If you want to know why people have lost confidence in City Hall, here's one of the reasons: Outrageous misconduct by city employees and officials that cost taxpayers millions of dollars with little or no accountability for those responsible.
Take the case of Fire Captain Frank Lima and the $4.8 million he was paid Aug. 12 in a reverse discrimination case. Lima had the audacity to treat a female recruit the same as a male one and flunked her when she couldn't navigate a training exercise involving a 35-foot ladder. His reward: Reassignment and denial of a promotion. A jury awarded him $3.75 million 30 months ago but interest and attorney fees added to the final tally.
Or take the case of LAPD Officer Donald Bender who was stripped of rank and pulled out of the canine unit at LAX because he had the temerity to try to stop the unit's only female officer, Patricia Fuller, from lewd jokes and innuendoes and exclusion from training sessions. He was paid $1.5 million this fiscal year with $1 million more due next year. She got $1.25 million last year and $1 million this year.
Firefighter Lewis "Steve" Bressler, in a similar case, got $3.3 million - twice what the jury awarded him because of interest and attorney fees. He suffered retaliation because tried to help a colleague suffering racial, sexual and sexual orientation discrimination.
There are a lot of other cases listed in City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's report on liability costs that is being reviewed by the Council today, cases like $130,000 to Mary Cummins-Cobb for wrongful termination and $175,000 to Joseph Ward-Wallace for discrimination in the Fire Department, where workplace abuse has been common for decades.
Abuse of citizens has long been equally common in the Police Department where the estate of David Medina, who died after police used excessive force on him, was paid $450,000 over the last two years and Angelo Gousse - beaten, kicked, tightly handcuffs, called racial epithets and falsely arrested - is being paid $3 million this year and next.
I could go on and on with cases like the nearly $500,000 deposited with the courts because of judgments for gadflies and Venice boardwalk entertainers Michael Hunt and Matt Dowd for violations of their rights, the Council's illegal "density bonus" ordinance and other violations of the law.
What's missing from the report is what disciplinary actions and managerial reforms were carried out over these abuses that have led to $26.1 million in payouts in the first three months of the fiscal year alone.
All the Council cares about these days is money so they've got there eyes on the $16 million still left in the budget for liability lawsuits. So for a change they are on Trutanich's side, hoping he continues to play hard ball in negotiating settlements and winning cases in court.
The Council also is getting around to taking a look at the City Treasurer's six-week-old report that showed revenue from investments was coming up $20 million short -- not that another $20 million or so here and there is going to make much of a dent when you're running as deep in the red as the city is.
It's going to take a massive amount of pressure from the community to scare the political life out of the Mayor and Council and give them the courage to actually face the fact that have failed miserably in their jobs, have their priorities all screwed up, pay too much for everything as if the people's money was just so much play dough.
Take the case of Fire Captain Frank Lima and the $4.8 million he was paid Aug. 12 in a reverse discrimination case. Lima had the audacity to treat a female recruit the same as a male one and flunked her when she couldn't navigate a training exercise involving a 35-foot ladder. His reward: Reassignment and denial of a promotion. A jury awarded him $3.75 million 30 months ago but interest and attorney fees added to the final tally.
Or take the case of LAPD Officer Donald Bender who was stripped of rank and pulled out of the canine unit at LAX because he had the temerity to try to stop the unit's only female officer, Patricia Fuller, from lewd jokes and innuendoes and exclusion from training sessions. He was paid $1.5 million this fiscal year with $1 million more due next year. She got $1.25 million last year and $1 million this year.
Firefighter Lewis "Steve" Bressler, in a similar case, got $3.3 million - twice what the jury awarded him because of interest and attorney fees. He suffered retaliation because tried to help a colleague suffering racial, sexual and sexual orientation discrimination.
There are a lot of other cases listed in City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's report on liability costs that is being reviewed by the Council today, cases like $130,000 to Mary Cummins-Cobb for wrongful termination and $175,000 to Joseph Ward-Wallace for discrimination in the Fire Department, where workplace abuse has been common for decades.
