Los Angeles Government Employees

Those aspiring to become Los Angeles police officers will no longer be barred from becoming recruits if they are older than 35. The Los Angeles Civil Service Commission on Friday unanimously voted to lift the age restriction, a decision based on police studies that found that older officers are less likely to use excessive force, take sick leave or become involved in traffic accidents. "Historically, we've gone after youth because of their physical attributes, but . . .

Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo has hired former Police Commission President Gerald Chaleff as one of his senior advisors, specializing in risk management and liability reduction issues, officials said Monday. Chaleff, who was fired earlier this year from his volunteer post on the Police Commission by then-Mayor Richard Riordan, will begin the $130,000-a-year job next month. "Throughout his career, Mr.

Despondent over attacks on him and the Los Angeles Police Department, embattled Assistant Police Chief Robert L. Vernon decided one recent day that he was ready to retire and move to Montana. But that night Vernon and his wife read several verses from the Bible, which they do every night before bed. A scriptural passage from Matthew spoke directly to him, Vernon said, imploring him to stay: "Your light must shine before men so that they may see goodness in your acts. . . ."

Projecting drastic revenue losses caused by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and their effects on the local economy, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn on Thursday ordered a freeze on city hiring and asked department managers to find ways to scale back their operations. In a letter to department heads and the City Council, Hahn predicted a $71-million shortfall if the city does not take immediate steps to curtail spending.

Former Assistant City Atty. Betsy Mogul, wife of an ex-Los Angeles police officer charged with two contract murders, was acquitted Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court of a charge of lying on a Department of Motor Vehicle form to cheat the state out of taxes. Jurors deliberated for about four hours before finding Mogul, 41, not guilty of a single perjury count--a charge that led to her dismissal from her $78,000-a-year post.

The city of Los Angeles and the federal General Services Administration will work together to establish a child care center in City Hall for the children of U.S. and city government employees working in the Civic Center area, officials announced Friday. The accord, which ends a GSA search for a downtown child care center, will put a 9,700-square-foot facility on the ground-floor level of City Hall South, Mayor Tom Bradley said at a press conference.

The highest-ranking black in the Los Angeles Fire Department, who felt the sting of racial discrimination in his early days as a city firefighter, has won an interim appointment as one of Fire Chief Donald O. Manning's four top deputies. The appointment of Assistant Chief Paul A. Orduna, 60, as deputy chief in charge of the Bureau of Support Services becomes effective Jan. 17, according to a departmental teletype sent to all fire stations.

A series of incidents involving Los Angeles city truck drivers--including a fatal accident that last month resulted in a record $19-million settlement--has some officials calling for a review of driver safety and questioning whether the city is doing enough to protect the public.

The owner of Chippendales was ordered to appear in court Jan. 31 or face immediate arrest after he failed to show up Wednesday for a court hearing for a former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who danced in the nightclub's all-male revue at the same time that he was pursing a permanent disability claim from the county. Los Angeles Municipal Judge Alban I.

Animal control is often a thankless job, but the profession has come a long way since the days of the dogcatcher. Grumpy men, armed with nets and wooden clubs, who tossed dogs and cats into rickety wagons have disappeared. They have been replaced by skilled men and women who drive vans fitted with air-conditioned cages. While a lot has changed, these officers still face danger daily--and not just from the animals.

It's vacation time at Los Angeles City Hall. For the next two weeks, the City Council is on hiatus. The hallways will be empty. Offices will be dark. And the city will be in the hands of . . . well, that takes some work to figure out. The mayor is leaving Wednesday on an eight-day trip to Hawaii with his family. The City Council president will be rock climbing next week in Utah.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden has placed two former colleagues on the public payroll, at a cost of $7,600 per month, until they find new jobs. "They don't have jobs, but they have a lot of experience," Holden said, adding that the former council members, Mike Hernandez and Rudy Svorinich Jr., will serve as consultants on a variety of issues, including transportation and housing matters.

The gripes run the gamut: My phone doesn't ring. The elevator stalls. My boxes are in the wrong office. As council members tout the beauty and history of restored Los Angeles City Hall, which formally reopened this week, the everyday employees--clerks, guards and janitors--are the ones struggling to make the new building work. "The character is nice," said Maryanne Keehn of the city's employee benefits office, which had been without air-conditioning since it opened six weeks ago.

A federal court jury Thursday ordered the city of Los Angeles to pay $3.6 million to a longtime city employee who was fired after giving key testimony against the city in a costly police overtime case. After just more than four hours of deliberation, the eight-person jury also found Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and Cmdr. Daniel Watson, the department's ombudsman, personally liable for $500,000 and $250,000, respectively, in punitive damages.

Recreation assistants who run after-school, preschool and sports programs at dozens of centers scattered around Los Angeles plan to sue the city today, charging that they have been routinely forced to work off the clock to keep their low-wage jobs. Eight workers are named in the suit, which seeks class-action status covering 2,500 current and former employees. Several of the plaintiffs have held their jobs for more than a decade, occasionally filling in as center directors for no extra pay.

Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo on Tuesday chose Ann D'Amato, a colleague from the mayor's office, to be his chief of staff when he becomes Los Angeles' new city attorney next month. In D'Amato, who is Mayor Richard Riordan's deputy for legislative affairs, Delgadillo will have a trusted insider whose City Hall experience stretches back more than two decades. She worked as a deputy to then-Councilman John Gibson of San Pedro and his successor, former Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores.

A pit bull raced out of a duplex in Glassell Park and attacked a city animal control officer Monday, savaging her hand in its jaw as she approached to investigate an incident in which two people were badly bitten, officials said. The officer, Florence Crowell, 33, was able to get away from the dog with the help of its owner. But the dog attacked again, biting Crowell's chest before the officer was able to call for help.

A former Los Angeles city electrician faces the death penalty after being convicted Tuesday of killing four of his supervisors at the city's downtown technical center. Willie Woods, 44, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1995 deaths of three of his victims and second-degree murder in the shooting of the fourth.

The new report laying out a complex plan to sever the San Fernando Valley from Los Angeles skirted many of the toughest challenges the city will face if it splits apart, city officials said Thursday. The report offered little guidance, for instance, on how to choose which city workers would shift to the new Valley city's payroll, they said.

A plan to open a new child care cen ter at the Van Nuys Civic Center was approved unanimously Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Child care advocates and elected officials said the center would help fill a need for quality, licensed care. The $1.5-million center will serve about 70 children of county and city workers as well as local residents. Construction is scheduled to begin next February with opening planned for early 2003.