Friction Seen Between Police Panel, Watchdog

In a back-room maneuver that raises new questions about the strained relationship between the Los Angeles Police Commission and its aggressive inspector general, sources said a police union official told his fellow board members that commission President Edith Perez had encouraged the union to attack the independent watchdog.

“We discussed it, but we decided that we didn’t want to be the pawns of the commission,” said one union member who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We didn’t want to get in the middle of that war.”

According to several union sources who were at the closed-door meeting, Police Protective League Director Dennis Zine announced to other union officials that Perez told him the commission wouldn’t stand in the way if the union launched a campaign to undermine Inspector General Katherine Mader.

Sources said Zine implied that Perez made the comments to him during a private conversation. Zine, however, said this week that Perez never told him she wanted the union to “chop [Mader] off at the knees.”

Zine said any comments he may have made during the meeting must have been misunderstood.

“We discussed the conflicts that were going on between [Mader] and the commission, but there was no organized attack,” he said.

Zine said that as part of his role with the union, he talks to many political and city leaders, including Perez. He said he knew the commission president “was not happy” with Mader, but “there was never a request to go after her.”

Perez also said she made no such suggestion.

“I would not be that stupid,” she said.

However, when asked whether she supported Mader, Perez would only say she supported “the position” of the inspector general. She said she would not discuss Mader’s job performance because it was a personnel matter.

Union sources said the alleged request to target Mader was discussed in November, at a time when the inspector general was under intense scrutiny by the league and the commission.

The union had already asked the commission to investigate Mader for sending one officer’s confidential personnel records to a judge handling allegations of domestic abuse against the officer. Sources also said Perez was annoyed that Mader was reviewing an incident in which Police Chief Bernard C. Parks was accused of intervening inappropriately to delay service of an arrest warrant on an officer who had allegedly stalked and threatened his ex-girlfriend.

That same month Mader angered Parks and City Atty. James K. Hahn with a report on “at-risk” police officers and failures by the LAPD and the city attorney to track them, sources said.

The disclosure of the union’s closed meeting comes as a number of department observers have been privately questioning what many see as the commission’s tepid support for the position of the inspector general, which was one of the key recommendations of the 1991 Christopher Commission panel.

One City Hall official, who had knowledge of the union’s closed-door meeting, said the relationship between the inspector general and some of her commission bosses has seemed troubled over the past six months.

“The message had been sent out by Perez that Kathy Mader was fair game,” the official said. “This should cause [Mayor Richard Riordan] to reexamine his appointment of Commissioner Perez.”

Noelia Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Riordan, said the mayor does not believe that Perez ever made such a request.

“The mayor’s office is aware that there have been these second- and third-hand allegations about the commission president. However, Edith Perez has denied them and we believe her,” she said.

Mader, who was out of town, declined to comment Wednesday.

Perez said her integrity was being attacked because the union is still upset that commissioners did not support the league’s proposal for a compressed work schedule and various other issues.

Furthermore, Perez said the commission “has been very supportive” of Mader. “It’s a sacred cow position . . . [and] it is here to stay.”

Commissioner T. Warren Jackson said he does not believe that Perez would ever make such a request of the union. “Edith may be a lot of things, but she’s not conspiratorial. She is very, very mindful of her role as board president,” he said. “I’m surprised the union would even discuss something like that. . . . It’s surreal.”

LAPD sources also describe Perez’s relationship with Mader as strained.

“They don’t trust each other,” said one LAPD insider.

According to some department observers, Mader was much more popular with the commission when she produced reports and conducted investigations that were critical of former Chief Willie L. Williams, whom the five-member panel was seeking to oust.

Since Parks took office, however, Mader’s work has been greeted with less enthusiasm, LAPD observers say.

“This commission, Perez especially, is a rubber stamp for the chief,” said one union director. “They picked him, they don’t want to stir up anything that makes him look bad.”

Paradoxically, the union, which frequently clashes with Parks, has become much more supportive of the inspector general.

“We don’t like everything that she’s done, but she brings an objective viewpoint that we think is needed,” said Dave Hepburn, president of the union. “It’s good to have an independent reviewer who is not under the chief to make sure the system is operating fairly.”