Mayor Gives Raises to Top Managers

Re “Riordan OKs Hefty Raises for Top Officials,” Jan. 30: Am I missing something? We have a chief of police who is already making tens of thousands of dollars a year more than the police chiefs in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, and he is being given a substantial raise by Mayor Richard Riordan? Is this the same police chief who has overseen the most widespread corruption in the history of our police force and who has consistently refused to accept outside investigations of that corruption?

Riordan’s rationale of “paying top dollar” to attract and keep top managers from private companies makes sense only if he actually attracts and keeps top managers. I don’t consider someone a “top manager” whose stubbornness and ineptness are going to cost the city millions, and maybe even billions, of dollars in unwarranted lawsuits resulting from the corruption in his department.

Riordan’s blatant disregard for the sensitivities and welfare of the city smacks of cronyism and corruption. In earlier days he would have been run out of town on a rail.

WAYNE KERR

La Crescenta

* * Glad to hear that the mayor (according to his spokesman) believes that in order to hire talented people you need to pay “top dollar” and that it’s “penny-wise and pound-foolish” to try hiring untalented people at lower rates even though it might be “expensive to hire talented people.” My question is how come that policy is suitable for his friends in high-paying L.A. government jobs but not for the thousands of hard-working, dedicated teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District? I’m looking forward to his support of the new contract currently being negotiated.

BARRY BAKIN

Reseda

* * Re “911 System Swamped as Overhaul Inches Along,” Jan. 28: The 911 dispatch system is broken. Morale is low. Turnover is high. The LAPD is under a federal consent decree. The Fire Department paramedics are forced to work overtime due to personnel shortages. Someone want to explain to me what the mayor and City Council have been doing for the past five years? Obviously not their jobs.

BOB WHITE

Los Angeles