$7.1-Million Budget Is Adopted

After a bitter dispute over proposed changes in police services, the Lawndale City Council on Monday adopted the 1991-92 fiscal year budget on a 3-2 vote.

The $7.1-million operating budget, which takes effect July 1, was opposed by Mayor Harold E. Hofmann and Councilman Larry Rudolph, who argued that it compromises public safety while ignoring belt-tightening at City Hall.

The spending plan cuts 16 hours a week from sheriff’s traffic patrols and eliminates a part-time truancy officer.

City Manager John E. Nowak said the reduced hours will be offset by the addition of a full-time deputy assigned to gang patrol and two part-time city employees to enforce parking violations.

At Nowak’s recommendation, the council will hire an independent consultant to review police service levels, and changes could be enacted at the mid-year budget review in January, he said.

Hofmann and Rudolph said they favored a hiring freeze on full-time city employees, and Hofmann protested salary increases for city employees.

Hofmann also criticized new fees enacted to bolster sagging city revenues, including a $50 fence permit that Nowak said would raise about $1,200 a year.

“That’s plum ridiculous,” he said. “The next thing you know we’re going to be charging people for flushing their toilets.”