The Brutal Costs of Rampart

As local governments around the nation gear up to take full fiscal advantage of huge windfalls of tobacco settlement money--preparing to use the funds for everything from new infrastructure to new school programs--Los Angeles is getting to know the full cost of police corruption.

The scenarios for the city are infuriating, no matter how many times you shuffle the deck and deal the cards. Here are some of the options available to pay for the anticipated huge legal costs of settling with those who were falsely arrested, charged, incarcerated and/or injured by corrupt Los Angeles officers in the infamous Rampart scandal.

Mayor Richard Riordan has suggested diverting $300 million in expected tobacco settlement money to help pay for Rampart lawsuit settlements. Ronald F. Deaton, the city’s chief legislative analyst, wants to sequester unspent budget money and forestall any new spending in the coming fiscal year. Others will surely suggest program cuts or the use of the city’s reserve funds to help meet needs and obligations.

The proposals have good and bad points. It will be up to the mayor, the City Council and various legislative and financial experts to work together and consider all possibilities before rushing toward any particular solution. The debate begins in earnest Wednesday, before the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee, chaired by Councilman Mike Feuer.

There are no strings on the city’s tobacco money, and health care is the responsibility of Los Angeles County. Using the tobacco funds for the Rampart problem could preserve funds for vital city services. But under such a diversion, the city would get slightly less than one-third of the $300 million that would result if the settlement money were dispersed gradually over a number of years. Questions would remain about what could have been accomplished with the greater amount of money over the long run.

Because of complexities involved in a diversion, the city would be wise to insist on an arrangement that would retain flexibility to use the remaining funds for other purposes if all the tobacco money were not needed for Rampart settlements.

One idea worth exploring is to freeze spending while looking at various small pots of money that could be used to create a Rampart lawsuit settlement pool. We bear in mind that the city this year already has liability costs that surpass its 1999 payouts and that it presumably will have to float a judgment bond, which does not require voter approval, to absorb those costs.

No one knows how many strong lawsuits will come out of the Rampart investigation, which has uncovered evidence of perjury, drug dealing, evidence planting and more by police officers.

The true costs to the city, besides shame, are not yet clear. Our elected officials face one of the toughest fiscal decisions in recent memory. In the end Los Angeles must ensure that nothing like the Rampart scandal can ever again grow within the ranks of the Police Department.