Bernson Uses Police Commissioner’s Own Words to Fight Prop. N : Election: Stanley Sheinbaum says he was misunderstood when he said the city has the money to increase the force. The tax measure would add 1,000 officers.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, a leading opponent of a ballot proposition that would increase property taxes to hire 1,000 more police officers, on Thursday wrote a tongue-in-cheek letter of rebuke to Police Commission President Stanley Sheinbaum.

Bernson took advantage of a remark by Sheinbaum, a supporter of the measure, that gave the impression that Sheinbaum agreed with a key argument by the proposition’s opponents--that the city could afford to beef up the police force without raising taxes.

Sheinbaum maintains his remark on Proposition N has been misunderstood.

At the swearing-in ceremony for Police Chief Willie L. Williams, Sheinbaum raised a few eyebrows, including those of Mayor Tom Bradley, a key sponsor of the proposition, when he said “the money is there” to pay for more police.

In his letter Thursday, Bernson reminded the head of the civilian police board of this remark. “You were right then!” wrote Bernson, who basically maintains that the city has enough money to hire more police but is unwilling to cut other services to do so.

But now, Bernson continued in his letter, Sheinbaum has got it wrong and is trying to blame Washington or Sacramento for the city’s inability to hire more police.

“The problem Los Angeles has with its lack of police is not the result of federal budget cuts,” wrote Bernson, who, despite his reputation as a law-and-order Republican, has nevertheless signed the ballot argument against Proposition N. “Neither is it a lack of lobbying for more money from Washington and Sacramento.

“It is the result of neglect here at home by our city fathers,” he said.

Bernson said the city’s general fund has grown 126% since 1984, yet the number of police officers during the same period has increased only 13.7%, from 6,900 to 7,850.

Referring to charts in city budget documents, Bernson noted that the percentage of the city’s budget dollar allocated for community safety, including crime control and fire protection, has decreased from 44 cents to 34 cents in that same period.

“So you see, commissioner,” Bernson concluded in his letter, “the city has had the money. It has spent it elsewhere. The Police Department has not kept up with other departmental growth in the city. That takes me back to my original statement that you were right a few months ago. . . . “The money is there!”

The same charts show that as the police share of the budget has dropped in eight years, the cost of sewage collection, treatment and disposal has risen sharply. Eight years ago, 11 cents of every budget dollar was spent on sewage matters; now, it’s 21 cents.

Sheinbaum himself triggered Bernson’s letter.

Fearing that his comment “the money is there” was being misconstrued and conceding that it “startled everybody,” Sheinbaum has been trying to explain the statement.

Along with a cover letter, Sheinbaum, a retired UCLA economist and well-known bankroller of liberal causes, sent council members last week a copy of a column he wrote for a magazine he publishes, New Perspectives Quarterly, to elaborate on what he really meant to say.

In his column, Sheinbaum said that the nation’s Washington-based leadership has spent too much of the federal budget dollar on international and military issues, not enough on domestic services, and he faulted local elected officials for not challenging this spending behavior to protect the cities.

Under Proposition N, city property owners would pay a maximum estimated annual tax of $4.89 for each 100 square feet of improved property. For unimproved parcels, the same rate would be applied to every 500 square feet of property.

The measure, requiring a two-thirds vote to pass, envisions hiring about 200 additional officers per year for five years.

If all 1,000 officers were hired, the estimated annual cost of the measure would be $101 million. To ensure that the tax will not be used simply to pay for existing police, the measure suspends enforcement of the tax in any year in which the city does not employ at least 7,900 officers, the current size of the force.