Problems Endure at Fire Dept., Report Says

Nearly two years after a stinging audit said the Los Angeles Fire Department was rife with sexism and racism, a private consultant has found that many employees still see the department as an old boys’ network where women and minorities are isolated and locked out of top posts, according to a report scheduled for release today.

The report also indicts the department’s complaint-reporting process as “unresponsive and ineffective,” saying supervisors have outdated information in their handbooks and many employees believe complaints are processed too slowly and handled inconsistently and can trigger punishment or payback.

“Women said they are not accepted in the department. Minorities and women felt that white males assume that they are there because of race, color and/or the consent decree and not because they are competent,” wrote the Parker Group management consultants in a report obtained Monday by The Times.

“Many respondents felt that people in the department are confused, frustrated and in many cases angry,” the report said. “More importantly, they feel powerless because many employees do not understand sexual harassment and discrimination acts and attitudes.”

The consultants recommend that the city immediately hire investigators independent of the Fire Department to handle complaints and require diversity training for all department personnel--two things that have been called for repeatedly since the city’s internal audit but not yet put in place.

The report also suggests the department establish mixed-race and mixed-gender working groups in fire stations to break down barriers.

Based on individual interviews and focus-group discussions with 57 employees, the Parker Group found that:

* Employees believe policies and practices regarding discrimination are “not the same” and rules are different for different people, undermining the system’s credibility.

* Latino, white and Asian men and higher-ranking officers “questioned the validity of discrimination and sexual harassment complaints.”

* Women fear that filing complaints will make male colleagues treat them differently and place roadblocks in their career paths.

* Male groups “summed up diversity as a process that allows other groups to fill available positions and move up in the ranks without paying their dues.”

* Every group of firefighters and civilians, regardless of race or gender, felt it was the subject of unfair discrimination.

“This prevailing thought that some groups in the organization don’t count is appalling,” Fire Commissioner Larry Gonzales said upon reading the report.

“It seems as though we can fight fires very well, but when it comes to race relations, we score very low. We need to move forward. If it means dragging the department kicking and screaming to the 21st century, than so be it.”

But Ken Buzzell, president of the union representing the city’s 3,100 firefighters, said he sees little evidence of the attitudes described in the report.

“I have not had one female come to me and offer anything that I would view as proof or even an innuendo that because they filed a complaint, they did not pass a promotional exam,” Buzzell said. “I haven’t had any of them come to complain to me about it--maybe that’s because I’m a man, I don’t know.”

The audit of two years ago, conducted by the city’s Personnel Department, analyzed two decades of hiring practices at the Fire Department, which was all white until 1955 and was put under a court order in 1974 to aggressively recruit women and male minorities.

At the time of the audit, the department was 62% white, 23% Latino, 11% black and 4% Asian, with women making up 3% of the force. But 95% of the department’s top 20 officers were white, with no women, blacks or Asians among them.

The Parker Group report is anecdotal and includes no parallel statistics, but the department has experienced virtually no attrition, hiring or promotion since the audit.

Both Gonzales and Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who has spearheaded efforts to diversify the department, said they find a ray of hope in the current report’s analysis that newly appointed Chief William Bamattre is committed to a “hostile-free” work environment and is “perceived as being able to effect change.”

Goldberg expressed confidence that revamped promotional exams currently underway will yield a more diverse leadership.

A citywide harassment complaint unit, which will include the Fire Department, is on track to be established this fall.

“Institutions are not quick to respond to change. That’s part of what gives them their strength,” said Goldberg, who heads the City Council’s Personnel Committee. “I don’t think attitudes are going to change overnight.”

Goldberg said she is encouraged that Bamattre had commissioned the three-month, $20,000 study of harassment and discrimination, a stark contrast from his predecessor, Donald O. Manning, who disputed the audit’s validity and ultimately resigned rather than agree to shepherd the changes it demanded.

“It’s significant that he wants to know what people are thinking,” Goldberg said of Bamattre.

In an interview, Bamattre acknowledged that the Parker report reflects a department where little has changed despite the harsh spotlight on racism and sexism. He said he views the new study as a tool for change, providing more detail about what lies under the surface of the complaints employees raised two years ago in the audit and the contentious City Hall hearings that followed.

“I’m frustrated that it goes so slow, but that’s the nature of the beast, a little bit,” he said. The audit and hearings “identified the illness. This is a prescription for a cure.”

The report recommended that the department:

* Hire or appoint a coordinator to deal with sexual harassment and an equal employment opportunity officer, along with an independent investigative staff of at least two people.

* Examine field assignments of women and minorities and attempt to prevent them from being isolated in firehouses.

* “Establish a clearly defined, timely process for reporting and investigating allegations” of harassment and discrimination, handle complaints confidentially and with sensitivity and set up a disciplinary system that lends credibility to the complaint process.

* Distribute city brochures on discrimination and harassment.

* Set up a variety of “working groups”--support networks for women, quarterly rap sessions on diversity for all personnel and a core of captains to provide “tactical leadership” to implement “the department’s diversity initiative.”

Fire Commissioner Elizabeth Lowe said the report validates many of the things she and her colleagues have been recommending for months. With $2 million in the current budget set aside for human resource development in the Fire Department, Lowe said, she is confident change will finally come about.

Times staff writer Robert J. Lopez contributed to this report.