CHIEF WORTH $257,116, MAYOR SAYS.

Byline: Alexa Haussler and Rick Orlov Staff Writers

Taking heat from mayoral candidates and council members, Mayor Richard Riordan on Wednesday defended his recent approval of hefty pay raises - up to 12 percent - for top city officials.

``When you look at departments like the police, airports, the Department of Water and Power - these are agencies with multimillion-dollar budgets,'' Riordan said during his monthly ``Ask the Mayor'' radio show on KFWB (980 AM). ``If this was private industry, they would each be making $1 million a year or more. I think paying $250,000 is a good deal.''

One of the raises, which the council could veto by Feb. 14, would push Police Chief Bernard C. Parks' pay from the $228,678 it was last fiscal year to $257,116.

Riordan and other city officials refused to release complete details of the raises that the mayor, who has sole authority of department heads' pay, has approved in recent months.

But a list of the city's 37 department heads and the salaries as of Jan. 1 shows that 19 got raises of 6 percent or more since Oct. 10; most got 7 percent. This included a 2 percent cost-of-living increase given automatically to all department heads.

Judith Wilson, general manager of the Department of Sanitation, got a 12 percent raise, according to the city's records. Ann D. Smith, Department of Aging head, got 11 percent. City Clerk Michael Carey and Planning Director Con Howe each got 10 percent.

Four other top executives' performance evaluations were done by Riordan and a City Council committee under the old City Charter because their performance had not been reviewed for the previous fiscal year.

The raises would push Department of Water & Power head David Freeman's salary from $229,000 last fiscal year to $241,000, Chief Librarian Susan Kent's from $156,767 last fiscal year to $176,311 and Harbor Department head Larry Keller's from $207,276 last fiscal year to $233,063.

Retroactive to as far back as 1999, the raises are being given despite a city report declaring that department heads should go without raises because they get higher salaries and better benefits than heads of other municipal agencies nationwide.

Several mayoral candidates and some council members called for a public review of what they describe as overly generous raises for officials already among the nation's highest-paid public servants.

``Our top managers' salaries are more than competitive with any other public entity's (salaries) in the country, and I see these latest rounds of raises as unnecessary,'' said mayoral candidate and City Attorney James Hahn. ``We have to make sure that we pay good salaries to our top managers, but we've already done that.''

Added Councilwoman Laura Chick, a candidate for city controller: ``This is pushing the envelope to the top of the mountain. At this point, I could not support these increases.''

Councilman Joel Wachs, also a mayoral candidate, has called for a public review of the proposed increases.

Mayoral candidate Steve Soboroff, a businessman, said he agrees with only some of the decisions, such as a reward for Freeman.

``The lights are on in Los Angeles, so nobody deserves a pay raise more than Dave Freeman,'' he said. But he questioned the raise for the police chief: ``You've got crime up, morale down and arrests down. To me those aren't the qualifications for a pay raise.''

Another candidate for mayor, Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, believes the public should not be excluded from the performance-review process, a Becerra spokesman said.

State Controller Kathleen Connell, also a candidate for mayor, said she would propose a system with lower base pay and a major portion of department heads' salaries linked to performance.

The mayor especially defended the increase for the police chief.

``I think Chief Parks has done an outstanding job,'' Riordan said. ``The department is being managed for the first time in years. He's not perfect - I'm not perfect - but he is doing a great job.''

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