Lawndale Weighs 6 City Jobs Against More Police

The fate of six Lawndale city workers targeted for layoffs will be decided Monday when the City Council meets for a public hearing on the city’s proposed $7.8-million budget for 1989-90.

The council voted 3 to 2 during a seven-hour meeting Thursday to spend $313,696 next year to pay for two 40-hour-a-week sheriff’s patrols and two non-uniformed community service officers who will assist in taking reports. This will bring the city’s law enforcement costs to $2.2 million, about 28% of the budget in the 2-square-mile city.

To come up with the money, the council has made substantial cuts in all departments at four budget workshops in the last two weeks. But with the added law enforcement costs, the council needs to cut $117,000 more to balance the budget and provide a $100,000 reserve.

Layoffs are the most likely way to cut large sums from the budget, according to Acting City Manager Jim Arnold. He targeted six workers for layoffs after the council on May 4 voted 4 to 1 to hire more law enforcement personnel.

The six are community safety officer Paul Jordan, a 17-year employee; administrative analysts Marsha Schutte and Grace-Marie Johnston, both 12-year employees; community information officer Ken Huthmaker, eight years; assistant planner Lola Unger, two years, and one of two administrative assistants in the community development department, Valerie Armstrong or Vivian Smith. Armstrong has already quit.

About two hours of Thursday’s marathon meeting was devoted to debate on whether the city should hire more deputies.

Ronald Maxwell, a city recreation commissioner, presented petitions with 200 signatures asking the council to beef up law enforcement in response to a recent increase in graffiti and gang activity. He said the deputies should be hired “even if six bureaucrats must give up their positions.”

Some residents, including developer Jonathan Stein, said the city needs “cops, cops and more cops,” while others, including artist Dan Eisner, questioned whether the city was caught up in emotionalism in response to a 2% to 5% increase in crime reported by Sheriff’s Capt. Walt Lanier. The council needs to ask whether more deputies will really solve the crime problem, Eisner said.

In 1985, Lawndale had the highest per-capita expenditure for law enforcement of all California contract cities with a population of 25,000 or more, according to a study published in the June issue of Western City, the magazine of the League of California Cities. The 1985 figures were the most recent available when the study was made. The article was discussed at the council meeting and circulated in City Hall. Contract cities are those that hire outside agencies such as the Sheriff’s Department to provide law enforcement.

$98.27 Per Person

According to the article by Stephen K. Blumberg, professor at the Graduate Center for Public Policy at Cal State Long Beach, Lawndale spent $98.27 a person for law enforcement in 1985 while others, such as Temple City, spent as little as $36.11. The average among the contract cities was $53.21.

Councilman Larry Rudolph, an advocate of increased law enforcement, took issue with Blumberg’s findings. He said that in the current fiscal year, the city’s per-capita spending for law enforcement is $73. Rudolph said he arrived at this figure by dividing the $1.9 million spent by the city’s population of 26,000.

Regardless of the expense, he said, “as long as there is crime in the city we don’t have enough police.”

Councilmen Rudolph, Harold E. Hofmann and Dan McKenzie voted Thursday to spend $313,696 more on law enforcement, while Mayor Sarann Kruse and Councilwoman Carol Norman voted against. Kruse and Norman said they are not opposed to more law enforcement but are concerned about the cuts in services and personnel that would be needed to accomplish it.

Kruse proposed hiring one deputy and two aides for $178,680, $135,016 less than the two-deputy plan, but was unable to obtain support from a majority.

Kruse also suggested a few weeks ago that the city could hire eight civilian officers to serve as the “eyes and ears” of the community in detecting crime, but Lanier said the Sheriff’s Department found this plan unworkable. The civilian workers could be put into dangerous situations that would require the skills of a trained, armed deputy, he said.