Anti-Crime Property Assessment : Rialto Studies ‘Gang Tax’ to Combat L.A. Influence

Officials in this fast-growing San Bernardino County bedroom community have proposed a “gang tax” to combat increased crime triggered by the movement of Los Angeles-based street gangs into neighborhoods here.

The proposed Gang Assessment District property tax would total $24 a year for each homeowner and as much as $72 an acre for commercial landowners. It would raise an estimated $700,000 over two years to hire seven additional police officers and establish an anti-gang program in local schools, said Rialto Police Chief Ray Farmer.

Like many communities in the so-called Inland Empire, Rialto has boomed in recent years, growing from a small rural town to a community of 61,000. Families in search of more affordable housing and willing to commute to jobs as far as away as Los Angeles and Orange County have helped the population double in the last decade, city officials say. But the city also has begun to see a buildup of gang activity, according to Farmer.

“The L.A. gangs are here. . . . We have had killings and drive-by shootings,” Farmer said. He added that “pressure from police in Los Angeles” and an “open market for drugs” were two reasons for the influx.

In a report to the City Council in March, Farmer said Rialto experienced relatively few gang-related problems before 1980. Then rock cocaine started showing up in the community.

In 1983, residents in the area of Jackson Street on the north side of town began reporting gang-related crimes, and in the last three years, gang members known to be from Los Angeles have been seen hanging out in city parks on evenings and weekends in areas where there has been a rise in serious crimes, such as armed assault, rape, burglary and drug sales.

The gang problem has “grown at a much faster rate than the Police Department’s ability to respond effectively,” Farmer said in the report, adding that at last count, more than 50 gang “sets,” or contingents from the main gangs, have been identified in Rialto thus far.

Some gang members have moved here with their families and have made Rialto a permanent base of criminal operations. Other gang members stay only long enough to sell a load of narcotics, and then they return to Los Angeles.

Major Incidents

Farmer’s March report was accompanied by a list of major incidents involving gangs in the previous six months. The list included the abduction and rape of a woman on March 18 by suspected members of the Playboy Style Crips out of 106th Street in Los Angeles, the beating of a junior high school official in February by members of the same gang, and the shooting death of a Bloods gang member in January.

Although the incidents would hardly account for a busy weekend in Los Angeles, Rialto Police Detective Richard Bitonti said, “It’s all new to us.”

Farmer said the tax measure, which the City Council may put on the November ballot, would require adoption by a two-thirds majority. It would fund two uniformed officers who would make up a formal gang unit that would help narcotics officers and other investigators in pursuing hard-core gang members, especially those who deal drugs.

Five More Officers

It would also pay for five additional officers to be assigned to Rialto’s public and parochial schools to organize and operate anti-drug and gang programs for children in kindergarten through the sixth grade, Farmer said. Some of these officers also would serve as counselors in junior high and high schools, he said.

“We think it is the only answer,” Farmer said. “We have to expose these kids to morals and ethics early on . . . and to come up with a way of showing them how to say ‘no’ to gangs as well as drugs.”

The gang tax plan was suggested by City Councilman John McClure, who witnessed a gang-related gun battle in a low-income apartment complex on the northwest side of Rialto in September, 1987.

This week, McClure and other city officials put finishing touches on the proposed ballot measure, which will be formally presented at a public hearing Aug. 2. After the hearing, the City Council will decide whether to place the issue on the November ballot.

Categories of Taxes

A draft of the proposal filed with the Rialto City Clerk includes seven categories of taxes. Single-family residential units, mobile homes and multifamily dwelling units would be taxed $24 a year, city officials said. Owners of developed commercial land would pay $72 per acre, compared to the present $48 an acre. Vacant property would be taxed $12 an acre. Also under consideration is a provision that would exempt senior citizens and limit taxes for large land owners.

After two years, city officials would evaluate the tax and its impact on the local gang problem and recommend whether to put it back on the ballot for renewal, Farmer said.

Some local organizations have already begun sponsoring community meetings on the tax proposal.

“We are talking about a simple tax assessment on each homeowner or landowner in the city . . . to fight a problem that I personally believe is on the verge of overwhelming us,” said Jim Sanders, secretary of the local Kiwanis Club.

Public Opinion

A recent forum, for example, drew 600 residents, nearly all of whom raised their hands when asked if they would pay $2 a month to boost police enforcement and establish anti-gang programs in local schools, Sanders said. “I think the chances of it winding up on the ballot are good,” he said.

The tax proposal has drawn mixed reactions from local property owners.

“I am not ready to give them $20 per unit,” said Ira R. Smith, 60, who has operated a plumbing business here since 1953 and owns several houses in the area. “I don’t feel it will ever carry--the city will have to do a lot of hard selling first.”

Alec Fergusson,68, who has lived in Rialto since 1938 and owns several rental units and commercial developments in town, favors the idea.

“I’m one of the staunchest conservatives in town but I am willing to pay my share,” Fergusson said. “If we don’t control this problem, gangs will control our schools and property values will tumble.”

Generally Popular

The proposal seems to be generally popular, however, among residents of the apartment complexes here that have become havens for Los Angeles gang members in recent years.

“I think the tax is a good idea,” said a 29-year-old mother of six who lives with her husband in an apartment complex that has been plagued by gang members. “Right now, it is like having to raise your kids in a prison atmosphere.”

Meanwhile, her husband, a 31-year-old carpenter, has been trying to find “a job in the desert, someplace safe to raise my kids.”

“It’s getting so bad that I had to buy a semiautomatic handgun to protect my family,” he said.

An 18-year-old man who lives nearby said he also may be moving from the area soon. He said he moved to Rialto a few years ago with his mother, who wanted to “get away from the gangs in Los Angeles.”

At the time, “she said this was a good place,” the young man recalled. “She said, ‘This will keep you away from the gangs.’ ”

Instead, the problem followed them to Rialto.

“A few months ago, they were shooting towards her from down the street,” he said. “Now, she’s talking about moving to Arizona.”