Bond Issue for Police Rejected by Council Panel : Planning: Committee urges delay pending a study of LAPD’s citywide needs. Measure would fund facilities in San Fernando Valley, Mid-Wilshire.

Declaring that further study is needed, a committee of the Los Angeles City Council rejected a proposal Monday to put a $100-million bond measure before voters in June to build new police stations in the San Fernando Valley and the Mid-Wilshire area.

Despite testimony from residents in support of the plan, the council’s Public Safety Committee voted against it until a citywide study of the Police Department’s building needs can be completed.

“How can we go to the public now, asking for money, until we have an idea what our needs are in all 18 (police) stations?” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who suggested that the city wait at least until the March, 1996, presidential primary elections to put a bond measure before voters. Chick said more people vote in presidential elections, increasing the likelihood of the measure’s passage.

She said a study of police stations citywide may show that a $100-million bond measure would be insufficient to pay for all needed improvements and expansion, and coming back in the near future to ask for additional funding might generate voter animosity.

Monday’s debate was laced with a sense of urgency because the deadline for placing a bond measure on the June 6 ballot is Feb. 15. The entire council is scheduled to take the final vote on the matter Feb. 14.

The measure was proposed and drafted by Councilman Richard Alarcon, whose northeast Valley district would be served by the Valley station. He said both facilities would greatly improve police patrols in crime-plagued neighborhoods.

“I think it would be in the best interest of the city to move this project forward,” he told the panel. The two new stations are also needed to house police hired under Mayor Richard Riordan’s department expansion plan, he said.

The matter is expected to provoke a heated debate because several influential council members, such as President John Ferraro and Councilman Richard Alatorre, have already endorsed the bond measure.

Supporters note that the two stations were originally to have been 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.

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, Arleta and Panorama City. Another $35 million would build a Mid-City station to serve Koreatown and nearby areas.

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

The bond would be paid off over 25 to 30 years through a property tax increase of about $7.50 per residence per year, according to Alarcon’s staff.

But Councilman Marvin Braude, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, echoed Chick’s concerns about the plan, saying he is reluctant to ask voters to fund police facility improvements without seeing a completed study of the department’s needs.

“We have to know what we want,” he said. “We have to be credible with the public. The public is very smart.”

Bill Violante, deputy mayor for public safety, said Riordan still has some questions about the funding plan. He said the mayor wants to make sure the city studies the idea thoroughly before asking voters for additional money.

For example, Violante said, Riordan wants the city to study whether it is wiser to build large, new stations or smaller substations. He also wants to city to consider leasing existing buildings to house police.