W. Hollywood Fire Station Funding Proposal Offered

A city councilman who helped defeat an $8-million bond issue to build a new fire station and library in West Hollywood said the city should consider dipping into its $14 million in reserves to build the fire station as soon as possible.

“We owe it to the public (to consider it). We’ve got the money on hand, and we should do it,” Councilman Steve Schulte said.

Schulte, a leading opponent of a planned civic center in West Hollywood Park, said he plans to recommend “a reasonable plan to finance the fire station” when the council meets May 1.

However, the proposal met with immediate opposition from newly appointed Mayor Abbe Land, who said the idea of using reserve funds for any purpose other than to help finance the civic center would prevent the center from being built.

“I think all of us agree that the fire station is a top priority, and that’s why a majority of us supported the bond issue,” the mayor said. Four of the five council members supported the ill-fated measure.

Favors Park Site

Land is among a majority of council members who favor construction of the civic center in the park and who insist that the reserve funds be used exclusively to help finance the project.

She said that with the defeat of the bond issue, the council “will need to explore a variety of possibilities” for financing the fire station, including being more aggressive in seeking the county’s help to construct the station.

But, she said, Schulte’s suggestion “is not an option.”

The bond measure captured 48% of the vote two weeks ago; a two-thirds vote is needed for passage.

Had it been approved, the measure would have increased property taxes by up to $33.47 per $100,000 of assessed valuation over the next 20 years. The money would have been used to replace a single-engine fire station that officials have said is seismically unsafe and would quadruple the size of the county branch library that serves West Hollywood.

Although Los Angeles County provides library and fire services to West Hollywood, officials have said that county funds are not available to replace either the fire station or library. West Hollywood officials have long accused the county of dragging its feet on the matter.

Opponents of the bond issue portrayed the election as a backhanded attempt to squeeze more money for the civic center, since the fire station and library were originally part of the center’s design.

Wasting No Time

And buoyed by the success of their effort, Schulte and other civic center opponents have wasted no time in claiming that the election results signaled public opposition to the center.

The election is the second piece of good news for opponents recently. The county registrar’s office has announced that the Save Our Parks Alliance, a group formed to oppose the civic center, had obtained enough valid signatures to place an initiative on the April, 1990, ballot aimed at preventing the center from being built in the park.

Civic center supporters, who insist the bond issue’s defeat does not reflect public sentiment about the center, have sought to downplay the park group’s success in obtaining the signatures.

“Considering they had a year to do it (gather signatures), that’s no great achievement,” Councilman John Heilman said.

“With the (petition to achieve cityhood), we qualified in two weeks with about 5,000 signatures. It took them a year, and then only with some people devoting themselves almost full time,” he said.

The bond measure would have provided $4.3 million to build the fire station, and $3.3 million for the library, with the remaining $400,000 to cover bond fees and other financial costs.

Although uncertain about prospects for building the fire station in the wake of the measure’s defeat, city officials have said plans for the civic center will be altered to accommodate a down-scaled version of the library.

Meanwhile, Heilman, Land and others have indicated that the city plans to break ground on civic center construction as early as next January, despite the prospect of a ballot initiative four months later to decide the project’s fate.

About $1.5 million has been budgeted for civic center planning for the fiscal year, which ends June 30. In addition to the architects, a project engineer has been on the job for several months, and preliminary design work and site surveying continues.

City officials have said that to delay the project would result in spiraling construction costs at a time when the city is already paying $650,000 a year to rent City Hall space.

Officials have hinted that they may challenge the legality of the ballot initiative and have asked City Atty. Michael Jenkins to examine whether there is legal precedent to prevent the initiative from being placed on the ballot.

Jenkins has been asked to review a 1963 case in which a state appeals court rejected an initiative aimed at permanently preventing county officials from making changes to a park near Fresno. The court ruled that the county could not be prevented from deciding such matters under the state Constitution.

Jenkins is expected to make a recommendation on the matter within the next few weeks. Then it will be up to the City Council to decide whether the initiative will be included on the ballot.

At least three members of the council--Land, Heilman and Helen Albert--are firmly committed to placing the center in the park. Councilman Paul Koretz has attempted to take a middle ground, while supporting incremental steps in planning for the center.

He has said that although he does not particularly like the idea of the park location, “no one has demonstrated to me that there is a more appropriate site.”

Plans Opposition

However, Koretz joined Schulte last week in saying he will oppose any effort to prevent the initiative from being included on the ballot, saying the process “should be allowed to run its course.”

“As a matter of principle, I think the initiative process is the democratic way, and I don’t think there should be an attempt to interfere with it even though I don’t rule out the possibility of opposing the initiative should it appear on the ballot,” Koretz said.

Schulte said he is concerned that a majority of the council may try to block the initiative from being placed on the ballot.

“I fear that a few folks close to the process may want to dunk the initiative and get construction going by January, and if that happens, it’s going to become a major, divisive issue in the (City Council) election next spring,” he said.