LANCASTER : Council Sets Pre-Dawn Meeting to Pass Tax Law

To beat a legal deadline for a revenue program, the Lancaster City Council was to meet before dawn today.

Members of the City Council and the city attorney, manager and clerk--who usually meet at 7 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month--had to meet at 5:45 a.m. to enable Lancaster to collect $68,000 in new redevelopment taxes next year. The council voted Monday to create a city redevelopment area of almost 1,350 acres that could generate up to $750 million in tax revenues over its planned 40-year life span.

The trouble was that a state law requires a second vote--at least five days after the first vote--before the city can collect the money. A state regulation requires that to begin collecting the money in 1993, the vote must take place before Dec. 1.

That might have left officials time to do it Monday. But no meeting was scheduled and Mayor George Root, two council members and the city manager were signed up to attend the National League of Cities conference in New Orleans beginning today. The only solution was the pre-dawn meeting--which Root said would probably last less than 10 minutes--before the group dashes out of the Antelope Valley by car to catch a 9 a.m. flight from LAX.