Police Measures Add Heat to City Elections

What promised to be a sleepy city election season this November has suddenly perked up with Mayor Tom Bradley’s call for ballot measures that would add 1,000 officers to the Los Angeles Police Department and upgrade the emergency communications system.

Bradley’s proposed property tax and bond measure, which the City Council ordered drafted for the ballot Wednesday, are expected to generate a full-court publicity press along the lines of that used in the recent, highly successful police reform campaign.

Meanwhile, at least one other measure to beef up the 7,900-member force--in this case by allowing retired officers to come back on a contract basis--also is being considered for the November ballot. In addition, two other proposals are being considered as the July 31 deadline for placement on the ballot approaches.

But the most attention-grabbing by far is the Bradley plan to add 1,000 officers.

“We are prepared to launch a full-fledged campaign,” Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani said. “In fact, we have no alternative if we are to convince two-thirds of the voters to support a tax increase. We can’t make any mistakes.”

Fabiani said the mayor’s office has already begun putting together a campaign management team that will include business leaders, community groups and members of the tourism and entertainment industries concerned “about the city’s image as a safe place to live in and visit.”

Other Bradley aides estimated that it may cost more than $600,000 to effectively campaign amid a blizzard of competing messages launched by presidential, U.S. Senate and Los Angeles County candidates in the November election.

The mayor’s office hopes the police plan will follow in the footsteps of the highly successful campaign for Charter Amendment F, the LAPD reform measure that was passed by 70% of the voters last month.

“We have a new police chief and we have new police reforms,” Fabiani said. “Now we need to put the last piece of the puzzle in place, a dramatically expanded Police Department . . . to increase the safety of the general public.”

However, even some City Council members who enthusiastically support the proposals expressed serious doubts about whether the campaign could win sufficient converts among property owners who believe they are already taxed to the maximum.

Indeed, similar initiatives to increase the size of the Police Department failed in 1981 and 1985. Ballot measures to update the police communications and 911 systems also failed in 1990 and 1991.

Bradley’s call for the new measures comes as the city struggles to cope with the recent riots and deep budget shortages. The property tax would raise $100 million to add 1,000 more officers and 200 civilian personnel to the 7,900-member force.

The tax would cost the owner of a 1,500-square-foot home $73 a year.

The companion bond measure would raise at least $235 million to finance a complete overhaul of the city’s emergency communications system, including the 911 emergency system, and construction of a backup dispatch center in the San Fernando Valley, officials said. It would cost each household about $26 a year, city officials said.

The measures must be approved by the City Council before July 31 to be placed on the November ballot. Both need a two-thirds vote to pass--which some have cited as a huge obstacle to overcome.

Passing the measures will “take a campaign just as skillful, extensive and expensive as the one behind Charter Amendment F,” said Councilman Michael Woo, who supports the proposals. “That is certainly evident in concerns among some council members over the impact of raising taxes during a recession.”

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who also endorses the proposals in principle, warned that the final language of the measures must clearly indicate that the funds raised will be used only to hire more officers and improve the emergency communications network.

“I can’t recall the last time two-thirds of the people voted for a tax hike,” Yaroslavsky said.

Trying to allay such concerns during Wednesday’s City Council hearing on the proposals, new Police Chief Willie L. Williams promised to place “more officers in black and whites and on foot beats--that is where these funds are going to go.”

Williams, as a highly visible new player on the Los Angeles scene, may prove a powerful spokesman for the measures, said political strategist Richard Lichtenstein, whose consulting firm, Marathon Communications, guided the Charter Amendment F campaign.

“One of the keys to winning is going to be the visibility and prominence of the chief of police as a leader and spokesman of the campaign,” Lichtenstein said. “If the community is sincerely interested in getting behind Williams there is hope a two-thirds vote can be garnered.”

In an understated way, Williams may have already taken to the stump.

In a speech before the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational awards luncheon at the downtown Biltmore Hotel on Wednesday, Williams stressed that at a time when major crime is going up in the city “resources to deliver (police) services are going down.”

Meanwhile, the police measures may be joined by at least three other proposals on the Nov. 3 ballot. Under consideration by the City Council are:

* A City Charter amendment proposed by Councilman Nate Holden that would allow the city to rehire up to 300 retired police officers on a contract basis for up to 12 months.

* A $1.5-billion bond measure to finance improvements to the city’s waste-water system.

* A charter amendment proposed by Councilwoman Ruth Galanter that would allow the transfer of Department of Airports revenues to the city’s general fund.