Abuse of citizens has long been equally common in the Police Department where the estate of David Medina, who died after police used excessive force on him, was paid $450,000 over the last two years and Angelo Gousse - beaten, kicked, tightly handcuffs, called racial epithets and falsely arrested - is being paid $3 million this year and next.
I could go on and on with cases like the nearly $500,000 deposited with the courts because of judgments for gadflies and Venice boardwalk entertainers Michael Hunt and Matt Dowd for violations of their rights, the Council's illegal "density bonus" ordinance and other violations of the law.
What's missing from the report is what disciplinary actions and managerial reforms were carried out over these abuses that have led to $26.1 million in payouts in the first three months of the fiscal year alone.
All the Council cares about these days is money so they've got there eyes on the $16 million still left in the budget for liability lawsuits. So for a change they are on Trutanich's side, hoping he continues to play hard ball in negotiating settlements and winning cases in court.
The Council also is getting around to taking a look at the City Treasurer's six-week-old report that showed revenue from investments was coming up $20 million short -- not that another $20 million or so here and there is going to make much of a dent when you're running as deep in the red as the city is.
It's going to take a massive amount of pressure from the community to scare the political life out of the Mayor and Council and give them the courage to actually face the fact that have failed miserably in their jobs, have their priorities all screwed up, pay too much for everything as if the people's money was just so much play dough.
Ron Kaye
Sure those lawsuits cost the city money but Helllloooo why aren't you listing the out of court settelements the city has paid out for sexual harrassements lawsuits against city council members by ex staffers and other suits? Let's be balanced here even though the city pays out for LAPD lawsuits they also save MILLIONS $$$$$ with keeping the homicides and felony crimes down. One homicide would cost the city $1 MILLION. Since LAPD is down they actually saved the city MILLIONS in felony crimes.
I wonder if 11:16's marijuana collective is going to be closed soon. The twists in logic must be drug induced.
Lets see: LAPD/LAFD employees act badly, cost the city millions and that's okay because the national crime rate is down which saves the city money. Oh, that bad behavior is okay because other departments have behaved badly too?
Commander David Diliberto was sued for sexual harassment. They settled and gave the woman $99,000. Ed Boks was sued for sexual harassment. They settled and gave the woman $130,000. After the city paid for Diliberto and Boks' settlements, they did not fire them. Diliberto got a promotion, raise and transfer to LAPD where he continues the same sexual harassment. Boks continued to work for two years after he was sued for sexual harassment. He continued to sexually harass other women. No one told him to knock it off. He was finally fired when he lost a racial discrimination and another unlawful termination lawsuit. These people should not have harassed people. They should have been fired when the City Attorney realized they were guilty of harassing people. They should not have been given a golden handshake and letter of recommendation like they did with Boks. They should not have promoted Diliberto. The City is not keeping their employees in line.
IT doesn't say the bad behavior is okay. IT does say crime reduction actually saves the city money. The DA said the City has a record of making arrests and winning convictions in 70% of homicides. Keeping a convicted murderer in prison in California costs about $70,000 a year when legal costs and other items are factored in. With close to 300 fewer homicides a year, its 200 fewer people getting convicted and going to prison for murder. Multiply that by $70,000 and it leads to more than $13 million in reduced costsy.
Bad behavior is bad behavior whether it on the part of the police or civilian work force. Either way, because it is also illegal, it costs tax dollars when matters surface. And there's still plenty of mismanagement and violations all around and in the county system, too.
Much of it is due to lack of direct accountability so the buck is passed at low levels of violations instead of addressing the problem. Sometimes the "victim" is the one punished by a transfer or other adverse action, all because management people "CAN" and no one watches or uses common sense to end it. A lot of ignorance to go around in govt. but many mgrs. don't listen and have no quality control skills or cost awareness applied to productivity results and they screw things up and it often only when litigation or pre-litigation admin. processes begin and the complaints are aired does anything start to happen.
