Bradley Proposes Police, Fire Dept. Cuts : Budget: Mayor would also reduce operations of libraries and recreation centers to deal with fund shortfall. Council approval of revised financial plan is required.

Mayor Tom Bradley on Friday proposed substantial reductions in city services--potentially leading to slower responses to police and fire emergencies, shortened hours at recreation centers and libraries and less street cleaning--to balance a municipal budget reeling under the region’s worst recession since World War II.

Flagging tax revenues and a $53-million loss of funding resulting from the state’s budget crisis forced Bradley to rewrite an already bleak financial plan just three months into the fiscal year.

If approved by the City Council in deliberations set to begin in two weeks, the budget proposals would continue a hiring freeze that already has reduced the city’s work force by nearly 2,000, to 32,906, over two years.

In addition, Bradley proposed taking $44 million from the reserves of the Harbor Department and imposing other measures such as a fractional water-rate increase to close an estimated $71-million deficit in the city’s $3.8-billion budget for 1992-93. The mayor also proposed adding $12 million to the city’s reserve fund.

In recommending the changes, Bradley reported that even with a modest recovery from the recession, the city probably will face a deficit next year of about $100 million. “I am concerned that should the economy fall further, we may need to take additional steps to reduce our spending levels,” Bradley said in a statement.

The hiring freeze would take the most employees from the Police and Fire departments, which receive 60% of the city’s general fund of about $2.5 billion.

The Police Department--which already has dipped below 7,800 officers from its high of 8,300--would lose another 129 officers and 48 civilian employees to attrition by next summer.

Police Chief Willie L. Williams was ill Friday and could not be reached for comment. Last year, retired Chief Daryl F. Gates said that such a cut could increase the average response time to emergencies to 10 minutes from seven.

The proposed reduction also could jeopardize implementation of a measure on next month’s ballot designed to raise property taxes to add 1,000 officers to the force. Proposition N requires the addition of 1,000 officers only if city officials maintain the force at its previously authorized level of 7,900 officers.

Bradley spokeswoman Vallee Bunting said that, despite the proposed reductions, the mayor will do “everything in his power” to prevent police reductions if new funds become available.

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who chairs the council’s Budget and Finance Committee, said the vote on Proposition N will be closely watched by city officials. Even if the measure does not garner the two-thirds vote needed for approval, a strong yes vote might convince the council that taxes must be raised or other cuts made to increase police staffing, Yaroslavsky said.

“All of us on the council share the same sentiment,” Yaroslavsky said. “We want to hire more cops. But we want to do it in a financially sound and stable way.”

In the Fire Department, the budget reduction would reduce the force by 56 firefighters through attrition, cutting staffing roughly in half at five of the department’s stations.

The effect would be similar to “rolling brownouts” instituted a year ago, when reduced staffing at 13 stations was blamed for slowing responses to several emergencies, including a fire that killed five residents of the Jordan Downs housing project, said Dean Cathey, spokesman for the department.

“We had longer response time in those areas,” said Cathey, a battalion chief. “Some jobs were not getting done in a timely manner. A few seconds or minutes in a medical emergency can make a big difference.”

Bradley predicted in his proposal that the loss of employees would force service reductions in other areas:

* The Library Department would open 56 branch libraries just five days a week, instead of the current six, and reduce weekly hours from 40 to 35. Seven regional libraries would reduce operations from six days a week to five and from 46 hours a week to 40.

* The Recreation and Parks Department would cut hours at 129 recreation centers citywide by about a third, from 56 hours a week to 36.

* The Bureau of Street Maintenance would be able to sweep only about 80% of the streets posted for cleaning, compared to the current 95%.

Bradley continued to hold the line against raising taxes, as he did when he submitted his original budget proposal to the City Council last spring. Only a fractional increase in water rates, less than 30 cents a month to the average customer, is included in his proposal.

The mayor’s midyear budget correction was his third in as many years, largely because the continuing weak economy has sapped tax revenue. The city is suffering through its third consecutive year of decreased sales tax revenue. Business, utility and hotel taxes also declined, along with building permit fees. A $44-million decrease in tax revenue this year is now projected.

At the same time, a state government struggling to balance its books withdrew $53 million in property and cigarette tax revenues from Los Angeles. And the Department of Water and Power subsidy to the city was down by $19 million.

One-time gains in other city accounts made up much of a shortfall once put at $121 million, but Bradley was still left to deal with a projected $71-million deficit.

To close the gap, Bradley reversed his vehement opposition of a month ago to raiding the funds of the semi-independent Harbor Department.

The Legislature authorized a shift of funds in its budget deliberations, permitting Los Angeles and four other port cities to recoup some of their lost taxes by dipping into the reserve funds of their own ports.

Although the trade-off makes $44 million available to Los Angeles this year, Bradley last month called the shift “chicanery” and said he would fight it. While he said Friday he is still concerned that the loss of the money will hurt a port expansion plan, the mayor said he felt he had no alternative.

“Because the department is in a strong financial position,” Bradley said, “the consequences of this transfer are more acceptable than other budget-cutting options, which would adversely affect the health and safety of our entire community.”

Initial reaction Friday by City Council members was muted, with most saying they were studying the proposal.

Councilwoman Joy Picus said she would be prepared to go to greater lengths, including dipping into a $74-million fund used to build parking lots, to stave off Police Department cuts.

Yaroslavsky expressed concern that many of the accounting maneuvers proposed in the plan--such as a delay in the refund of excess sales taxes that would save nearly $13 million--are one-time savings that the city will not be able to turn to next year.

“My main concern is that the mayor has not gone far enough,” Yaroslavsky said. “My problem is that we continue in this city to make projections that are rosier than the reality.”

Yaroslavsky said he expects “everything,” including the possibility of new taxes and layoffs, to be on the table when the council discusses the spending plan.