Chick Fights Plan to Cut West Valley MTA Police : Budget: The councilwoman urges the agency, facing a $350-million deficit, not to eliminate area’s officers.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick has appealed to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority not to eliminate its corps of police officers in the west San Fernando Valley as part of the agency’s budget cutbacks.

Faced with a $350-million deficit for the coming fiscal year, the MTA has recommended trimming $2 million from its $36-million police budget. MTA Police Chief Sharon K. Papa said the loss, if approved by the MTA board next week, would force her to scale back operations in the Valley, and eliminate the eight or nine officers who patrol west of the San Diego Freeway.

At the same time, however, her department has pledged to fully staff the Metro Green Line, the 20-mile electric trolley system scheduled to open Aug. 12 along the Century Freeway median. The new transit line will boast a deployment of 56 MTA officers.

“We definitely are not going to shortchange a new system we want people to ride,” Papa said, citing similar commitments when the Red and Blue rail lines opened. “You want to make sure you have a strong presence when it opens, to send the message that this is our system and we have control of it.”

The budget cuts, which would go into effect July 1, would diminish the MTA police force from 425 to 371 officers countywide.

“We will not have any service west of the 405 freeway, south of the 91, or east of the 605,” Papa said.

In a letter Tuesday, Chick, who represents the West Valley on the City Council, asked Papa to reconsider the removal of officers assigned to her district. The MTA also plans to pull back undercover teams from the area that watched out for graffiti and fare jumpers.

“Depriving one segment of your ridership of equal police protection will serve to undermine the trust and security that residents of the west San Fernando Valley have come to feel . . . when riding the bus,” Chick wrote.

Papa said Los Angeles police would continue to respond to emergencies on transit lines, as they do already in conjunction with MTA officers.

“The lines in that particular part of the Valley are relatively safe anyway,” Papa said. “There aren’t major problems out there in the first place.”

The East Valley, where MTA police have a substation, has a higher crime rate and will continue to be staffed, although the number of officers will probably be scaled back from the full complement of eight to six, Papa said.

The areas with the highest crime are South-Central Los Angeles and the Downtown business district, Papa said. The new deployment of MTA officers would focus resources on those neighborhoods.