Plan to Expand Use of Reserves a Non-Starter : Police: Riordan frustrates the volunteer force by failing to act on promise. Insiders blame politics, legal hurdles.

Despite a campaign promise two years ago to expand the use of reserve police officers, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has frustrated members of the volunteer force by failing to take action on his promise.

During his 1993 mayoral race, Riordan trumpeted a public safety plan that included a proposal to pay reserve officers $100 for every shift they work beyond the minimum two shifts per month that is required of them.

But, according to city officials, the plan appears to have fallen victim to internal police politics and concerns over the legal hurdles that must be overcome for expanded use of the reserves.

The plan was billed as a quick fix to bolster the number of officers on the street without spending the time and money to hire and train new recruits. In fact, soon after Riordan was elected, a transition team spokesman told reporters: “There will be [a plan] and it will be soon.”

However, a representative of a statewide reserve officers union said the mayor’s office has yet to act and has not adopted a union plan drafted in December, 1993, that would make Riordan’s proposal a reality.

“The resources are there,” said James Lombardi, president of the California Reserve Peace Officers Assn. and the Los Angeles Police Department’s highest-ranking reserve officer. “The mayor and the city won’t jump on it.”

Reserve officers are volunteers who have the same training and equipment as regular officers and, according to Lombardi, are willing to work extra shifts for a fraction of the cost of hiring new officers. They are currently paid a $50-per-month stipend and work a minimum of two shifts per month.

Lombardi drafted the three-page proposal to implement Riordan’s idea of expanding the use of reserve officers. But he said he is so frustrated with Riordan’s inaction on the plan that he has begun to market it to members of the City Council, including freshman Councilman Mike Feuer. A Feuer representative has scheduled a meeting with Lombardi for this week.

“It’s one of those campaign promises that never hit,” Lombardi said.

Riordan aides say the mayor still believes in the concept of expanding the use of reserve officers but has been unable to find additional funding to pay for the program.

“It’s a priority for the mayor but we are in a fiscally constrained time in the city,” said Noelia Rodriguez, Riordan’s press secretary. “Reserves are a priority but in terms of where we are on the spectrum, we haven’t gotten to the reserves.”

She added that there is a chance that funding for the reserve officers may be found in the next phase of President Clinton’s crime bill. In September, the crime bill delivered more than $48 million to the city, enough to pay for 643 new officers. None of that money went to reserve officers. An earlier phase of the bill provided the city $18.3 million to modernize the department and free police to fight crime.

But sources in the Riordan Administration say an equally big obstacle for the plan is politics. Efforts to use law enforcement money to pay reserve officers something extra is opposed by the Police Protective League, the influential union that represents the full-time rank and file of the police force.

Angering the union would be politically harmful for Riordan, who was endorsed by the group during his election campaign. In fact, union members called voters and walked key San Fernando Valley precincts. Riordan plans to run for a second term in 1997.

“It’s not an economic issue only, it’s a political issue,” said a top Riordan official.

Police Protective League officials say they have not seen any specific details of Lombardi’s plan but are generally opposed to any proposal that would divert money to reserve officers that could otherwise be spent on full-time officers.

“If money comes from dollars that would normally come to sworn personnel, that would jeopardize our membership,” said union board member Dennis Zine.

He said the union would even oppose using money from the federal crime bill to expand the use of reserve officers because union members feel the city should try to divert all available funds to hiring full-time officers. The PPL does not represent reserves.

Lombardi said he was told by a Riordan staffer that William C. Violante, Riordan’s chief police adviser, has known about the plan for a while but has showed little, if any, enthusiasm for it.

Such a reaction may be understandable for Violante, who previously headed the Police Protective League and has in the past expressed concerns about expanded use of volunteer reserve officers.

But Rodriguez said Violante now supports the concept. “He has a very different perspective,” she said.

Although Feuer also campaigned on a plan to expand the use of reserve officers, getting him to champion Lombardi’s proposal may also be a tricky proposition, since Feuer was also endorsed by the PPL when he campaigned for his council seat during the summer.

Cynthia Corona, a Feuer aide, said the councilman is still interested in the idea but has questions about it, such as how it would be funded. She has scheduled a meeting with Lombardi for this week.

But Corona acknowledged that she also wants to get the PPL’s input before moving ahead with the plan. “I want to make sure the league knows about it,” she said.

This controversy comes as Riordan struggles to implement his key campaign promise of expanding the LAPD by at least 3,000 officers in four years. The mayor has received reports in the past two weeks showing that his agenda is far behind schedule and that a high attrition rate continues to eat away at the force.

The LAPD currently has 350 reserve officers who are qualified to carry guns, make arrests, take reports and execute other traditional police duties. Another 350 reserve officers--so called “technical reserves”--are trained only for non-enforcement assignments, such as staffing a desk and taking crime reports. Most reserve officers have full-time jobs.

The $50-per-month stipend that is paid to reserve officers is not intended as a salary but to defray work-related expenses, such as the cost of dry-cleaning uniforms. The stipend was recently increased from $15 per month. Although there is no limit to how many shifts a reserve officer may work, Lombardi said the extra $100 per shift would entice reserve officers to work more often.

Under his plan, the city could put the equivalent of 100 additional officers on the street for $160,000 a month, a fraction of the cost of training and hiring the same number of new officers.

Lombardi concedes that the plan is only a partial solution to the city’s policing needs, but he said it would provide some immediate relief to the manpower shortfall at minimum cost. At the very least, he said, the city should consider adopting the plan as a two-year pilot program.

“These guys are ready to go and work on the street,” he said.

But in addition to political problems, the plan may face some practical obstacles.

Police and city officials say labor laws may force the city to turn reserve officers into part-time employees if they are paid to work extra shifts. City officials wonder what kind of administrative code changes would be needed to make reservists into part-time employees.

“It sounds real simple but it creates a whole lot of legal and employee-relations questions,” said LAPD Cmdr. Dan Watson, who once headed the department’s reserve coordination unit and is familiar with Lombardi’s plan.

But Lombardi and police officials said that many other cities pay reserve officers to work additional shifts. In fact, a recent survey by the state Department of Justice found that 60% of California cities pay reserve officers at either a per-hour or per-shift basis.

A few cities, however, pay nothing at all. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department pays reserve officers $1 a year.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, a strong police ally and head of the council’s Public Safety Committee, said she heard of Lombardi’s plan just last week but is planning to hold a meeting of her committee in January to discuss the merits of expanding the use of reserve officers.

“This idea is a very interesting idea and something I’ve never heard before,” she said. “If we can use our fully trained and experienced officers more, that absolutely equates to more officers on the street.”

Chick acknowledged that the Police Protective League’s opposition may pose a hurdle for the plan but said the union should keep an open mind and support the plan if it can improve public safety.

“In these times of scarce resources, no one gets to get everything,” she said.