Mayor Urges 2 New Consultant Studies of LAPD

Even though 16 separate consultants are simultaneously studying the Los Angeles Police Department at a cost of $3 million, Mayor Richard Riordan and the city administrative officer are asking for two new LAPD studies with a price tag of nearly $100,000.

“All of our heads should be spinning with the number of consultant studies that are going on,” Councilwoman Laura Chick, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said Monday. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Chick vowed to vote against the studies--one of which would analyze attrition, the other the process for replacing old helicopters--but she is unlikely to get the chance. The proposals will be considered Wednesday by the council’s Government Efficiency Committee, which has the authority to approve them.

Riordan administration officials said that they too are concerned about the overuse of consultants, but that the two studies should be launched because they involve small amounts of money, are narrow in scope and deal with issues that could have major effects on the budget.

“I am concerned that we have all these consultants running around,” said Police Commission Vice President Art Mattox, “but I also recognize that we don’t have the expertise--or we don’t cultivate the expertise--to do the work consultants do.”

The mayor and the chief administrative officer apparently proposed the new studies without consulting the LAPD. Deputy Chief Dave Gascon, who has monitored attrition closely for the past year, said he just learned of the proposal Monday.

While Chick, Councilman Mike Feuer and Police Protective League President Cliff Ruff all said Monday that any new LAPD studies would raise concern, they are particularly irked that Riordan wants a consultant to look at attrition, a problem that has commanded much attention at City Hall and police headquarters since Riordan took office in 1993.

“We know what the problems are. I think we know what it would take to change it, and we need to weigh the cost of doing so,” said Feuer, who sits on the Public Safety Committee.

As Riordan attempts to expand the LAPD by 3,000 officers over five years, the police force has been dogged by rising attrition, spurring the mayor to form a special task force on the issue.

An internal LAPD survey commissioned by the task force showed that 41% of officers have considered leaving because of salaries, while 36% cite either lack of command support, lack of leadership or low morale. Riordan aides have focused on leadership issues, while Police Chief Willie L. Williams and the union--in anticipation of upcoming contract negotiations--have said that attrition is caused mainly by money issues.

“He compiles a blue-ribbon committee, and he didn’t like the results, so I’m suspicious that he’s going to pay for a study to try to get the results that he wants,” Ruff said of Riordan. “The study’s not going to change that it’s a simple issue of being competitive with the other Southern California law enforcement agencies.”

Sources in the Riordan administration said they are dissatisfied with the internal survey because it lacks an analysis of whether salary increases would pay for themselves by curbing attrition.

“If there is an attrition problem, the mayor wants to know about it,” said mayoral Chief Operations Officer Mike Keeley.