New Proposal Scales Down Police, Fire Bond Requests

One day after Mayor Richard Riordan suggested a slowdown on a massive proposed bond measure package, city officials unveiled a scaled-down version Thursday that dramatically reduces police and fire department requests.

But the heads of those departments--Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and Fire Chief William Bamattre--urged council members reviewing the bond proposals to give more thought to their significant needs for new and expanded space for their growing departments.

Ron Deaton, the city’s chief legislative analyst, gave City Council members a nearly $1.7-billion package--down from more than $2 billion--that most dramatically cuts the Police Department’s request for new facilities. He also proposed consideration of a new request of $45 million for Los Angeles Zoo improvements.

*

Parks urged lawmakers to reconsider this approach, saying that the council, particularly, should keep a replacement building for Parker Center in the November bond proposal.

“If we jettison Parker Center out of the package, I don’t think we’ll get it alone,” Parks said. “We cannot run a Police Department without an administration building, just like you cannot run city government without a City Hall.”

And Bamattre said: “At some point, the need has to be addressed.”

Riordan proposed a blue-ribbon panel to set priorities on the bonds and urged the council to support only a $178-million library bond for the November ballot.

Several council members said they, too, support the library proposal, designed nearly two years ago to expand and renovate 28 libraries and build four more.

But there was unanimous agreement among the council and city officials that to ensure successful passage of the bonds, support must be broad-based, across the city and within city government as well.

“We are grappling with this at such a late hour,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who heads the council’s Public Safety Committee and who said she could not support the scaled-down bond package.

Councilman Mike Feuer said: “The process is flawed. . . . It’s too quick, it’s too superficial and it asks for too much.”

Chris Vosberg from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. told lawmakers he believes the current bond proposal would be considered “dead on arrival” by voters. The bonds need a two-thirds majority to pass.

“If these bonds go to the ballot, I can tell you, the opposition is going to be ferocious,” he said.

The council committee is expected to meet again next week to decide whether to proceed with the bond packages in November or--more likely--to put aside most of the requests until the spring elections.

*

In a related development, Parks was rebuffed in his efforts to take directly to voters a proposal for sweeping changes in the police disciplinary system. Top city officials denied that request in the Executive Employee Relations Committee meeting Thursday.

Parks had sought to ask voters to amend the City Charter in 17 discipline areas. That proposal, however, was met with skepticism from the police union as well as the two commissions charged with revamping the city charter.