Westside Budget Roundup : BEVERLY HILLS : Tax Increases May Be Needed to Save Services

An increase in taxes may be the price Beverly Hills residents and businesses must pay to save the current level of police and fire services in the city.

The city must slash $6 million from its $80-million budget, and proposed cuts include 11 layoffs in the 81-person Fire Department and 18 of 132 positions in the Police Department. The city originally estimated an $11-million shortfall, but $5 million has been eliminated.

At the city’s first public hearing on the budget Tuesday night, residents and public safety representatives packed the chambers and urged that the Police and Fire departments be guarded from the budget cuts.

But council members said that to dig their way out of the deficit, they will either have to make cuts or increase revenue.

Councilman Allan L. Alexander said tax increases may be necessary. If the council wants to preserve the quality of police and fire protection, “it may be that we end up imposing on the residents and business community some additional charges,” he said.

He said that imposing a 10% utility tax could garner the city $8.5 million a year and that a monthly refuse collection fee of $20 could raise an additional $2 million.

But Councilman Bernard J. Hecht said the idea of raising taxes was repugnant and that he would not agree to an increase “unless or until we have gone through every step to control costs.”

The city boasts that it has a response time of less than five minutes for fire and police, and residents at the hearing said they did not want those services compromised.

Two rows of off-duty firefighters in uniform, some of whom would be affected by layoffs, lined the entry hall to the council chambers as the public and council members filed inside.

“We just want to help the council set some priorities,” Stan Speth, president of the Beverly Hills Firemen’s Assn., said before the meeting. “Any reduction in personnel would mean a cut in services.”

Speth told council members that the city’s high-rise buildings, hotels, large commercial buildings and shopping centers have the “potential for a disastrous fire and large life loss.”

The proposed cuts in the Fire Department would eliminate one engine company and a paramedic unit. “Our manpower is now down to a level where a structure fire of almost any consequence requires immediate assistance from the L.A. city Fire Department,” Speth said.

“It’s not the apparatus putting out fires,” firefighter Kurt Versteeg, 28, said before the meeting. “It’s the personnel that man them.”

Alexander said that although he did not think that the Police and Fire departments should be exempt from the budget ax, he also did not think that “we should go and cut officers or in any way jeopardize the quality of our Police and Fire departments.”

The council blames the city’s budget woes on decreased revenues from sales, hotel and business taxes. But the largest and most convenient scapegoat was the lavish $120-million Civic Center, which cost double its allocated budget.

“We did not need to build this Civic Center in this fashion. . . . It’s no great surprise that we have deficits,” Councilman Robert K. Tanenbaum said.

Alexander said the city needs to re-examine efficiency in all departments. He said “if it means we have to lay off some people” because of changes in the economy, “I think we have to make those cuts.”

The council will continue to hold meetings Friday, Saturday and next week. A decision on the budget is expected by mid-July.

“There will be personnel cuts I’m sure,” said Art Stephens, 36, one of the 11 firefighters who were notified of a possible layoff. But he said “I’m optimistic I won’t lose my job. I hope I’m right.”