Mayor Completes Fire Commission Roster

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa named two political supporters and an administrative law judge to the Los Angeles Fire Commission on Friday, rounding out his appointments to a panel that has been wrestling with allegations of racial bias in the department.

Villaraigosa appointed attorney Andrew Friedman, nurse Jill Furillo and Administrative Law Judge Casimiro Tolentino to the commission, where they will join previous Villaraigosa appointees: educator Genethia Hudley Hayes and housing developer Dalila Sotelo.

At a news conference at a fire station in Tujunga, Villaraigosa called them “talented and dedicated Angelenos.”

Also on Friday, the City Council unanimously voted to confirm the mayor’s appointment of Mary Nichols to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners and S. David Freeman, banker Douglas Krause and lawyer Kaylynn L. Kim to the Board of Harbor Commissioners.

The new harbor commissioners were urged by council members to step up efforts to reduce pollution at the city-owned port.

Freeman, the former general manager of the Department of Water and Power, agreed, saying, “We’ve got to have clean growth at the port.”

Nichols, an environmentalist who is a former state resources secretary, vowed to get the DWP to use more renewable energy, including solar, wind and geothermal power. She was also urged by council members to watch for wasteful spending.

In filling out the Fire Commission, Villaraigosa chose two political backers. Furillo is Southern California director of the California Nurses Assn., one of the labor groups that backed him for mayor. Friedman and Furillo contributed to him in the last election, although Friedman also supported the campaign of former Mayor James K. Hahn.

Tolentino, the third appointee to the Fire Commission, has a background that may come in handy as the panel deals with controversy involving racial and sexual bias in the department. He was assistant chief counsel for the Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

The Times reported in April that at least 14 members of the Los Angeles Fire Department had been disciplined or faced sanctions over allegations of improper behavior toward women and minorities over the previous year.

The cases included one in which a rat was placed in the locker of a black firefighter. One firefighter was suspended as a result of the incident, department officials said.

The department also launched an investigation into an incident in which six male firefighters allegedly used a dormitory and restroom set aside for a female firefighter.

Villaraigosa also said he had concerns about reports of harassment and other mistreatment of firefighters.

“Equal opportunity is very important in the department,” Tolentino said.

The mayor’s Fire Commission appointments require City Council confirmation.