COUNCIL WARILY AGREES TO FLEX-TIME FOR LAPD.

Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer

A reluctant City Council gave Mayor James Hahn a major victory Friday, approving plans to place Los Angeles police patrol officers on a flexible work schedule beginning this month.

After a lengthy, contentious closed-door session in which efforts to drop one of the two stations designated to begin the program this month were rebuffed, the council voted 10-3 in public to adopt the program.

After the vote, Hahn called it a ``great day for the men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department. A great day for the people of Los Angeles. This will be a great morale booster to help us keep officers in the department and fighting crime.''

The three council members who opposed the program - Nate Holden, Jan Perry and Mark Ridley-Thomas - cited a lack of information about its impact on public safety.

Under the program, beginning with the deployment schedule starting Nov. 18, patrol officers at the LAPD's Central and Hollywood divisions will be assigned to either three-day, 12-hour schedules or four-day, 10-hour shifts rather than the traditional five-day week.

Plans call for the compressed schedule to be phased in at all the other police stations by May and eventually to include other officers, such as those assigned to specialized units and detectives, said Mitzi Grasso, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which has strongly favored the new schedule.

Officers will be allowed a maximum of three days off between their three- or four-day workweeks, and to hold a second job they will have to receive permission from the Police Department, as is the case now, Hahn said.

``We're not worried about officers taking second jobs,'' Hahn said. ``Most of the officers we've talked to and the experience of other departments is the officers want to spend more time with their families and have time to do errands and decompress from the stress of the job.''

Hahn had promised the Protective League, in return for its endorsement in this year's mayoral election, to seek implementation of the flexible work schedule within three months of taking office July 1.

Although it has taken longer than planned to accomplish it, both Hahn and the Protective League exulted in its final approval by the City Council. The mayor flashed a thumbs-up sign to Grasso and two other directors in his City Hall office after the council vote and declared, ``We did it.''

But it was not without a battle.

Holden said he felt the program was being ``rammed down our throats.

``I don't think this has been studied enough and hasn't had enough public input,'' Holden said. ``I'm concerned about what will happen if an officer is working these kind of shifts and gets tired at the end and makes mistakes. It will be the city held responsible.''

Ridley-Thomas said he believed the proposal needed more study, pointing out that a consultant hired to analyze the program was never allowed to complete his work.

Perry, whose district includes the Central Division, said she never felt she had been adequately consulted on why that station was selected.

``This is a district with the largest homeless population in the city with people who have the most mental problems,'' Perry said. ``We have the Jewelry District and other areas where we have worked out specialized police programs. I haven't received assurances those will be dealt with. I just haven't had enough information.''

At one point during the closed meeting, Perry asked for a delay before the program is introduced in the Central Division. Protective League officials refused to go along with that, saying it would kill the entire program.

Hahn, however, said his office had worked closely with Perry and the entire council in explaining the need for the program - which will be monitored on a quarterly basis to make sure the basic patrol-car function is met - to try to increase morale.

``One of the gratifying things about this is, I was talking to a young officer from the Hollywood Division who told me he had applied to the Santa Ana Police Department,'' Hahn said. ``He told me he was withdrawing the application because we were going to the flexible work program.

``Our goal is to be the safest big city in the nation. We cannot do that if we don't have officers on the street.''

Hahn said the LAPD needs to offer the program to be competitive with other law enforcement agencies in the area and that he believes - based on an earlier pilot program - it will be cost-neutral.

Grasso said the program should end up saving the city money with reduced overtime and sick-time costs and provide more officers on the street at peak times if it is as successful as the pilot program.

Police Chief Bernard C. Parks had originally opposed the program, but is now working to see it implemented, LAPD spokesman Lt. Horace Frank said.

``We are going full speed ahead in terms of planning,'' Frank said. ``We will do everything we can to assure its success. We know it is something the officers asked for and we are working to make sure it benefits both the officers and the community.''

But while officials expect the program to help the LAPD hire officers, some have said it will worsen - at least in the short term - the shortage of officers needed to meet the department's goal of having patrol-car officers on routine patrol, not responding to emergencies, at least 40 percent of the time.

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- Mayor James Hahn