Fearing Suits, Torrance Bids to Raise Cap on Spending

Torrance City Council members decided Tuesday to ask voters to raise the city’s spending limit in case a proposed ban on deadly hydrofluoric acid leads to costly litigation.

The council’s action veered sharply from initial plans to seek a $20-million parcel tax to pay for defending the ban, which is contained in a ballot measure promoted by Councilman Dan Walker.

Mayor Katy Geissert said the council’s legislative committee, which met Monday afternoon, opted against asking for a tax increase because it did not believe any of the proposals being considered would distribute the cost equally.

Geissert said the proposed increase in the spending limit “may not ever be necessary,” but she said placing the measure on the city’s March 6 ballot “puts a mechanism in place so that we would not have to go in and start mutilating our level of service to pay for the legal defense of the Walker initiative.”

Under the state’s Gann spending limit, government agencies may not significantly increase their routine spending without a growth in population or permission from the voters.

If approved, the council’s ballot measure would raise the city’s spending limit $2 million per year for four years.

The city’s current budget runs roughly $4 million to $5 million below the Gann spending limit, but some city officials believe that costs of defending Walker’s initiative could force the budget over that limit.

If voters approve a higher limit, the city could avoid cutting services, because it would be free to seek other sources of funding, including tax increases.

Walker’s initiative, which would only affect the Mobil Oil refinery, would prohibit storage of more than 250 gallons of undiluted hydrofluoric acid in the city. Studies have projected that a spill of 1,000 gallons of the chemical could kill thousands of people downwind.

Mobil keeps about 29,000 gallons of hydrofluoric acid on site at any one time.

Walker’s six council colleagues oppose his measure. They say a lawsuit the city filed in April, which seeks to have Mobil declared a public nuisance, would allow more comprehensive control of the refinery.

Walker called the council’s 5-1 vote Tuesday--with Walker voting against it and Councilman Bill Applegate absent--”a smoke screen to avoid addressing the safety issues of the matter.”

The council’s original plan to ask voters to raise taxes to pay for the acid measure “was a crazy idea to begin with,” Walker said. “It was an idea thought up in order to thwart the initiative, not to protect the citizens of Torrance.”

Geissert defended the spending limit measure as a way “to bring the public more responsibly into the decision-making process.”

“It essentially says that the Walker initiative is likely to incur major expenses and, if people choose to vote for it, we would encourage them to vote for this, too,” Geissert said.