CITY TO PAY $930,000 TO SETTLE SEX-BIAS SUITS.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to pay $930,000 to settle separate lawsuits by a former policewoman and a former woman firefighter who charged they were subject to sexual discrimination by co-workers.

A $430,000 settlement was approved for Janine Bouey, who charged that she was the victim of sexual and racial harassment and discrimination at the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill Division in Pacoima.

The council also approved a $500,000 settlement for Kelli Laur, whose suit charged that she was wrongfully fired by the Los Angeles Fire Department based on gender. The City Attorney's Office refused to disclose details of that case and Laur's attorney did not return calls for comment.

The settlements were approved amid growing concern about sexual discrimination and harassment in the Police and Fire departments.

The City Council is wrestling with the issues surrounding a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of more than 80 women plaintiffs charging a pattern of harassment and civil rights violations in the LAPD.

``I think it's significant in that the issues that it raises are the continuing issues of discrimination and bias inside the department, in various divisions,'' said City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg.

Goldberg made her remarks as she was about to convene a meeting of the council's Personnel Committee, which she chairs, to hear testimony from women's rights advocates that harassment is not being seriously dealt with by the LAPD and that women are being retaliated against for complaining.

Bouey's lawsuit is separate from the ACLU's class-action suit, also known as the Tipton-Whittingham case.

A proposed consent decree between the city and the ACLU that would establish a new set of hiring and promotion policies for women within the Police Department was scheduled for a hearing today in federal court.

But Judge William Keller postponed the hearing, saying the matter needed further study.

Goldberg said the Bouey case is evidence of the need for a consent decree that will hold the LAPD's feet to the fire in dealing seriously with sexual harassment and discrimination in the future.

``It's just part and parcel of why some of us think that in the long run it's going to take a long time to change this (LAPD) culture, longer than any of us will be on this council, and that is compelling reason to have a consent decree so you don't have backsliding in the future,'' Goldberg said. ``You will have oversight of an external eye with no ax to grind.''

While the city is seeking the consent decree on remedial action within the department, negotiations have not concluded on possible damages. If the $430,000 settlement of the Bouey case is a measure, the city would be facing potential damages of $34.4 million in the larger lawsuit.

As if to emphasize the importance of the issues, the LAPD command staff met Wednesday with Police Chief Willie L. Williams for an hourlong seminar on strategies to deal with sexual harassment problems when they arise.

LAPD spokesman Cmdr. Tim McBride said the department takes harassment and discrimination complaints ``extremely seriously.'' He said that policy was emphasized during the meeting between Williams and his command staff.

``We talked about how serious the issue is, how important it is for management to involve themselves early in the situation and about how important it is to have a work environment free of bias,'' McBride said.

McBride said he was the officer in charge at the Foothill Division during some of the time Bouey was there but was not named in her lawsuit and does not recall her complaints.

Bouey, an African-American, charged in her suit that she was the victim of rampant discrimination and harassment from the time she joined the LAPD in 1987 to the time she left on a disability pension related to the harassment in 1994.

``It was really terrible,'' Bouey said Wednesday. ``The racism and sexism were terrible. I had no idea that kind of environment existed.''

While at the Foothill Division, Bouey was subject to disparaging remarks about her race and gender, was shunned by male officers who refused to be her patrol partner and three times found Ku Klux Klan fliers stuck on the windshield of her car in a secure police parking lot, according to her attorney, Dan Stormer.

``Janine Bouey had been an absolutely superior officer with the LAPD until a pattern of sexual harassment got so bad as to force her off the force,'' Stormer said.

``Officers would refuse to back her up in emergencies, jeopardizing her safety,'' Stormer added.

He said harassment and bias continued when Bouey went to the Rampart Division.

Bouey, 37, said she complained to command officers but no action was taken.

Added Stormer, ``The city is having to pay a substantial settlement all because the LAPD refuses to punish officers accused of harassment.''

Bouey will receive $235,184 in damages, with the rest of the settlement going to attorneys' fees and costs. She said she plans to go to law school.

During the Personnel Committee hearing later in the day, women's rights advocates, including Katherine Spillar of the Fund for the Feminist Majority, said that the LAPD is not doing enough to stop the mistreatment of women.

Goldberg said her panel will hold hearings in January on what the LAPD is doing to respond to continuing problems of sexual harassment and retaliation against female officers who file complaints.

``I am convinced that retaliation is alive and well in the Los Angeles Police Department,'' Goldberg said. ``We have a policy of zero tolerance. Yet, I would like to know what the department is doing to ensure that is the case.''

Goldberg said she has received a number of complaints from female officers over the past several months that they had taken an informal approach with superiors to try to end harassment, but ended up being transferred.

``I don't think they were seeking anything other than resolution of a problem, and it escalated against them,'' Goldberg said.

The committee said it also wanted information on the length of time it takes to investigate complaints of sexual harassment as well as actions taken against those who are found to have harassed female officers.