Training some managers needs to be done AND evaluations thereafter to see if it "takes"- some managers simply as a result of endurance having been mistaken for talent.
Accountability in the private sector is a little more definite, but office politics operates there as well, except in government correcting it often goes against the grain as your examples show.
But that "reverse" discrimination is commonly used as a term for atypical cases, yet discrimination is simply discrimination, bad in itself, and by adding the qualification, it doesn't change the degree of wrong.
(and I disagree with what that posting presents regarding the analysis valuation on criminal processes and the savings relative outcome related to going to prison or not. It does not take into account a lot of other factors that shpuld be included. It might appear as a valid measure of what's represented in the argument but only as assembled according to the author's theory and assessments.)
There would be a lot more lawsuits, cause City Hall seems to have monsters for managers. These are mostly petty people with little skills who thru the art of kissing up land in positions way beyond their capability. Pretty soon, they enjoy petty power of calling the shots in their little, petty domain, enough to silence opposition and ruin people's lives. Must be those titles or ranks that makes people feel they got an extra brain or superhuman power, or whatever their mental problem is, that allows them to abuse employees. Most employees decide to go away rather than fight an uphill battle with a corrupt management, personnel department & a City Attorney, who suddenly is on the side of managers rather than all employees. The city system is so f----- up, that the city has to thank their lucky stars, there are not more lawsuits, it is guarranted to lose.
Unless we resolve this problem, or we can wipe out human resistance, we have some serious problems within the city of LA. It is the way the system is set-up. On whose side is City Attorney. Is he there to clean the system of all abuses and corruption, or to fight for management when sued?
And how can a City Attorney have any independence when his budget is controlled by the same a......s who allow this conduct to be perpetrated and ignored, or when the Council claim they are his boss.
Bottom Line Ron, the issue is not about lawsuit wins or losses, or dollars and sense. It is about people's lives. It is far more complex that only scratches the surface of systemic issues that never get resolved. The city will win some and deserves to lose the others.
Not to worry. The judgments are paid by issuing bonds. So now we get to pay interest too.
Not to worry. The judgments are paid by issuing bonds. So now we get to pay interest too.
How about ALL of the payouts by Housing Authority over the last few years to employees!
How many City Attorney's have been assigned at one time to HACLA?
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You're on the right track, but there's more to it than just "monster" managers. Lots of judges seem to have decided that they're responsible for social engineering, and they let in ridiculous cases that should be summarily dismissed. Case in point: An employee working for the City has a long history of disciplinary action, but then files a discrimination complaint after he/she is told of an investigation that may lead to more serious disciplinary action. The department goes ahead with the action after all the hoops are jumped through, and one of their star witnesses suddenly decides he doesn't want to testify, saying he's afraid the employee will come after him. The case falls apart at the appeal level, and the Civil Service Commission restores the employee. The employee then sues.
The judge allows the case because the employee "deserves a chance." City Attorney has a huge caseload and just wants the case to go away, especially because that same witness that flaked out earlier is now filing stress claims based on what he says is retaliation for not testifying. Total mess, and the department is basically told the best option is to pay $100K to settle it. Department isn't really willing to do it, but City Attorney continues to state that the case could go wrong, and before you know it, the employee is $100K richer, and why? What did the department really do wrong?
Because I work inside the Police Department, I feel highly qualified to tell you what some of the problems are. Of course you have to take the chance that the Department itself will not find out and persecute you anyway they can.
I know what I am talking about. There are many people who have been physically and mentally injured by those inside the Police Department. Officers who will quickly tell you that they are there for you to protect you, many of them the same people who would sell their mother for a promotion and more money.
Many of these people are not much better than the thieve on the street, they are just as crooked except they wear a badge which gives them the "BENIFIT of the Doubt”
There are good officers, but if they want to get promoted, they quickly learn to keep their mouth shut and become blind. I feel sorry for these officers; they have to live with the lies and deceit inside the Department. If the public fully knew what Prima Donnas most of these Captains and higher ups are they would close the doors on the Police Department.
