Chick Finds Vast Improvement at LA Fire Department
Reports LAFD is well on the way to improving it's culture

Los Angeles – Over two years since she found incidents of harassment, hazing and discrimination at the Fire Department, City Controller Laura Chick reports that the situation has vastly improved.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For your convenience the Executive Summary is below.

“While there is still room for improvement, the Fire Department has come a long way in reforming and attempting to change its culture,” said Chick.

“Real change must come from the top down, and in the last year-and-a-half, Chief Douglas Barry has taken bold action to put the Department on a new track. Chief Barry has effectively strengthened communication by developing a formal vision for the Department and personally visiting nearly every fire station to directly deliver his expectations,” said Chick.

“It is our goal that the reforms we are implementing have an immediate as well as a long lasting impact. The Fire Department recognizes that though we have made good progress, there is still work to do. We are committed to following our implementation plan and its timelines and thank the Mayor’s office, Fire Commission and City Council for their support in our efforts,” said Barry.

Chick’s audit found the Fire Department has implemented standard, consistent and fair disciplinary guidelines. The complaint and investigatory function has been restructured within a new division, the Professional Standards Division, which now lies outside of the Operations chain of command.

“Yet changing a culture will not happen overnight, and there are still key areas that must be addressed immediately. Disciplinary complaints continue to be investigated by Captains who are on rotational assignment and are permitted to work overtime in other Fire Department locations. This practice creates a revolving door and potential conflict of interest, as he or she may interact with other LAFD members who are the subjects of active investigations,” wrote Chick in a letter to the City’s elected officials.

The Chick report found that fully staffing the Professional Standards Division will help strengthen the independence and consistency of the Department’s investigative and disciplinary function. This progress may be threatened by the City’s current fiscal crisis, which can impede filling these critical positions.

“Over a decade ago many reforms were initiated in the Fire Department and progress was made. Unfortunately, we didn’t follow through to see all the reforms to completion; then the same problems reoccurred. We stand at a critical juncture to see if we will move boldly forward to once again finish what we have started. We must give the Fire Department the support, attention and resources it needs to change its culture once and for all. Which is money more painfully spent…the upfront dollars to staff the Professional Standards Division or the back end millions of dollars to pay lawyers and lawsuit claims?,” concluded Chick.

