Parks, LAPD Union Leader Meet but Avoid Thorny Issues

After weeks of mounting tension between Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and the union representing his officers, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn sat Parks and union President Mitzi Grasso down for a joint meeting Tuesday--and proceeded to change the subject.

In the meeting--the first the mayor has hosted with the pair--Hahn tried to remind both of broader public safety issues facing the city. But he carefully side-stepped the deep distrust between the two sides that has grown more public as the deadline for deciding about the chief’s reappointment has drawn near.

Late last month, the Police Protective League released a report card from rank-and-file officers that gave Parks dismal marks on his management style, which the union called rigid, arbitrary and overly harsh.

A week later, African American community leaders jumped to the chief’s defense, accusing the union of “bashing” him and warning that such treatment of a black police chief could cause racial discord.

They asked the mayor to broker a meeting. On Tuesday, Hahn invited Parks and Grasso to a breakfast summit at the Getty House, the mayor’s official residence.

But Hahn didn’t use the 40-minute meeting to urge the chief and the union leader to mend their differences. Instead, over coffee and lemon cake in the library, he asked them to focus on keeping the city safe and beefing up the department’s lean ranks, two things he said they could agree on.

“We didn’t talk about anything that’s happened in the past,” Hahn said during a news conference afterward outside the Tudor-style mansion in Windsor Square. “What we talked about is what we can do to move forward. What I wanted to do today was to find the common ground, find the issues we could work on together.”

The mayor asked Parks and Grasso to join in a working group to brainstorm ways to speed up hiring and improve recruitment of officers, two of Hahn’s top priorities.

During the news conference, Parks and Grasso stood on either side of Hahn and pledged their cooperation in keeping crime down and retention of police officers up.

“Any time you have labor and management, you’re going to have issues between them they don’t agree on,” Hahn said. “I saw some real cooperation here, real willingness to work together. I think what I need to do as mayor is to give opportunities for people to work out solutions to problems.”

It was not clear Tuesday whether the meeting would quiet the dissent between the union and the chief, especially as Parks mulls over whether to seek a second term. He must make his decision by February, and then the Hahn-appointed Police Commission will make a recommendation to the mayor.

Some analysts said Hahn’s approach may be the most productive tack, given the long-standing dispute between the union and Parks.

“If nothing else, it puts them on notice that their actions matter in a context beyond a labor-management dispute,” said Raphael Sonenshein, who served as executive director of the Appointed City Charter Reform Commission. “When you’re in the middle of a fight, you very often lose your perspective. And right now the city’s in a pretty critical recruitment and retention effort.”

The disagreement between the police union and the African American leadership over Parks puts Hahn in a political bind, because both constituencies helped him get elected.

Some of the African American leaders who asked for the meeting--a group that included two U.S. congresswomen and all three black City Council members--said Tuesday that they were pleased at the mayor’s effort. But they noted that one meeting will not solve the problem.

“I hope this is just a beginning of a series of these talks,” said Rep. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles). “It’s not finished yet.”

That was evident Tuesday in the awkward public conclusion to the meeting. During the news conference, reporters asked why Parks and Grasso weren’t shaking hands. A few minutes later, the chief put his arm around the union leader and attempted a smile.

“How’s this?” Parks asked, though both he and Grasso looked uncomfortable.

But they were careful to follow Hahn’s lead in their public comments.

“The mayor was very gracious in pulling together this meeting,” Parks said. “Clearly it sent some direction that he wants people to work together. . . . As far as I’m concerned, we’re going to do all we can to support his wishes.”

Minutes later, Grasso echoed that statement.

“In terms of issues regarding public safety, we have more to agree on than disagree,” she said. But Grasso told reporters later that the union’s opinion of the chief has not changed.

“We feel the same,” she said. “We feel that we need to achieve new leadership.”

A questioner asked if the league would be changing Parks’ grade from that in the recent rank-and-file report card.

Grasso was silent. Hahn leaned forward into the microphone.

“This was a good meeting,” the mayor said. “I don’t want to ruin it.”