COUNCIL SPLIT ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT PROPOSAL.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles City Council was divided largely along gender lines Tuesday over a proposal to set up a process for investigating sexual harassment and discrimination complaints against elected officials and department heads.

Councilwomen Jackie Goldberg and Ruth Galanter agreed to delay action on their proposal until Friday after several male council members objected that the proposed investigative process was open to political manipulation and did not sufficiently protect officials from false accusations.

However, Galanter and other supporters of the proposal said most of the criticism of the proposal is unfounded and they will fight unreasonable delays past Friday.

"Why is it whenever we discuss sexual harassment we have a whole lot of men in hysterics in this room?" Galanter said during the hourlong debate. "We can continue this for a very long time and, in the meantime, we don't have a process in place."

The opposition to the proposal was led by Councilman Nate Holden, who recently successfully defended himself against lawsuits, charging he engaged in sexual harassment against female employees. The city spent more than $1 million in legal fees to defend Holden.

Holden said the proposal to have investigations overseen by a "Special Committee on Standards and Conduct," consisting of five elected officials including the mayor, "frightens the hell out of me."

Holden said establishment of the panel could lead to politically motivated investigations similar to those of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s.

"I don't support a witch hunt and I'm not going to put into gear or motion any mechanism to do that," Holden said.

Councilman Richard Alarcon said he supports creating a process to handle sexual harassment complaints but objects to having politicians oversee such investigations.

"I thought one of the whole purposes of this was to get it out of the political arena," Alarcon said.

Normally, city employees accused of sexual harassment are held accountable by their supervisor under city policy. But elected officials and department heads do not have easily identified superiors.

Under the new proposal, if a complaint cannot be resolved by the Personnel Department, the committee including the mayor, controller, council president and two other council members would appoint an outside investigator to confidentially look at allegations against elected officials or department heads.

The special panel would then review the investigator's findings and recommendations and make its owns proposal to the full council for action necessary to resolve the matter.