Council OKs Bonds for Phoenix Drug Centers : Community: Approval includes boosting security at Lake View Terrace facility.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to help issue tax-exempt bonds for two local drug-abuse treatment centers in exchange for a promise to beef up security at the recently opened live-in center in Lake View Terrace.

Under the agreement, the city will hold hearings needed to issue $10 million in tax-exempt bonds to refinance the mortgage of the Phoenix Academy in Lake View Terrace and fund improvements at the Phoenix House in Venice. The city, however, would not be financially liable for the bonds.

For their part, administrators for the drug treatment centers have vowed to add new security measures at the northeast San Fernando Valley academy--measures that they had long opposed for fear of turning the honor-system academy into a jail.

The agreement was a small victory for those Lake View Terrace neighbors who have pressed for added security at the Phoenix Academy--an effort that was rekindled following two recent incidents involving academy residents leaving the facility and straying into surrounding neighborhoods.

“It gets us off of the extremely tenuous ground we have been on and on solid footing,” said Sandy Hubbard, president of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn.

In a letter to Hubbard, Phoenix officials have agreed to install a front gate to complete fencing of the center’s entire perimeter, electronic security communications for the front entrance and add routine patrols of the facility, among other improvements. Some of the changes are to be implemented immediately, while others are to be completed within 60 days.

Previously, Phoenix officials were hesitant about increasing security at the academy because they consider it a rehabilitation facility, not a detention center, with a program based on cooperation not enforcement. But they were pleased to reach an agreement with neighbors that would clear the way for the bond sale hearings.

“We are happy that everything has been worked out,” said Judy Corman, a spokeswoman for the Phoenix House Foundation, the New-York based group that operates the academy and 14 other residential treatment centers nationwide. “The idea is to become part of the community.”

Under federal law, the state cannot issue tax-exempt bonds for Phoenix House unless the local governing body--in this case the city of Los Angeles--agrees to hold public hearings on the bonds.

Long before the rehabilitation center opened six months ago, neighbors fought the proposal. At first they tried to keep it from locating in the vacant Lake View Terrace hospital. When that battle appeared futile, they pressed for added landscaping and security measures to reduce the center’s impact on the neighborhood.

Some neighbors and city officials called for the increased security after two July incidents involving academy residents leaving the grounds without permission.

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In one of the incidents, a boy distraught over the death of his grandmother ran off the grounds with a counselor in pursuit. The youth ran to a nearby house and startled a woman when he asked if he could hide in her house. The counselor was able to coax him back. That same month, several Phoenix youths stole an academy van and took it on a joy ride before returning it a short time later.

The incidents prompted Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents Lake View Terrace, to postpone a vote last week on the $10-million bond issue. In an interview Wednesday, he said he was happy that the city and neighbors could use the academy’s desire for bond financing to leverage new improvements at the facility.