Audit faults lafd's investigation of top officials

The Los Angeles Fire Department has failed to properly investigate misconduct allegations against the fire chief, top union officials and members of an elite unit that delves into charges

involving rank-and-file firefighters, according to an audit presented to the city Fire Commission on Tuesday. The report by the agency’s top watchdog concluded that the process of

investigating such sensitive cases is underfunded, poorly run and plagued by sloppy record-keeping and incomplete fieldwork. The department has ignored complaints and routinely allowed cases

to drag on until after the statute of limitations to impose discipline has expired, the report found. “The public cannot have confidence that the same standards of conduct apply equally to

everyone,” Independent Assessor Stephen Miller said in the 75-page report. The findings come as Chief Brian Cummings has struggled to restore confidence in his management of the

3,500-employee department after fire officials admitted last year that they overstated response times, making it appear that rescuers arrived more quickly at emergencies than they actually

did. In recent weeks, Cummings has faced growing criticism from the city Fire Commission that oversees the department. Panel members have repeatedly challenged the chief’s controversial plan

to beef up medical rescue services by shifting firefighters from engines to ambulances. Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti, who has said that all department managers will have to reapply for their

jobs after July 1, has criticized the chief’s leadership, disagreed with his plans to restructure the agency’s 911 call center and questioned the reasoning behind his shift of personnel to

ambulances. Cummings told The Times that he had not spoken with Garcetti since election day. Staff members are working to schedule a meeting, he said. On Tuesday, fire commissioners voiced

concern about the audit’s findings and instructed the department to follow up with reforms. “We owe more than what we’ve been doing to our people and the public,” said Commissioner Alan J.

Skobin, who called on the department to “change the culture” by focusing more seriously on discipline. The report criticized the handling of Cummings’ 2011 admission that more than a decade

earlier, while he was a captain at a station near the Venice boardwalk, he and other on-duty firefighters posed for photographs with scantily clad women. At least one photo involved a

topless woman alone on a firetruck. Misconduct complaints against rank-and-file firefighters are typically handled by the LAFD’s Professional Standards Division. But when an allegation

involves those investigators, top firefighters union officials or the fire chief, the inquiry is overseen by a deputy chief who assigns special investigators. The audit presented Tuesday

reviewed nearly three years of cases from the alternative investigation process and recommended dozens of reforms. Department officials promised to increase oversight of the special

investigations with biweekly meetings in which the chief will monitor ongoing cases. They also said they would seek City Charter changes that would give investigators the power to issue

subpoenas. Cummings said that at least two new civilian investigators are needed to handle the workload of alternative investigations. More than 60 cases have been referred to the special

process since its inception. The case involving Cummings’ photographs, which came to light more than a decade after the statute of limitations had passed, was resolved by Fire Commission

President Genethia Hudley-Hayes without a thorough investigation, the audit found. The chief gave himself a penalty of 120 hours of community service. Cummings told The Times that he has

completed his community service, saying that he served most of the hours at the Downtown Women’s Center. The audit criticized the handling of the case, saying that the Fire Commission lacks

the legal authority to discipline the chief. In response, the department promised to forward future complaints against a sitting fire chief to the mayor’s office. Also Tuesday, the chief

presented a revised report on his controversial move to shift firefighters to ambulances. At their previous meeting, commissioners criticized the plan as inadequate. In a heated exchange

Tuesday, one member again challenged the data analysis underpinning the chief’s redeployment decision. “Where’s the beef?” asked Skobin, who supervised an overhaul of the department’s data

analysis after last year’s controversy over response times. “I haven’t seen any data whatsoever, despite being told this is data driven.” Commissioners asked Cummings to return with a fuller

justification for the redeployment of personnel, which moved 22 firefighters per shift from engines to ambulances. The shift added an ambulance at 11 stations, but commissioners and the

firefighters union have questioned whether the distribution of the units was based on sound data analysis. [email protected]_ [email protected]_ MORE TO READ