Councilman Bernard C. Parks blasts campaign mailer

City Councilman Bernard C. Parks blasted a campaign mailer sent to voters this week by the Los Angeles Police Protective League that claimed he “took 1,000 police officers off our streets.”

“What they say is absolutely a lie — you can’t physically do it — you can’t physically take 1,000 people off the street as one councilman,” Parks said. The former Los Angeles Police Department chief is seeking a third and final term representing his South Los Angeles district.

Parks has long had an adversarial relationship with the league, which opposed his bid for a second term as chief. In the March 8 election, the group has endorsed one of his opponents, Forescee Hogan-Rowles, and has independently spent more than $113,000 to boost her candidacy with radio ads and mailers like the one sent out this week.

Paul Weber, the president of the police union, which represents about 9,900 officers, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. John Mumma, another director on the league’s board, said he was unaware of the basis for the mailer’s claim. He referred all questions to a spokesman, who referred calls to Weber.

The flier, which includes a snapshot of a young girl holding her hands to her cheeks in shock, apparently alludes to Parks’ criticism of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s 2005 plan to hire 1,000 additional officers. (About 800 new officers have since been added to the ranks). The only sources cited in the league’s mailing were two Los Angeles Times articles from 2008 and 2009 that detailed Parks’ opposition to hiring new police officers at a time when the city was facing a $531-million deficit.

One of the stories chronicled a Budget Committee vote by Parks in 2009 to halt the mayor’s hiring plan. At that meeting, a budget analyst told Parks and the other members that if they continued to expand the LAPD, the city would have to lay off more than 1,000 civilian workers. Ultimately, the City Council agreed to maintain the police force at 9,963 officers.

Parks said he had correctly warned the City Council that it was headed down a “slippery slope.”

“We have eliminated $1 billion from our budget — 4,000 positions, of which 400 have been layoffs — and we’re still doing two things: We’re still accumulating a deficit and we’re still hiring police officers,” Parks said.

maeve.reston@latimes.com