Special Police Tax a Bad Idea, Flores Tells Homeowners

Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, responding to complaints that Wilmington has inadequate police protection, rejected a suggestion last week that residents there be allowed to tax themselves to pay for more local officers.

Flores, who is authoring a ballot argument against a similar proposition in South-Central Los Angeles, said poor areas of Los Angeles, such as Wilmington, will be the ultimate losers if the city begins assigning police officers where residents are willing to pay more for them.

“If we start putting police on the auction block, the more police officers will be in the affluent areas and the more poor areas will have no officers,” Flores told a group of 200 residents at a homeowners meeting in Wilmington. But Peter Mendoza, president of the Wilmington Home Owners, told Flores that Wilmington residents are tired of crime in the community and that they are prepared to pay for more protection-- whether or not Flores supports them.

“The people I talked to in this community would be willing to pay more tax dollars for more police,” Mendoza told Flores near the end of the two-hour meeting that focused on residents’ dissatisfaction with city services. “We are looking to hiring private security.”

Flores, however, did not back down, saying that Wilmington residents overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure two years ago that would have created a citywide tax to pay for additional police officers. Despite numerous complaints about crime, she said she does not believe there is support in the community for a police tax.

Flores’ comments came during her first meeting with the homeowners group since it was established 1 1/2 years ago. The group, whose ranks have swelled from a few dozen to about 500, includes some of Flores’ harshest critics in the community.

Some residents had predicted what one of them called “fireworks” at the long-awaited session, but the meeting turned out to be more of gripe session about local issues than a confrontation between Flores and the homeowners.

Mendoza opened the meeting on a conciliatory note, saying the organization had invited Flores “trying to create a dialogue” between her and the homeowners, and Flores responded by saying she has “appreciated the input” she has received from Wilmington residents about community problems.

Residents complained to Flores about parking problems, overcrowding, high-density apartments, truck traffic and illegal dumping, as well about drug traffic and crime in their neighborhoods.

Flores patiently answered each question, instructed her deputies to write down names and addresses of people with problems, and encouraged residents to keep complaining.

‘Stay On Our Backs’

“I can’t know all of the problems, so you have to bring them to our attention,” she said. “And stay on our backs until you get an answer from us.”

Flores rejected a request from Olivia Cueva Fernandez, the group’s secretary, that she agree to schedule several question-and-answer sessions with the homeowners each year, but she did promise to attend one homeowners meeting a year.

“I have hundreds of homeowner associations in the district,” said Flores. “If I have time to come back, I will come more than once a year. But I don’t think that is a bad start.”

Since about 35 residents organized the homeowners group at a meeting in August, 1985, complaints about Flores and her office have dominated many of its monthly meetings.

Members have blamed Flores for everything from dirty streets to noisy truck traffic. One of Mendoza’s favorite refrains has been, “Joan Flores is out of tune with the community,” and he and other members have frequently accused Flores of favoring development over the needs of residents.

The group has been particularly critical of a rash of apartment construction that many residents say has threatened the community’s single-family environment and has caused traffic congestion and overcrowding in schools. They blame Flores for allowing the construction.

Flores, who last year pushed for a moratorium on high-density apartment developments in the community after receiving intense pressure from residents, says that she is cooperating with residents to control apartment construction while the community plan, which regulates zoning, is updated by the city. Last month, she voted to extend the moratorium six months.

In an interview last week, Flores said that the problems between her office and the homeowners have in large part been exaggerated by the media.

“I am a little disappointed that some people in Wilmington have felt that it is necessary to talk to me through the press,” she said. “I think sometimes the press tries to find a little dissension and then tries to make it into a news story.”

Flores acknowledged, however, that relations haven’t always been smooth with the homeowners group. She said her meeting with the membership was intended as a conciliatory gesture.

“I am not asking for the meeting to turn into a ‘We love Joan Flores rally,’ but I am really hoping that we can let them know how to contact the office and what they can expect from our office,” she said in the interview.

A particular sore point with the homeowners group had been its inability to get Flores to attend one of its monthly meetings. Numerous public officials, including state Assemblyman Dave Elder (D-Long Beach), Supervisor Deane Dana and Los Angeles school board member John Greenwood, have addressed the group, but the organization had no luck booking Flores before last week.

In the interview last week, Flores said she told members of the group’s executive board, with whom she has met privately several times, that they should submit a meeting date in writing.

“We never got any specific dates,” Flores said. “I have been willing to meet with the board, and I have been more than willing to meet with (the membership) at one of their meetings.”

Olivia Cueva Fernandez, the group’s secretary, acknowledged that the homeowners had not written to Flores until several months ago, but she said that she had called Flores’ office several times to arrange a date. Jo Ann Wysocki, the group’s vice president, said she had personally asked Flores’ Wilmington deputy, Nelson Hernandez, to select a date.

“We have only been asking her to show up one time, that’s all,” Wysocki said. “We may not have written it down on paper, but she got the message.”

Flores received a written invitation early this year, but Flores said that she had been unable to meet with the group before last week because of a scheduling conflict on the the third Thursday of each month, when the group holds its meetings.