Committee Formed to Study Funding of Police Expansion
Mayor Richard Riordan and Council President John Ferraro on Friday launched a special committee charged with finding a way to pay for the ongoing expansion of the Los Angeles Police Department, the largest such growth in history.
Council members Richard Alatorre, Mike Feuer and Rita Walters, who form the panel’s regular budget committee, will be joined by Controller Rick Tuttle and mayoral appointees William Siart and Donna Tuttle.
Siart, former CEO of First Interstate Bank, is active in the Catholic archdiocese and is on the USC board of trustees. Tuttle runs an investment firm and is co-owner of two professional ice hockey teams and a minor league baseball club.
The committee sprang from last month’s battle between Riordan and the council over whether the city has enough money to hire as many new officers as the mayor wants. Riordan proposed adding 710 new officers next year, backed by a $53-million, three-year federal grant. But the council feared the city would not have enough money to pay those officers in the long term, and approved funding for 450 new officers, risking about $19.5 million of the federal money.
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