Council Critical of Mayor’s Plan to Add Police

Los Angeles City Council members on Tuesday offered unprecedented criticism of Mayor Richard J. Riordan’s policeexpansion plan, suggesting that it relies too much on one-time funding and drains scarce resources from other key services.

“There’s more to a city than just a police department,” City Council President John Ferraro said during the second day of two weeks of budget hearings by a special council panel.

“Promises were made, but they were not City Council promises,” added Ferraro, hinting at the mayor’s 1993 campaign pledge that he would not run for reelection before adding 3,000 foot soldiers to the police force. “I’m all for a safe city, but there’s more to being safe than police officers.”

Riordan’s proposed $57-million boost to the Police Department would add nearly 1,000 employees, including 710 officers, and would increase funding for the department’s embattled crime lab as well as paying for reforms that grew out of the 1991 Christopher Commission report. It is the centerpiece of the mayor’s proposed $4-billion spending plan, which recommends eliminating 1,070 jobs outside the Police Department, cutting nearly every other department.

“I want more police, but we also need other things that are important, so how do you balance that out?” asked Budget Committee Chairman Richard Alatorre, who, like Ferraro, is among the mayor’s strongest council allies.

“Parks, libraries and the like are just as important as the Police Department,” Alatorre said.

The council can change any item in the proposed budget, though Riordan retains line-by-line veto power. With a two-thirds vote, the council can override a veto.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Police Protective League President Cliff Ruff warned that the hiring of 90 new officers each month is sacrificing quality for quantity, leaving hundreds of rookies in the field to be trained by relatively inexperienced officers. He suggested cutting the number of recruits to 70 per month, which could save about $14 million next year.

Chief Willie L. Williams told the council panel that the current level of hiring does not threaten the quality of the recruits, but that did not allay concerns.

Echoing colleagues’ trepidation over the warp-speed recruitment, Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg also asked for an analysis of how much the mayor’s public safety plan will cost over its five-year implementation and how much would come from sources such as the federal crime bill.

“At some point or another we’re going to have to come to grips with whether or not we’re setting up the public for a fall,” she said.

But Riordan’s staff said it stands by the Police Department increase, noting that the council also signed onto the public safety plan when it was unveiled in 1993.

“The mayor’s number one goal is public safety, which is the number one concern of Angelenos,” said Steve Sugerman, Riordan’s assistant chief of staff.