2 Council Units Reject Raise in Garbage Fees

Two Los Angeles City Council committees Tuesday rejected a recommendation of a city task force that garbage collection fees be substantially increased to pay for the hiring of 1,500 additional police officers.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the Finance and Revenue Committee, said the proposal, which would gradually raise residential garbage collection fees from $1.50 per month for the typical home to $11.45 per home, would be unfair to residents of low-income areas who would pay the same amount as residents of affluent areas. It “is not something the public is going to embrace,” he said.

Yaroslavsky also said the task force’s proposal that 300 police officers be hired annually for five years would lead to a more rapid increase than the Police Department would be able to handle.

“We’re on Course’

“It’s got to be a gradual growth program for the sake of the department as well as for the sake of the budget,” he said, citing the 200 additional officers hired within the past two years without a tax or fee increase. “I think we’re on course.”

But Councilman Hal Bernson, chairman of the Police, Fire and Public Safety Committee, said Yaroslavsky and the council have not placed a high enough priority on hiring additional officers.

The lone representative of his committee at the joint meeting, Bernson also opposed the increase in garbage fees but said he will introduce before the full council a proposal that would earmark funds from any increase in city revenues above the inflation rate for the hiring of 1,500 new officers.