West Hollywood : Petitions for Police Force

Advocates of an independent police department in West Hollywood submitted more than 4,500 voter signatures Monday in hopes of putting the matter on the November ballot.

The 4,598 signatures must be verified by county election officials, and City Atty. Mike Jenkins plans to study the proposal to determine if it is a legal referendum subject.

Members of West Hollywood Citizens for Better Police Protection claim that a city-run department would give residents better control over law enforcement and could save money over the long run. Currently, the city pays $9.3 million a year to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which continued patrolling West Hollywood after the city’s incorporation in 1984.

Backers say the proposed initiative, which originated within the city’s large gay community, enjoys support among senior citizens and residents of the city’s rough-edged east end, where crime is a major concern.

“We’ve got more signatures than any one of the City Council candidates got votes (in the April municipal elections.) There’s a groundswell of support out there,” said Tim Olson, a representative of the residents group.

The idea is opposed by the city’s political establishment. The council has taken it up in the past but dropped it. In the April campaign, the measure was dismissed by most of the council candidates, including the two winning incumbents, Abbe Land and Paul Koretz.

City Manager Paul Brotzman said it would cost up to a third more to staff a city police department at the same level of about 110 deputies assigned to West Hollywood. And Brotzman said the $18 million in start-up costs cited by initiative supporters is an unreasonably optimistic estimate.