HUNTINGTON PARK : 3% Utility Tax Kept to Fund Additional Police

The City Council has voted to continue a 3% utility tax that has been used largely to pay for additional police officers.

The tax, added to water, electric and telephone bills, has helped stabilize the city’s general fund, officials said, and has allowed the Police Department to hire one sergeant, six officers, five jailers and two clerks.

Resident and business owner Sergio Palos said the tax has been a small price to pay for the protection of his family. Although Palos has moved his business, Clockwork Printing Co., out of the city, his wife still owns a wedding invitation shop in Huntington Park.

Since the City Council initiated the tax in October, 1992, to keep the Police Department fully staffed, crime has dropped, Mayor Ric Loya said.

To thwart vehicle thefts and curtail fake-document vendors, the Police Department used tax revenues to institute a bicycle patrol in the central business district, said Police Chief Frank Sullivan.

Some of the funds also were used to open a substation at Salt Lake Park last month, he said. Although the police chief said it is difficult to track drug dealers, transients and gang activities, he has declared the park “clean.”