CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : BALLOT MEASURES : 911 Tax Leading; Prop N. Falling Short

Los Angeles city voters were favoring a property tax increase to overhaul an overloaded 911 emergency telephone system in early voting returns Tuesday, but appeared less supportive of another tax increase to hire 1,000 more officers for the Los Angeles Police Department.

The 911 measure, Proposition M, was drawing more than the required two-thirds margin needed for approval with the vast majority of ballots still to be counted. While the police measure, Proposition N, also appeared to be winning majority support, it was falling short of the required two-thirds among absentee voters.

City officials praised voters for supporting the 911 upgrade and said that even if the measure to add police officers failed, a strong yes vote would spark efforts at City Hall to expand the 7,800-member police force.

“This is basically a call on the council to find new sources of revenue, coupled with cuts, to increase the police force,” said City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

Yaroslavsky said the “anarchy and fear” of the spring riots created a political will to pay for more police, a proposal that received only 42% of the vote in elections in 1981 and 1985.

John Stodder, campaign manager for Propositions M and N, predicted that demands for more police would be at the forefront of the April election for mayor and eight City Council seats. “How can candidates for mayor and council not identify this as a No. 1 priority and find a way to pay for it?” Stodder asked.

Voters in Los Angeles appeared to be narrowly approving two other ballot measures that would authorize the sale of bonds to finance continued improvement of the city sewer system and recommend the transfer of money from Los Angeles International Airport and the other city-owned airports to pay for city services.

Around Los Angeles County, a mixture of absentee ballot results and early returns indicated a close contest on measures to allow gambling in Hawthorne, Inglewood and Long Beach. And West Hollywood voters, by a slim margin, were rejecting the creation of a city Police Department, despite complaints in some quarters that the county Sheriff’s Department has mistreated gays and lesbians in that city.

The need for the two Los Angeles police measures was amply demonstrated during last spring’s riots, supporters said, when the city’s 911 system was overloaded by thousands of calls and the Police Department found itself stretched thin in trying to respond to the crisis.

Even in normal times, more than 300 callers a day dial 911 only to hear a busy signal or be put on hold. And despite a force of 7,800 officers, the Police Department has only about 279 police on patrol citywide at any time because so many officers are on special assignment, sick, on leave or testifying in court, a recent Times survey found.

Proposition N proposed raising property taxes to hire 1,000 new officers, enough to increase the number of patrol officers by 18%, according to Police Chief Willie L. Williams.

The cost was estimated at about $73 a year for the owner of a 1,500-square-foot home.

Proposals to raise taxes in Los Angeles to hire more police failed in 1981 and 1985, receiving just 42% of the vote both times.

But supporters of Proposition N said they hoped that the shock value of the riots and the recommendations for improved police service by two panels--the Christopher and Webster commissions--would overcome strong anti-tax sentiment.

The lack of officers has hampered the Police Department’s efforts to promote the community-based policing concept recommended by the Christopher Commission, backers of Proposition N have said.

Some opponents said Los Angeles should finance the hiring of more police by cutting back on other city spending rather than by making property owners pay more taxes.

Before Tuesday’s balloting, Measure N appeared to be running into its greatest opposition in areas of the city that suffered the most damage during the riots.

A Times poll conducted three weeks before the election found that voters on the Westside, in the San Fernando Valley and Central Los Angeles supported, by about the required two-thirds margin, the idea of raising property taxes to hire more police. But in South-Central Los Angeles, little more than half the voters backed such a proposal. And in neighborhoods that suffered extensive riot damage, less than half the voters wanted to raise taxes to hire more police, the poll found.

Proposition M proposed to shore up the deficiencies in the city’s emergency communications system by issuing $235 million in bonds, to be repaid by property owners over 20 years. It would require the owner of a 1,500-square-foot home to pay $12.75 more a year in taxes immediately and up to $26 a year later.

Measures to improve the emergency communications system failed in each of the last two years. But there was no formal opposition this time around.

Although it received less attention, the measure allowing the city to divert money from the semi-independent Department of Airports touched off the costliest campaign of Los Angeles’ four ballot measures.

An airline trade association spent $241,000 in an effort to stop the city from tapping into the lucrative treasury of four city-owned airports--Los Angeles International, Ontario, Van Nuys and Palmdale.

Proposition K could not take effect without changes in federal law because the government has long prohibited spending airport money for non-aviation purposes.

City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who proposed the measure, said it would provide up to $70 million a year to bolster city services without raising taxes.