assistants who serve as personal aides to chief officers.

At a council budget hearing Thursday, that theme was echoed by Deputy Chief Don Anthony. “We will kill firefighters” if the staff assistants are dropped, he warned--a charge that Riordan has hotly denied.

Fire officials contend that the staff assistants save firefighters’ lives at blazes by keeping track of personnel and helping chiefs draft battle plans.

But when asked by Councilman Richard Alatorre if all 57 staff assistants were needed, Anthony conceded that the department could perhaps lose nine of the positions.

“I don’t know if I’d keep them all,” he said.

Later in the day, as the Fire Commission prepared to interview candidates, Councilwoman Goldberg and others said the panel was moving too quickly to appoint an interim chief. Moving too quickly, they warned, would only fuel concerns that a replacement was already selected.