FOLLOW-UP AUDIT OF LAFD’S MANAGEMENT PRACTICES EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In January 2006, the Controller’s Office issued an audit report on the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) management practices that generally found: A clear vision and a strong, unified “tone at the top” was lacking; Complaints, and the resulting formal investigation and disciplinary actions, were inconsistently handled, poorly tracked and subjective; Morale among female and minority members was low and workplace harassment may have been more prevalent than the number of formal complaints indicated; and A perception among members that the process for graduating recruits from the Drill Tower Academy was ineffective in producing well-qualified firefighters. A year after the audit report was released, a new Fire Chief was appointed, first on an interim basis and then permanently in September 2007. Immediately upon assuming the position in January 2007, the Fire Chief began a number of initiatives to address the audit’s findings, particularly those related to strengthening communication throughout the Department and establishing a tone at the top to ensure accountability and a clear understanding of expectations. Many of the prior audit’s findings focused on problems with workplace culture and environment, which will take time and continual reinforcement to correct. It is still too early to measure the impact of Departmental initiatives to address these issues through trends relative to complaints or disciplinary actions. Consequently, our follow-up audit assessed the actions taken by LAFD, including planning efforts, to address the audit’s recommendations. SUMMARY Our review found that LAFD has made considerable progress, though most recommendations are still not fully implemented. The Department has spent much of the last two years developing comprehensive plans and working with various stakeholders and other City agencies to provide a blueprint for action. The Department now must actively focus on ensuring swift implementation of these plans to achieve the desired culture change. KEY FINDINGS Significant accomplishments demonstrating the positive change at LAFD include the following: The Fire Chief has effectively strengthened communication and the tone at the top by developing a formal vision for the department; personally visiting fire stations to directly communicate his vision and expectation to members, and issuing frequent, balanced communications to members. LAFD formalized a regular human relations training program that is provided to recruits during the Drill Tower Academy, members interested in promoting to rank of Captain, and all employees through the mandatory In-Service Training Academy. LAFD has implemented standard disciplinary guidelines. The guidelines were drafted with input from the employee representative groups and were approved by the Fire Chief in September 2007. LAFD has trained supervisors on the guidelines, and through a meet-and-confer process with both the Chief Officers Association (COA) and United Firefighters of Los Angeles City (UFLAC), formally adopted the guidelines in January 2008. The restructured Drill Tower Academy has resulted in a number of positive changes, demonstrated by anecdotal feedback from members and the fact that 93% of recruits successfully completed probation since the restructure in 2005. This is 5 percentage points higher than the period between 1998 and 2004, as reported in the prior audit. The complaint and investigatory function has been restructured within the new“Professional Standards Division” and now lies outside of the Operations chain of command. However, we still have concerns which, if not addressed, will impair the effectiveness of this critical area. LAFD has clearly improved its management practices and appears to have made significant strides towards improving the Department’s workplace culture. However, there remain several concerns that if not addressed immediately by LAFD management could jeopardize what has been achieved to date. The following presents a summary of outstanding issues that must be addressed. Disciplinary complaints continue to be investigated by LAFD Captains on rotational assignment, and members are permitted to work overtime in other LAFD field locations. Sound investigative and case handling practices require independence, objectivity, and confidentiality. The current practice of staffing the Professional Standards Division (PSD) with sworn personnel on rotational assignment and permitting them to work scheduled overtime outside of the PSD creates a potential conflict of interest, as he or she may interact with other LAFD members who are the subjects of active investigations. This practice impairs the perception by members of LAFD and the public of an investigator’s ability to be fair and impartial. Full implementation of the Professional Standards Division requires the addition of several specialized, civilian positions. The Professional Standards Division plan calls for adding permanent, civilian employees to supplement staffing in the EEO and standard disciplinary investigative functions, as well as creating an independent oversight function to oversee and audit investigations and disciplinary actions. A fully staffed PSD will help strengthen the independence and consistency of LAFD’s investigative and disciplinary function. Procedures for fully documenting and systematically tracking complaints and the resulting disciplinary actions are not yet fully implemented. In our review of 5 disciplinary case files, we noted that investigative steps and case facts were clearly documented; however, the rationale for determining specific penalties was not clear. LAFD’s new disciplinary guidelines allow for a broad range of action for individual offenses. LAFD should also develop a formal methodology or criteria to consider in determining specific penalties, and document this rationale in individual case files. In addition, LAFD has not yet implemented automated complaint and disciplinary tracking systems, which were developed in 2006. Remaining actions include determining who will have system access and concluding the testing phase. LAFD management must ensure that staff from the Management Information Systems Division, Professional Standards Division and UFLAC continue to work to resolve outstanding issues. It is imperative that these systems be implemented without further delay. LAFD has not adequately addressed leadership development. While LAFD has begun several initiatives to develop future leaders, progress has been slow. There also appears to be a culture of treating probationary employees in what could be perceived as a less respectful manner than tenured LAFD members. It is important that any level of disrespectful behavior not be allowed to go unchecked as it may undermine LAFD’s ability to develop future leaders and could create an environment for more serious or egregious behavior. An important tool for developing model leaders at LAFD is to formally evaluate all members on their demonstrated ability to uphold the Department’s human relations goals. A new Executive Appraisal system has been drafted to evaluate Chiefs on adhering to LAFD’s core values and human relation goals; however, no formal discussions have been held with UFLAC to revise the appraisal document for its members. LAFD had incomplete records to support the passing grades for some recruits who graduated from the Fire Academy. While the Department asserts that all recruits who graduated from the Drill Tower Academy passed all written tests and exercises, we were unable to independently verify that only recruits who received passing scores graduated from the Drill Tower Academy. We reviewed original score sheets in recruit files to verify 26 grades reported as “passing” but could not identify source documents to confirm 8 grades. Our follow-up audit of the 21 recommendations found that the Department has implemented 5 recommendations, and has partially implemented or taken initial steps to implement 16 recommendations. Our evaluation of each recommendation is discussed in the remainder of this report. In addition, Appendix 1 provides a listing of each recommendation, the implementation status, and a summary of our assessment. Review of Report On May 19, 2008, a draft report was provided to LAFD management. We held an exit conference with LAFD management on May 28, 2008. LAFD generally agreed with our assessment of the status of recommendations. The Department’s comments were considered before finalizing the report.

The complete Chick audit can be accessed at her web-site at www.lacity.org/ctr