City Council, Hahn Order Reviews of Safety Plans

Los Angeles City Council members on Monday ordered a reevaluation of how the city prepares for and responds to terrorism, given the scope and complexity of last week’s terrorist attacks.

One council panel recommended that the city spend $3.39 million to significantly increase security in the Los Angeles Civic Center.

Proposals include the hiring of dozens more security officers and the installation of video surveillance, motion detectors and other electronic systems.

“Throw some of those prior assumptions out the window and go back to the drawing board,” Councilman Jack Weiss told the city’s police and fire chiefs during a special meeting of the council’s Public Safety Committee.

Visitors to government buildings in Orange and Ventura counties are seeing an increased security presence, but Los Angeles is considering the biggest changes by far.

Shortly after the attacks, Ventura County bomb squads swept county government buildings and checked for suspicious packages, said Sheriff Bob Brooks.

But Ventura County has no plans to ask to increase electronic surveillance or to institute new security checkpoints at public places, Brooks said.

In Orange County, the Sheriff’s Department stepped up security at the Hall of Administration and nearby buildings in Santa Ana where thousands of county employees work.

“There are different concerns obviously in the Los Angeles City Hall because it is such an icon,” said Santa Ana Assistant City Manager Debbie Corrida. “But here in Santa Ana, we are not considering any immediate security changes for City Hall.”

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks told the Public Safety Committee that the city’s emergency response system worked well in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s attacks, with the deployment of extra police officers and firefighters helping to keep the peace.

But council members said the shocking magnitude of the assaults requires city public safety officials to go back and examine whether their plans are sufficient.

“It is appropriate that we reevaluate our preparedness in a very, very different world,” said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, chairwoman of the panel.

Mayor James K. Hahn said Monday that he had already ordered a review of emergency response plans.

“I asked all of the general managers to go through their experience of the last few days and report to me with recommendations for added safeguards we might implement,” Hahn said.

Among the issues being examined are how to better coordinate between the city and owners of high-rise buildings, and whether to equip traffic control officers with gas masks.

“We are definitely getting together with the Building and Safety Department and taking a look at our strategies and tactics for high-rise buildings,” Deputy Fire Chief John Callahan said in an interview.

Councilman Dennis Zine, a former Los Angeles Police Department sergeant, asked Parks to evaluate whether the department’s Anti-Terrorist Division may be unreasonably hamstrung by various restrictions placed on it over the years.

Strict court-ordered limits were imposed on the unit in 1985 after it was found that its intelligence gatherers had targeted Los Angeles leaders, including Mayor Tom Bradley.

Parks said the LAPD has begun looking at that issue and will submit a report soon to the Police Commission.

Earlier in the day, the council’s Information Technology and General Services Committee recommended a plan to significantly increase security in the cluster of downtown city buildings, including City Hall, known collectively as the Los Angeles Civic Center.

“Our overall objective is to balance the need for greater security with the right of residents and constituents to participate in their government and to have access to the leaders of their government,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, chairman of the panel.

The council panel recommended that the city administrative office find funding to immediately implement the final phases of a security plan first proposed in 1998.

Measures endorsed by the panel include installation of closed-circuit television cameras, motion sensors and other security devices in City Hall and other buildings at a cost of $1.5 million. That would allow a central control center to be set up to monitor buildings.

Metal detectors are also on order for the entrance to the City Council chambers, and some areas of city buildings will be equipped with systems requiring key cards for access.

The council panel also recommended the hiring of 38 additional security officers and support staff--at a cost of more than $1.1 million--to supplement the current staff of 84 employees, which is considered insufficient to cover all posts at city buildings.

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Times staff writers David Reyes, Catherine Saillant and Daniel Yi contributed to this story.