Panel Backs Bond Measure for Police, Fire Stations

A City Council panel tentatively agreed Monday to ask Los Angeles voters in April to approve up to $750 million in bonds for new police and fire stations, but put off a $200-million tax measure for sidewalk repairs until the June election.

Wary of asking for too much, the Ad Hoc Committee on Capital Improvements rejected proposals by the police and fire chiefs for $1.5 billion in bonds, agreeing to pare the package and work on possibly reducing it to $500 million, as proposed by a blue ribbon panel of business leaders.

The city engineer, however, estimated the list of projects proposed by the business leaders would actually cost $704 million. At the same time, the council members supported increasing the size of six new police stations to better accommodate growth in the police force.

Noting the city failed to deliver all of the projects promised in a 1989 police bond measure, City Council President John Ferraro said the measure proposed for the April ballot should not underestimate the cost of the work pledged.

“If we try to be too conservative and we fail, the public will not forgive us,” Ferraro told his five colleagues on the council committee.

Proposals include replacement of Parker Center with a new police administration building, replacement of four old and cramped police stations, including the West Valley station, and construction of two stations, including a sixth police station for the Valley.

The Fire Department portion of the bond measure contains replacement of 17 fire stations, including those in Studio City, Arlete, Northridge, Sun Valley, Tarzana and Woodland Hills. The bond measure also would replace the Fire Department’s air operations center at Van Nuys Airport.

Council members said the pared-down list includes top priorities for public safety that can realistically be done in five to seven years, a timeline they believe will be reassuring to voters.

The priorities, however, may be refined in the next three weeks. Councilwoman Laura Chick questioned whether the police administrative building, which would cost more than $100 million, should be a higher priority than the field stations that actually provide direct police and fire services.

Also, the blue ribbon business panel recommended police stations of 50,000 square feet each, each capable of housing 300 workers, which Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton said would still be too small for the expanding police force.

Consequently, the council committee tentatively supported expanding the stations to 60,000 square feet so they could accommodate 350 workers. That change would add $24 million to the bond measure.

On the cost, the business leaders argued wasteful city construction practices have inflated the price tag of past projects and that reforms of the system can bring the projects in at $500 million.

The business leaders and the city engineer will meet in the next two weeks to agree on a final price tag that is realistic. The City Council has until Jan. 8 to complete the package and vote on whether to place it on the April ballot.

“We should responsibly bring that number down to as close to $500 million as possible,” Chick said.

The desire to keep any request to the voters to a minimum was a factor in the council panel’s tentative decision to delay until June a $200 million special tax measure to make city sidewalks accessible to the disabled.

The council members noted the mayor has proposed the work be financed out of a settlement with tobacco companies expected to pay Los Angeles $12.5 million annually for 20 years.

*

A $760-million sidewalk tax measure on the ballot last month failed to garner the two-thirds vote required for passage.

The U.S. Justice Department has threatened to sue the city for failing to install 108,000 curb cuts as required by the Americans With Disabilities Act. The original deadline was in 1995. Federal officials have given Los Angeles until Dec. 31 to come up with an alternate funding plan.

Besides the legal mandate, Councilman Mike Feuer also said the work must be done out of a “moral obligation to constituents who rely on wheelchairs to traverse our city streets.”