Plans for New Levies Cause Mass Confusion

Think you’ve heard it all when it comes to bureaucratic headaches? Check out this doozy visited Thursday on 826,000 Los Angeles property owners and the folks who answer the phones at Los Angeles City Hall:

With the city scraping for ways to pay for public services, the city clerk’s office Wednesday mailed notices to property owners about the possibility of forming a citywide assessment district aimed at raising millions for parks and other recreation facilities.

What fouled things up is that word of the city’s assessment plans--and especially its intention to let voters have a say in them--somehow had not been communicated to the people who were answering the phones at the Department of Recreation and Parks. Nor did it help that the Los Angeles Community College District had sent out similar notices about its own assessment district intentions just a day or so before.

On Thursday, the reactions started pouring in--to the parks department, to council offices, to newspaper city desks and, most of all, to the city clerk’s office.

“I’ve been told off by everyone today,” groaned one of the clerk’s office workers.

“I called the number on the notice and they told me they didn’t know anything about this,” one exasperated caller told The Times reporter he contacted after phoning various city and college district offices.

Los Angeles is considering a levy on every property in the city that would bring in an estimated $25 million a year for 30 years. Although the amount assessed would vary greatly depending on the type, value and location of properties, city officials peg the price at $18.45 a year for a typical single-family home on a one-seventh-acre lot.

Such assessments can be levied without voter permission--only written protests from owners of a majority of properties within the proposed district can halt the proceedings.

Here’s where it gets complicated:

The president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.--named after the man who brought us Proposition 13 in 1978--is trying to get a proposed constitutional amendment on the November state ballot that would make it harder for local governments to assess charges for special services without first getting permission from voters. The measure is undergoing verification of signatures by the secretary of state’s office.

Expecting the measure to at least qualify for the ballot, a number of school districts, counties and cities around California are hoping to keep their revenue-raising options open by launching new assessments before November. One of these is the college district, which notified property owners within its sprawling boundaries that it is considering assessing them for improvements to its campuses. District officials plan to follow the letter of the law, which requires public notice to property owners, hearings and opportunities for protests--but not permission from voters.

The city of Los Angeles has decided to improve its chances of getting a parks assessment that would stand up to potential legal challenges by going a step beyond current requirements and submitting it to voters anyway. The problem is that the notices sent by the city clerk’s office do not mention the voter-approval part; they just tell property owners about the start of the process, including June 4 and July 9 hearing dates.

Nor did the notice contain details about how the assessment fees would be spent. The long list of projects is still being compiled, chief city legislative analyst Ron Deaton said Thursday. But, he hastened to add, it will be available in time for the first public hearing.

Got all that? If you’re still confused, you can try your luck with the presumably now-briefed parks department employees at: (213) 485-4880 or 485-5555.