Most are so absorbed with getting their promotions that they would prostitute their mother to ensure they get it. It’s really sad and disturbing to see. Working there you feel like a prostitute yourself because you know you have to keep your mouth shut about everything.
And if you think it would do any good to tell someone........who would you tell? The very people who you would be told to meet with and spill your guts too are in reality setting you up to take a fall so they can shut you up. Many times they just want to hear what you know and what you have on them to tell. Once they are satisfied that they can counter whatever have you say and make you look like you’re crazy or a liar then they will go about setting you up to get you fired so they can totally disqualify you from making any kind of statements about them. You will be classified as a “DISGRUNTELED EMPLOYEE”. The Department is corrupt from the top down. I don't care who they put in as Police Chief, or Captain or Commander etc, etc. The whole system is corrupt, and it always has been. They protect themselves, and make everyone who doesn't agree an outcast and finally they get that person anyway they can so they and get them out of the Department.
It is just like our State politics and in Washington. These people make hundreds of thousands of dollars; there is no way you are going to get rid of the rot inside the system, without getting rid of the big players.
The overtime many officers were making was more than their regular salary. Plus all the side jobs they have with the Studios as security and body guards etc. While lower class Civilians, many who are hard working and underpaid, get blamed for everything. Many of these Civilian Supervisors should be the ones laid off first! So many of these “Supervisors” do absolutely nothing but network all day to find the right people who can help them promote or find a higher paying position within the City.
Listen Mayor....If you lay off the newest and lowest class employees your City will come to a STANDSTILL! Work will not get done.
Please come and take a look at some of your City Supervisors on the payroll when they don't know you are coming. See if you can even "find" them anywhere in the building!
The same small working slobs are always the ones doing all the work, and they will be the ones that make the least and will get the most grief from people like you Mayor.
While you parade around with the big shots, and Supervisors, etc in some important meeting where nothing much gets settled or driving off to some meeting with breakfast provided for some stupid meeting that most of the time takes 10 more meetings to get anything done, don’t worry, those simple, lower class employees will be the ones getting all the work done for you and people like you. So you can take the credit for being so hard at work for the people of Los Angeles.
I feel sorry for the Los Angeles City Taxpayers. You got what you wanted with this Mayor, and are stuck with what we have for police protection.
The Police Department military system and attitude, is not the right way to serve the civilian public. We don't need high paid city soldiers deciding justice for the public. We need a CIVILIAN POLICE DEPT. The military system and way of treating civilians has to stop if Los Angeles taxpayers want to quit paying out these big lawsuits. Many of these officers go right back to work after they just cost the taxpayers millions of dollars in lawsuits. DOES THAT MAKE "ANY" SENSE?
It is time to make the Police Department and its officers that offend responsible for the cost to the taxpayers. If it comes out of "their pension fund or pocket, you will see things drastically change! But not until there is a change within the Police Department itself will taxpayers get any relief from rising taxes because of the negligence of our Police Department officials and the Mayor’s office.
Los Angeles didn’t need 1,000 new Police officers, what it needed were 1,000 new civilian City workers who will do the work that these people never do.
Good Luck, Los Angeles City Taxpayers, you will need it in the coming years as you watch your city die from neglect and ignorance.
What 5:26 has described is a repeat story in every department, but worse in Police, because of an idiot Mayor who looks at numbers rather than their performance, and the equally dumb public who can't get enough of them. The Police & Fire department are a monopoly and we all know what happens when you create one. The public is gouged.
5:26 sounds like BITTER BERNIE. GET THE HELL OUT THEN YOU SISSY. If LAPD is so horrible and we all know there are problems and the troops don't like the command staff because they're dictators and don't support their patrol guys but don't go running your mouth off and continue to stay in a dept. you think is corrupt. You are no better by keeping your mouth shut and crying about it. BE A MAN AND STAND UP OR GET THE HELL OUT AND GO TO A SMALLER DEPT.