Mayor Gets Angry Pair’s 2 Cents’ Worth

Eager to show his sympathy for aggrieved motorists, Mayor Richard Riordan exclaimed during a television interview the other night that, when he got a parking ticket as a result of a broken meter, it made him so mad he felt like strangling the parking officer who issued the citation.

Wednesday, he got an earful for that glib remark, as two parking officers corralled him after his monthly radio show and said he was encouraging drivers to take out their frustrations on the city’s employees.

“You have 600 officers angry with you,” Sean McCorry-Phillips said, angrily wagging a finger at the startled mayor, whose comments were included as part of a KCBS-TV Channel 2 report on faulty parking meters.

Initially taken aback by the two parking officers, who spotted him through a chain-link fence and came barreling out of their car to talk with him, Riordan first said he had been misunderstood, then apologized “for the way it came out.”

In fact, he had already amended his line by the time the officers spotted him. Just a few minutes earlier, on his KFWB-AM (980) show, “Ask the Mayor,” Riordan had reiterated his frustration over malfunctioning parking meters but directed listeners’ ire his own way.

“I’d be outraged,” he said. “I’d be so outraged I’d go down to the mayor’s office and punch him in the nose.”

The officers were appreciative of the mayor’s shift in focus, though not entirely appeased. Curiously--and to the discomfort of one of his aides--Riordan coaxed the two officers into talking to a television reporter to vent their frustrations with him.

“We provide a service for the city,” McCorry-Phillips said once the camera was rolling. “Give us some respect. . . . We are people.”

McCorry-Phillips’ partner--who emphasized that parking officers not only issue tickets, but also help in power outages, earthquakes and the like--nodded.

And then, turning to the camera, McCorry-Phillips implored viewers: “If you have a problem with an officer, talk to us.”

Riordan, seemingly humbled by his brush with the assertive officers, said after their interview that he was glad to have run into them. “I have respect for both of you for doing your job,” he said.

Meanwhile, the officers’ union, which also represents other city workers and is a longtime foe of Riordan, took the matter more seriously. About 30 parking enforcement officers converged on a meeting of the City Council’s Transportation Committee, where they and the union’s leaders called on the mayor to resign.

“For anybody to make an incredibly difficult job more dangerous I believe is reprehensible,” said Julie Butcher, who leads the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union.

One officer, Aaron Gray, added: “I think he should be reprimanded and get out of office.”

Aides to the mayor declined the suggestion on Riordan’s behalf.

Times staff writer Patrick McGreevy contributed to this article.