COUNCIL QUESTIONS MERGER PLAN : PROPOSAL WOULD JOIN TRANSIT POLICE, LAPD.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

A proposal to merge the Metropolitan Transit Authority police with the LAPD ran into new problems Monday when key City Council members and police union leaders questioned the plan.

The council's Public Safety Committee balked at endorsing the merger, instead demanding answers by Oct. 28 to a series of questions on the benefit of the proposal for the Los Angeles Police Department and the taxpayers.

``The chief needs to answer and convince us that this is enhancing the LAPD's ability to fulfill its mission,'' said Councilwoman Laura Chick, the panel's chairwoman.

Chick and Councilman Mike Feuer endorsed a report by principal city administrative analyst Peter DiCarlo that charged the city has not yet received satisfactory answers to basic concerns including:

The city contract to provide police services for the MTA is for five years, but the LAPD is planning to permanently hire almost 300 MTA workers, including 196 sworn officers.

That could be a problem for the city, officials said, if the MTA contracts with another agency such as the Sheriff's Department after five years.

The contract only allows the city to receive an annual increase in compensation based on the consumer price index, but the city has committed to increasing the pay of officers by 5 percent each year.

The proposal would allow MTA officers to join the LAPD ranks with four weeks of new training, but all other officers hired from other departments must undergo 10 weeks of training.

``Our concern is an officer safety issue,'' said police union director Mitzi Grasso. ``I don't feel that a four-week training program is enough to adequately prepare the (MTA) officers to be Los Angeles police officers.''

Although MTA officers would be limited to working on transit lines for the first two years, Feuer said he is concerned about whether the LAPD is set up to manage the new unit.

Chick also said she is concerned that the proposal would give the LAPD responsibility to oversee some MTA contracts for armed security guards and may require the LAPD to provide some of its existing officers to cover transit beats.

Finally, Chick questioned why the city was pushing to merge with the MTA police before first incorporating officers from other city agencies, including the harbor and airport police.

``I think if we're going to move toward one city - one city department - that the most natural step would be to look at our own city family,'' Chick said.

LAPD Cmdr. Art Lopez promised to work with city and MTA analysts to answer the questions raised Monday. He said Chief Willie L. Williams wants to carry through on the MTA merger before looking at other city agencies so that the department can learn from the experience and determine whether further mergers are feasible.