Bradley Gives In to Council, Backs Addition to LAPD

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, unwilling to buck a united City Council, on Monday withdrew his police budget proposal, which had provided for no increase in manpower, and endorsed Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky’s plan to beef up the force by 250 officers.

In an statement issued a few hours after a 14-0 preliminary council vote supporting Yaroslavsky’s proposal, Bradley offered little explanation for his reversal, although he voiced skepticism about whether such a large recruitment effort is realistic.

The announcement by Bradley, who would have faced a probable override if he had tried to veto the police increase, represents a major shift in city budget priorities. It is also a political coup for Yaroslavsky, who is expected to challenge Bradley for the mayor’s job in 1989.

Another budget development Monday proved a setback for Yaroslavsky. A controversial plan backed by the councilman to abolish the city’s Board of Public Works failed on an 8-5 vote. Yaroslavsky said the effort to eliminate the board is “dead . . . this year.”

Yaroslavsky, chairman of the council’s Finance and Revenue Committee, seized a leadership role in formulating a budget proposal that offered sharp contrasts to the “hold-the-line” version offered by Bradley. Fellow committee members Robert Farrell and Joy Picus had endorsed the budget alternative, which called for trims of up to 3% in most city departments.

Although a final city budget is still believed to be several days away, the council’s vote and Bradley’s announcement make the $7.5-million budget allocation for extra police a virtual certainty. Authorized Police Department strength would go from 7,100 to 7,350. Because of a recruiting lag, current actual strength is about 6,970.

Bradley did not comment on other aspects of Yaroslavsky’s police package, which include an extra $2.5 million in the overtime budget and $2.7 million to replace 206 aging patrol cars. The mayor’s proposal contained no money to replace vehicles.

Bradley, in unveiling his budget plan last month, said that money simply is not available to pay for extra police officers.

In that press conference--and in his statement Monday--he said he has long supported efforts to increase police strength, including two failed ballot measures that would have added police through a direct tax increase. Bradley supported increases of 100 officers in each of the last two city budgets.

But the mayor said that a 250-officer increase would require an “extraordinary recruiting effort”--one that may be unrealistic. He noted that the city’s Personnel Deparment examines about 4,000 applicants for every 100 officers it hires. Because of attrition rate of 300 officers a year and the fact that the Police Department is about 130 officers below its authorized strength of 7,100, about 700 officers would have to be hired in one year to reach the goal of 7,350.

“This means that 28,000 candidates will have to be processed in order to give us 250 more officers than are now authorized,” he said in a letter to the council. “I leave it to your judgment to determine whether this scenario is realistic in terms of the candidates we can attract and the number of recruits we can get through the academy in one year.”

Yaroslavsky said the finance committee’s plan would allocate $500,000 to the Personnel Department for recruitment.

Rather than lowering their requests for extra police, several council members discussed possibilities Monday of further increasing funds for recruiting and training, as well as for police overtime.

Yaroslavsky said that the 250-officer increase will cost $7.5 million in the 1987-88 fiscal year but that it will represent at least a $15-million commitment in future years. The reason for the difference is a six-month lag from recruitment to training. Police Chief Daryl F. Gates called the recruitment of officers to meet a strength of 7,350 “a very, very difficult task. . . . But I believe we can accomplish that.”

Not a ‘Reversal’

Fred MacFarlane, Bradley’s press deputy, said the mayor “does not consider this a reversal. He’s agreeing that in every way possible we should increase the Police Department. The council has apparently come up with additional revenue sources.”

Part of Yaroslavsky’s proposal to add the police suggested paying for the increase by hiking development fees paid by builders from $200 per apartment unit to $500 per unit. However, his proposal also included elimination of the city’s Board of Public Works, the city’s only full-time board, whose five mayoral appointees receive salaries of $60,357 a year. Bradley’s letter Monday did not address the proposed elimination of the board.

“I’m sure he’ll have something to say when they (the council) talk specifically about how to raise money to pay for additional services,” MacFarlane said. “The addition of the officers, so far approved by the council, and specifics about how to pay for them are two separate actions.”

Times staff writer Janet Clayton contributed to this article.