County OKs Plan to Fund Construction in High Desert : Supervisors: The Antelope Valley facilities, including a new courthouse, would be financed by bonds purchased with property tax revenues.

An elaborate and potentially precedent-setting financing plan between Los Angeles County and the city of Lancaster to pay for $144.4 million in construction projects was approved by county supervisors Tuesday, even though two supervisors said the agreement’s financial analysis was inadequate.

The agreement would speed up the building of county facilities in the Antelope Valley, including a courthouse, three fire stations and replacements for a sheriff’s station, a library and a hospital.

Most of the construction costs would be paid through bonds purchased by the Lancaster Redevelopment Agency using property tax revenues it collects. Under normal circumstances, a large chunk of the money--estimated at $10 million a year--is passed on to the county’s general fund.

The general fund money would be treated as a loan and repaid, with interest, by the Redevelopment Agency and other sources such as state courthouse construction funds. However, whether the county actually comes out ahead depends on unknown factors such as changing land values and the success of several negotiations key to the construction.

The Lancaster Redevelopment Agency is expected to approve the agreement on Monday.

Supervisors Gloria Molina and Ed Edelman both said Tuesday that they wanted more information about how the general fund would be affected by building and opening the facilities sooner than planned and when the county would be reimbursed. They asked if the loan from the general fund would postpone other construction projects or cut into already lean funding for county services.

Richard Dixon, county chief administrative officer, said the financing plan would not hurt other projects and could in fact be used in any other areas of the county with willing redevelopment agencies.

“Not only does it give us money that we wouldn’t otherwise have, it allows us to move forward faster,” thus saving the county money on inflationary construction costs, Dixon said.

However, under intense questioning by Molina, he conceded that he did not know exactly how long repayment would take.

After failing in attempts to delay a final decision even a week to allow time for further analysis, Molina said she suspected the plan must not be as advantageous to the county as it at first appeared.

“I get criticized for being straightforward,” she said in an interview after the 3-2 vote. “But there’s something fishy going on, obviously.”

But Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the Antelope Valley and proposed the creative financing arrangement, said he opposed Molina’s request for further analysis because even a one-week delay would be too long.

“One of the reasons government is so expensive is because of delays,” he said.

County facilities in the Antelope Valley are too few and too small to serve what was one of the fastest-growing areas of the state before the recession. Antonovich also said building larger and better facilities in the Antelope Valley will cut down on commuting from the high desert.

“This would serve a very vital, vital demand,” he said. “We could stop forcing juveniles to come down below, parents to come down below . . . and not just for a few hours but many times for days.”

Although the Board of Supervisors switched from a conservative to a liberal majority when Molina took office a year ago, Supervisor Kenneth Hahn has been far from a sure third vote for his liberal colleagues. That proved true on Tuesday, when Hahn sided with Antonovich and Supervisor Deane Dana in approving the Lancaster financing plan.

Hahn said he wanted to send a message to national political candidates that “we should be taking care of our cities . . . instead of taking care of Europe.”

In particular, Hahn said he was persuaded by the speech given by Lancaster Mayor Henry Hearns, who is also a minister. Hahn is devoutly religious and often quotes scripture during board meetings.