Resignation of Head of Police Panel Is Urged

Two Los Angeles City Council members, Nate Holden and Jan Perry, demanded Friday that Mayor James K. Hahn force Police Commission head Rick Caruso to quit because of an insulting remark he allegedly made about South Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

A ranking Hahn aide, Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook, responded by decrying what he called “shameless political tactics” by backers of another term for Police Chief Bernard C. Parks to discredit Caruso in the struggle over Parks’ future.

The five-member Police Commission will decide if Parks is to have another five-year term. Holden, Perry and Waters all support retention of Parks.

Caruso was appointed by Hahn, who opposes a second term for the chief.

Holden, citing an anonymous letter, started Friday’s political fireworks by saying Caruso had “used the B-word to describe Waters” at a Feb. 28 meeting with five ranking police officers over noise problems at the Grove, a new shopping center Caruso developed in the Fairfax district.

Waters, traveling in New York, said later she felt that if Caruso had made the remark he is not fit to serve.

“If it’s all right for the president of the Police Commission to refer to women in such a foul manner, he should never be in the position to make policy about disciplining police officers who use the same type of language,” she said.

Four of the officers who attended the meeting said they regarded the conversation with Caruso as private and would neither confirm nor deny that he had made the remark.

Caruso declined to comment beyond a statement released by Joe Gunn, executive director of the Police Commission.

“The board holds Congresswoman Waters in high regard and are very complimentary of her lifetime work on behalf of her constituents,” the statement read. “However, the board will continue to focus on its primary goal, ensuring that the process underway to determine if the chief of police should be given a new five-year contract remains fair.... The board will not be sidetracked by issues which appear to influence this process.”