Campaign for Police Tax Plan Appears All but Dead

Although a controversial police tax proposal for crime-ridden South-Central Los Angeles still will appear on the June 2 ballot, the campaign to pass the measure now appears politically dead.

One day after he helped push through a budget proposal to add 250 officers to the Los Angeles Police Department, City Councilman Robert Farrell said Tuesday that he expects to announce the abandonment of the Proposition 7 campaign in a press conference Thursday. Farrell, who faced sharp criticism from constituents for conceiving the special tax, said he would withhold a formal announcement pending completion of budget proceedings.

Meanwhile, members of the South-Central Organizing Committee, which has led opposition to the special tax plan, let out a cheer in the council chambers when Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores announced a motion for the City Council to urge a no vote on Proposition 7. Several council members signed on to the motion, which is expected to be approved Friday.

Losing Support

The approval of the 250-officer increase appears to have deflated whatever organized support existed for the special tax, said Barbara Collins of the South-Central committee. “If they’re there, we can’t find them,” Collins said of Proposition 7 supporters.

The special ballot initiative, requiring a two-thirds majority for passage, would tax residents in high-crime areas served by four police divisions for an additional 300 officers to be added over a three-year period. The divisions are Newton, Southwest, Southeast and 77th Street.

Farrell, whose district lies within the four divisions, was widely criticized by black organizations, which said the proposal would place an unfair burden on those least able to pay--further “ghettoizing” the community, in Collins’ words. The criticism apparently took its toll in April, when the councilman was reelected by a much narrower margin than would otherwise have been expected.

With June 2 still three weeks away, Farrell claimed victory on the police issue after the City Council on Monday voted 14 to 0 to increase police strength from 7,100 to 7,350. Mayor Tom Bradley, who had earlier backed a budget that did not include a police increase, announced that he would support the increase.

Farrell, a member of the council’s Finance and Revenue Committee, aligned himself with Councilman Zev Yaroslavksy in pushing for the police increase. He argued that the citywide addition of 250 officers could ultimately provide as much extra police for South-Central as the 300 sought in the initiative, because the 250 would be hired more quickly and because the city is currently reevaluating police deployment strategies.

The councilman suggested that the City Council might not have approved the 250-officer increase had it not been for his bold, politically risky tax proposal. “I used something in an innovative way and it worked,” he said. “Did I shoot craps? Yes. Did I crap out? No.”

Told of Farrell’s appraisal, Collins said, “I think he’s lucking out.”

Meanwhile, in other budget hearing developments, the City Council voted 11-3 to cut $98,120 for the city’s controversial “Task Force for Africa.” The cultural and economic exchange program has been criticized as a pet project of Bradley’s that provides little direct benefit to city residents.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, a chief critic of the program, predicted that the council would override any attempt by Bradley to restore the funds for the task force, which is headed by a longtime supporter of the mayor, Juanita St. John. Picus said, however, that the council may instead favor a plan under which St. John would be retained as a “sister cities coordinator.”

In another action, the council struck down 11-3 a proposed increase in garbage collection fees, criticizing it as regressive. The Flores proposal would have raised monthly garbage collection fees, which are included in water bills, from $1.50 to $2.50 for house residents and from $1 to $2 for apartment dwellers. Flores had asked for the levy to improve street cleaning and to fund drug-education efforts by the Police Department.