Reviving the debate over the size of the LAPD, the head of the police officers' union called Wednesday for a summit on the future of the agency and how it should cope with the ongoing budget crisis.

Paul Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, maintains the city should suspend its practice of hiring officers to replace those who resign or retire. Instead, he said, the Los Angeles Police Department should let its sworn ranks decline in size and use that money to pay overtime to current officers and fill civilian vacancies.

"We have to be truthful with the public about what we're doing," Weber said in an interview. "We aren't being truthful with them.

"We say we are at nearly 10,000 officers, when the truth is we are down nearly 800 by not paying overtime and by having cops do the jobs of civilians."

Weber said the union wants to sit down with police and city leaders to map out a strategy before the department prepares its budget for the coming year.

"This is a good time for us to look at what we will need, how the city is changing and what the department needs," Weber said.

"I'm not trying to just throw rocks. I want us to sit down and get a public discussion going. We need to come up with a plan we can all agree on with what is the correct size of the department given our needs and our budget."

Weber said the need for a long-term plan was exemplified during a recent visit to an unidentified community police station, where he saw a commander vacuuming the floors because the janitorial staff was on furlough.

"What has it come to when police officers need to fill in for janitors to keep the place clean?" Weber asked. "It's just an example. We are moving 90 (sworn) officers to staff the jails. We might have officers answering telephones because we don't have enough staff. It's time for us to be honest with the public."

Police Chief Charlie Beck, however, said he will not back away from the plan to maintain the department's force of 9,963 officers.

"The continued hiring of police officers is the lifeblood of this organization," Beck said in a statement. "Without it, the safety of the people of Los Angeles is at risk."

Beck also said that suspending the hiring of officers would not affect the LAPD's overtime account.

"Through the end of this year, we are looking at $40 million for overtime," Beck said. "To continue hiring officers will cost $2.2 million. It makes no sense to stop hiring when we wouldn't be able to replenish the overtime account.

"And, we need those new officers to give me the freedom to have the staffing we do have."

An aide to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he supports the continued hiring of police officers.

"The mayor and the chief are on the same page on this," spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said. "The size of the force is of the utmost importance in terms of public safety."

Because of the ongoing budget crisis, the LAPD is the only city agency that has been allowed to hire to its full strength, although it has had to make cuts in other areas to cover successive years of shortfalls.

Over the past two years, the city has reduced its workforce by 2,400 workers through layoffs, early retirements and furloughs.

The City Council has debated the size of the LAPD at length the past two years with two members, Councilmen Greig Smith and Bernard Parks, questioning the hiring plan.

Smith said he plans to meet with Beck and other city officials over the issue as a report is being prepared on salary comparisons between officers and civilians.

"Of major concern will be the mayor's insistence that we continue hiring while many council members believe it is time to stop, at least temporarily," said Smith, who chairs the council's Public Safety Committee and is a reserve officer.

Smith said he also has challenged Beck's plan to replace civilians with sworn officers at the city's jails.

"He believes that is the best policy at this time," Smith said. "More information is coming in a few weeks and a real policy examination will ensue."

Parks said any discussion of LAPD staffing should include a review of the officers' so-called flexible schedules, which he vigorously opposed during his five years as the city's police chief.

"If we are looking at everything, then we should look at the 3-12 and 4-10 (schedules) that officers work," Parks said. "That's one way to get more officers on the street."