Council Divides Funds Congress Has Yet to OK

President Clinton is still struggling to ram his economic stimulus package past a Republican filibuster in the U.S. Senate, but Los Angeles city officials have already decided how to spend their $49-million share of the package.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved two dozen projects to be funded by the community block grant element of Clinton’s plan--which has been hung up by the opposition party’s stalling in Washington for more than a week.

Republicans depict the Clinton package as pork-barrel spending on nonessential projects. But Mayor Tom Bradley and other local officials said the money is critically needed to provide community services and stimulate an economy devastated by recession and last year’s riots.

“One reason we pushed this through, even though it hasn’t been approved yet, is to show the Republicans in Congress that we have worthwhile, job-creating projects,” Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani said. “The money has not just been spread around the city for political purposes.”

The plan, approved Tuesday by the City Council, was drawn from a list provided by Bradley’s office.

More than a quarter of the projects are low- and moderate-income housing developments. More than $22 million would go to build 550 units of housing, ranging from single-family homes to apartments for the elderly.

Those projects are estimated to create more than 1,300 construction jobs and more than 400 permanent jobs, mostly in retail developments connected to the housing.

Also designated for funding by the council were:

* A movie theater in the Crenshaw-Baldwin Hills Plaza shopping mall. The money will augment $6 million being spent by the developer and theater operator. Amount: $1 million.

* A senior citizens center in Wilmington. The money had been slated for paving dirt roads in an industrial area, but Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores had it reallocated. Amount: $1.7 million.

* Seismic safety repairs on the Vermont Square branch library in South Los Angeles. Money would allow the library to be moved out of temporary quarters and into this 80-year-old structure. Amount: $1.2 million.

* As many as 60,000 “bed nights” in shelters for the homeless. Amount: $700,000.

An additional $7 million would go to unspecified housing, parks and street repairs and $3.5 million to administrative costs.