$100-Million Bond Sought for 2 Police Stations : LAPD: Alarcon wants measure for June ballot. Facilities in Valley and Mid-Wilshire were promised but never built.

Councilman Richard Alarcon proposed a $100-million bond measure Tuesday to build new police stations in the San Fernando Valley and Mid-Wilshire areas, facilities that were promised to voters more than six years ago but never constructed.

With the backing of Police Chief Willie L. Williams and several other council members, Alarcon asked the City Council to place the bond measure before voters in June. The council is expected to decide sometime next week whether to put the measure on the ballot. There appears to be little, if any, opposition.

The two stations originally were to be built with money generated by a $176-million bond measure approved by voters in 1989. But because police and city officials vastly underestimated construction costs, the stations were ultimately cut from a project list.

“It’s not going to be an easy road considering that some of the promises made in the past did not come to fruition,” Alarcon told the Los Angeles Police Commission, before introducing the proposal to the council.

As proposed, the bond measure would commit $35 million for a so-called Mid-Valley station to serve the communities of North Hills, Panorama City, Mission Hills and Arleta. Another $35 million would build a Mid-Wilshire station to serve Koreatown and adjacent communities.

The remaining $30 million would be used either to upgrade existing police facilities citywide or purchase additional police equipment.

The ballot measure in 1989 said only that the money would be spent on police stations but did not say which facilities. Alarcon said his measure will specify where the money is to be spent.

The bond would be paid off over 25 to 30 years through a $7.50 increase in property taxes per resident per year, according to Alarcon’s staff.

Supporters noted that voters may be reluctant to support the bond measure due to lingering distrust over Proposition 2, the $176-million measure that 69% of voters approved at the urging of then-Mayor Tom Bradley and then-Police Chief Daryl Gates.

In an opinion article he wrote for The Times four days before the April 11, 1989, election, Gates said the measure would pay for new stations to serve the Valley and Mid-Wilshire areas. Police officials later acknowledged that they knew prior to the election that the measure could not fund all the projects that were promised.

*

Mayor Richard Riordan supports the construction of the two new stations but will not endorse Alarcon’s measure until he gets a detailed report on how the city can spend the $30 million in citywide upgrades, a Riordan spokeswoman said.

Riordan said he will review the proposal to see if it meets his public safety objectives.

Alarcon said the new facilities are needed to house the additional officers being hired under Riordan’s police expansion plan. He said he also hopes the stations will improve police patrols in several crime-plagued neighborhoods in his northeast Valley district.

For months, Alarcon has argued that the poor, mostly Latino communities in the heart of his district have been underserved by police because they are located on the outskirts of three existing police divisions and therefore farthest from police headquarters.

“Theoretically (the new stations) will reduce response time,” he said.

In a related matter, the commission voted Tuesday to ask the council to spend $500,000 to search for two sites for the new stations and to conduct environmental studies to ensure those sites are appropriate for construction.

In a report to the commission, Chief Williams said a new station in the Valley is crucial because of a significant population increase and an corresponding increase in crime that is forecast over the next 15 years.

“It is anticipated that this increase in population and crime will result in a need to increase the number of personnel assigned to the San Fernando Valley,” he said in the report.

Williams said the Mid-Wilshire area faces similar problems.

“In the (Mid-Wilshire) area, the police stations are severely overcrowded and police service to several major communities is fragmented because they are being served by more than one” police division, he said.

*

Although there is little opposition to Alarcon’s proposal, City Council President John Ferraro said he expects residents will be leery of paying additional taxes. But he said he wants to put the measure on the ballot to give voters the ultimate decision.

Councilman Nate Holden, who represents most of Koreatown, said he also believes residents are fed up with high taxes and fees. But he said residents are also fed up with high crime rates and the lack of police resources.

“This $100 million is $100 million well spent,” he said.

Alarcon echoed his colleagues’ concerns but said he hopes voters will be sold on the concept if the bond measure spells out exactly how the money will be used.

“It’s absolutely key that we guarantee those stations,” he said.