OPTIONS: Some urging that city use outside firms to help with backlog.

With the Los Angeles Police Department facing a growing backlog in processing rape kits, a Los Angeles city panel Monday pushed for new ways to speed DNA testing, from hiring more outside firms to changing federal laws.

The City Council's Public Safety Committee recommended that the city spend $377,000 on private firms to help test DNA, in addition to existing plans to hire more criminalists. The funds were freed up because of bureaucratic delays in hiring the criminalists, a problem which frustrated some council members.

Also, City Council President Eric Garcetti urged the City Council's Public Safety Committee to exempt criminalists from the city furlough program, which requires them to stay home from work 10 percent of the time.

Garcetti expressed some frustration that the city has continued to face repeated problems with the DNA kit issue.

"It is a bit like 'Groundhog Day,"' Garcetti said, referring to the Bill Murray movie in which a day's events are repeated over and over again. "When we make policy, we want to see it followed."

The City Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had budgeted nearly $1million to hire 26 criminalists to clear the backlog, with the first 10 hires expected in the next few months. But those hirings were held up by an internal city committee overseeing hiring as the city grapples with a $200 million shortfall this year.

The Managed Hiring Committee last week cleared the hiring of the criminalists.

The delay saved the city $377,000, which the committee now wants to use to hire the outside firms.

Council members voiced frustration that their orders were being held up and that the cost of testing is increased by the requirement that LAPD verify all the results of private labs.

City officials said the private firms take four or five days to test the evidence and the city then has to spend two to four hours to verify the results.

"So we send it out and then it comes back and we have to do extra work to verify it," Councilman Dennis Zine said. "It means we are paying to have private companies do the work and we have to repeat it."

Council members plan to push for a change in federal law to eliminate the redundancy in testing procedures.

Pending federal legislation would allow work by certified private companies to be admitted in court directly without city confirmation. Garcetti said he and other city officials will lobby for the measure during a trip to Washington, D.C., in March.

Assistant Chief Michel Moore said the LAPD has a backlog of 1,254 rape kits and 1,700 new cases waiting to be tested.

"The department remains committed to our long-term hiring goal that will allow us to do all the testing for DNA of all sexual assault kits," Moore said. "And once we hire all the personnel, we believe we will be able to handle the 1,200 new kits we expect each year."

Once the department does that hiring and catches up with the backlog, Moore said the crime lab will be able to work on other cases involving property crimes where DNA was available.

City Controller Wendy Greuel, whose office has been conducting regular audits on the issue, supported the temporary hiring of outside firms.

"What we don't understand is how a City Council policy could not be implemented," Greuel said. "We understand they have a list of 90 people, and why should it take four months to hire 26 people?"

LAPD officials said they were continuing to do required background checks to approve the individuals who are hired.

Julie Butcher, general manager of the SEIU local representing the criminalists, said the money would be better used to keep those workers on duty without facing a furlough.

"Right now, you are losing 10 percent of productivity from these workers," Butcher said. "You could handle a lot of the work in-house without the extra cost of retesting evidence."

LAPD officials agreed, but said they were bound by city policy. They are looking to find federal grants to provide the money to cover the salaries of the workers.