Bond Defeat Leaves 2-Year Colleges Scrambling : Education: The measure needed two-thirds majority but fell short with 62%. District will look for other sources of funds.

Backers of a $200-million bond issue for construction and repair throughout the Los Angeles Community College District scrambled Wednesday to find ways to pay for the improvements after the measure went down to a narrow defeat in Tuesday’s election.

With nearly all of the vote counted, the measure won approval from more than 62% of the voters. But that was short of the two-thirds majority that local property tax increases need for passage.

“We came tantalizingly close,” said Larry Levine, consultant for Citizens for Community College Improvements, a privately funded group spearheading the campaign for the measure, dubbed Proposition C.

“One of the most frustrating things in the world is to get nearly two ‘yes’ votes for every ‘no’ and still lose,” he said. “What you’ve seen is a small minority frustrate the will of a clear majority.”

In the seven years since local jurisdictions have had the authority to seek tax increases, only one such bond measure for community colleges has been approved in the state.

Also Tuesday, in the race for seats on the seven-member Community College District Board of Trustees, the three incumbents up for reelection won by margins big enough to avoid a June runoff.

Incumbent Wallace Knox coasted to victory, racking up 68.7% of the vote over one challenger. Julia Li Wu outdistanced her two competitors, picking up 55.4% of the vote, and David Lopez-Lee garnered 53.4% to beat two challengers.

In the only open seat, West Hollywood Councilman Paul Koretz and retired college administrator Kenneth S. Washington emerged as the top two vote-getters in the 10-candidate field and will face off in the June election for the position vacated by trustee Harold Garvin, who did not seek reelection.

Despite the number of seats up for election, and the crowded field in one race, the bond measure was the center of attention during the campaign.

District officials said the funds were needed to help the district cope with the shortage of state construction money and strong competition for the funds from campuses around the state.

The money was earmarked to complete construction of three of the district’s nine campuses and renovate old, unsafe buildings at others in the world’s largest community college district.

District Chancellor Donald G. Phelps said he was “bitterly disappointed” by the loss.

“Our facility needs are still as great as they were before the vote,” he said Wednesday. “What we will do to correct our serious facilities problems will still have to be addressed by our Board of Trustees.”

Levine suggested that district officials will keep exploring other options to raise the money, rather than continue to rely on state handouts.

“They (the district) really can’t afford to just wait . . . the need is too great,” Levine said.

In one plan under discussion, the district would seek to create special assessment districts that would allow voters in specific neighborhoods to tax themselves to fund improvements at a campus in their area, Levine said.

“Then you wouldn’t have a situation where the folks in one part of town tell the folks in another part of town, ‘You can’t fix up your college,’ ” he said.

District officials also are keeping a close eye on efforts in Sacramento win legislative approval for a ballot measure that would allow voters in 1992 to rescind the two-thirds majority requirement and allow simple majority approval of taxes hikes for capital outlay projects for community colleges.

Levine said an analysis of Tuesday’s results was not yet complete, but it appears the measure fared best among voters in minority communities and fell short in the San Fernando Valley--just as proposition backers had predicted.

“I would say we didn’t get less than 57% or 58% of the vote anywhere,” Levine said. “The folks in one part of town may have given it 60%, while the folks in another part of town gave it 70%. But it all goes into the same pot and in the end it wasn’t enough.”