Rate Hike to Pay for Park Patrols : Services: The council votes to boost electricity fees by 1% to hire rangers to control rowdy behavior of city park visitors. Police budget cuts will also be restored.

Park rangers, possibly armed, will be hired to control what neighbors say is loud and boisterous behavior, drunkenness, vandalism and graffiti in Glendale parks, city officials said.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to an electricity rate increase to fund a ranger program as well as to restore cuts in police services caused by budget constraints.

“One way or another, we are going to have to attend to the misuse of parks,” said Councilman Carl Raggio before council members agreed to increase utility rates to pay for patrols.

Funds for the police and ranger programs will come from a 1% increase in electric rates, which will cost 36 cents a month for the average rate payer using 400 kilowatt hours of electricity, City Manager David Ramsay said.

City officials have not yet determined if park rangers will carry guns, but they will have the authority to issue citations and arrest offenders, said Nello Iacono,director of parks, recreation and community services.

The rate increase, which will raise the electric service fee from 9% to 10%, will generate about $892,000 more a year for the city. An ordinance making the new rate final will be voted on next week.

The new charges will become effective 30 days after final approval. The city’s charter allows it to impose a service fee of up to 25% of the base rate for electricity. Base rates were increased by about 3% in August to meet the city’s growing costs in supplying electricity.

The money will be used to restore a five-member police special enforcement detail assigned to street crimes, which was eliminated this year because of a need for more investigators and patrol officers to respond to 911 emergency calls.

The rate increase also will allow the city to hire an additional police patrol officer and a community service officer. A portion of the funds will pay for three rangers to patrol the city’s 30 parks and recreation facilities and an additional gardener.

Iacono said he expects the ranger program to begin in about six months, allowing the city time to hire and train rangers.

Glendale’s growing population has made the demand for police services soar, officials said. Iacono said misuse of parks has been brought to officials’ attention, particularly within the last month.

He said residents near Emerald Isle Park in Chevy Chase Canyon, for example, complain that users park their cars illegally, consume alcohol and cordon off large areas of the park for their loud parties.

Raggio referred to the rustic Emerald Isle area as “a park under siege.” He called abusers “a plague in the parks.”

“I’d be angry too if people were climbing over my wall and defecating in my yard,” he said.

Mayor Ginger Bremberg, a resident of Chevy Chase Canyon, said the complaints from her neighborhood are no different from others around the city. “That is happening all over,” she said.

“A lot of the problem can be eliminated simply by informing people of the appropriate way to use a public facility,” Iacono said. “After that, we will have to go into an enforcement status.”

Several other cities in Southern California have launched or expanded ranger programs, including Los Angeles, which has rangers on horseback in Griffith Park. Santa Ana in Orange County more than a year ago authorized its rangers--after special training--to carry guns.

During his regular monthly forum today, Councilman Larry Zarian will focus on the use and abuse of parks. Iacono will discuss the ranger program and the increase in utility fees during the forum, to be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at City Hall, 613 E. Broadway.