Vote Is Tuesday on New Police Station

Voters will go to the polls in Alhambra on Tuesday to decide whether to raise their property taxes to pay for a proposed police station.

The measure, which is the only item on the city’s special election ballot, would raise property taxes $49 the first year for each single-family home, $37 for each apartment unit and $1,800 per acre for developed commercial property. Owners of vacant commercial lots would be charged $120 per acre. The amounts could be raised as much as 5% each year for 10 years.

The city divided the costs of the proposal based on how often the Police Department receives calls from single-family homes, apartment buildings and businesses.

The money--which would total $75 million at the end of 30 years--would be used to retire bonds that the city would issue to build a 56,000-square-foot police station at 2nd Street and Commonwealth Avenue. The building would cost $27 million, with interest bringing the cost to $75 million.

In 1988, voters defeated a similar measure to raise money for a police station. Alhambra has not passed a bond measure since 1955, when voters approved a $250,000 bond measure to build the current police station.

City Manager Kevin J. Murphy said Alhambra has a “woefully undersized” police building. “It is only 19,000 square feet,” he said of the facility on Woodward Avenue. “There are times when we arrest more than 30 people. The cells only accommodate 12. On weekends, we have two options--send them to County Jail or bail them out.”

Although there is no organized opposition to the tax increase, two residents--Sonia McIntosh and Robert Hays--have spoken out against the measure.

“This type of financing is not fair as only property owners are forced to pay for the facility,” Hays said. “The hundreds of renters in our city pay not one cent on the costs of the facility.”

Murphy said a delay in processing ballot pamphlets meant that informational mailings, including absentee ballots, arrived at most homes Sept. 10--the same day that absentee ballot applications were due. Murphy said the city will accept absentee ballot requests up to Monday.

The measure technically would not raise property taxes but would add a benefit assessment district fee to each homeowner’s and business’s tax bill. The benefit assessment district does not require voter approval, but the City Council indicated that it would not adopt such a measure without the endorsement of a majority of voters.

Alhambra has 27,000 registered voters, and 15% usually participate in special elections, Murphy said.

The measure defeated in June 1988, however, was a general obligation bond issue and required a two-thirds vote to pass. Only 52% voted in favor of the measure, which would have charged each property owner according to property value, not the frequency of police service to that type of building.