Mayor Is Cautioned Not to Raise Taxes for Police Plan : Finances: Valley business leaders tell Riordan and the police chief that the community is skeptical about efficiency at City Hall.

Mayor Richard Riordan and his police plan drew fresh praise from San Fernando Valley business leaders Wednesday, but amid the kudos were warnings that any bid to raise new taxes to pay for the plan will be a hard sell.

The tough job Riordan faces is to persuade a skeptical Valley citizenry that City Hall is being run efficiently on its existing revenues, said attorney David Fleming, a city Fire Commission member.

Until that case can be made, the Valley will continue to reject--as it has in the past--any bid to raise taxes even to pay for more police, added Ben Reznik, chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.

The cautionary comments of Reznik and Fleming, a former VICA chairman, came after Riordan and Police Chief Willie L. Williams on Wednesday morning pitched the police buildup plan as the antidote to a host of city ills in remarks at a VICA breakfast in Van Nuys.

Repeating the refrain of recent speeches, Riordan urged VICA to help him build widespread public support for the plan “so that the politicians, including myself, have the backbone and the courage to implement it.”

Williams said the plan was the key to rebuilding Los Angeles and preventing the flight of young people and jobs from Los Angeles.

The Valley’s importance to the mayor’s plan was clear--Riordan brought a full entourage of advisers with him to VICA, including Bill Violante, deputy mayor for police services; Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, president of the Police Commission; Bill Ouchi, a special adviser on reorganizing city government; and Cecilia Aguilera, the mayor’s top field representative in the Valley.

In their remarks, neither Riordan nor Williams offered new clues about how to pay for their plan to hire an additional 2,885 officers by 1998, which has been estimated to cost $300 million a year when fully implemented.

Because of the huge price tag, it is widely believed that the plan will require new taxes.

In a further indication that the financing component is in flux, the mayor told reporters Wednesday after the VICA breakfast meeting that he expected airport revenues only to pay for “maybe 10% or 20%” of the entire police plan.

During his campaign for mayor, Riordan predicted that airport revenues would be the backbone of financing his proposed police force buildup.

But The Times reported Wednesday that prospects are dimming for Riordan’s bid to skim off airport profits to help pay for more police. Federal legislation to penalize cities that divert airport revenues for non-airport purposes is believed to be headed for approval by a key congressional committee.

But Riordan said he remained optimistic only hours before flying to Washington, D.C., on a trip geared to win federal underwriting for his police plan in the nation’s capital.

Riordan said he expected to talk with U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), about the airport revenue issue on his trip but that his primary mission was to testify about a Clinton administration crime bill that, in present form, would earmark about $5 million for Los Angeles police services. The mayor said he hoped to amend the crime bill so Los Angeles gains $10 million from the package.

The question of how to pay for the police buildup also was a top concern of Valley civic and business leaders Wednesday, with the consensus being that new taxes will be a tough sell, particularly in the Valley.

“Now the job is to get government running more efficiently and that’s not going to be easy,” Fleming, the fire commissioner, said in an interview after remarks by the mayor and Williams.

Councilwoman Laura Chick agreed that “the number one thing we need to do is clean up our act at City Hall.” Only then, she said, “will I be able to look the voters in the eye and ask them how they can help us pay for more police” with additional taxes.

The lawmaker said she felt that City Hall was a long way from proving to voters that it is now spending their money wisely.

It was just such skepticism about City Hall’s efficiency that prompted Valley voters to take the lead in killing two recent measures to levy a new property-type tax to pay for 1,000 more police, Reznik said.

These two measures were handed back-to-back defeats in elections in November, 1992, and April, 1993. In the April election, the measure won 58% of the vote citywide--it needed 66.6% to win--but scoring only 48% of the vote in the four all-Valley council districts.

“Everyone says public safety is our first priority,” Reznik said. “But when the (council members) vote on the city budget, no one’s willing to let go of their pet projects.”

City Hall lawmakers should adopt a zero-based budgeting system in which the police are funded first and then, Reznik said, voters are asked “if they want to raise taxes to pay for some cultural affairs thing or a testing lab.”