Valley Voters Delivered Critical Blow to Prop. 1

San Fernando Valley voters played a decisive role in the defeat of the proposed $744-million bond issue for police and fire stations.

In the four all-Valley council districts, 52.5% of the 66,765 voters opposed Proposition 1, according to unofficial returns from the city clerk’s office.

Of the 152,335 people voting in the city’s 11 other council districts, 66.9% supported the bond measure, just over the two-thirds needed for passage.

The only three districts in the city in which a majority voted no were in the Valley’s 2nd, 3rd and 12th districts.

Higher voter turnout in fiscally conservative Valley districts meant the difference, observers said.

“In the Valley, it fell dead. Historically, that’s what happens,” said Sherman Oaks political consultant Larry Levine, who was not involved in the campaign. “Give me the rest of the city and I can get you a two-thirds vote.”

Observers said an ill-timed brush-clearance bill that was sent to thousands of Valley residents may have played a role in the negative reaction to the bonds, as did opposition from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., some local politicians and leaders of Valley VOTE, the secession group.

“Negative messages from community leaders can have an effect,” Councilwoman Laura Chick of Tarzana said. “The need is certainly there, so of course I’m disappointed.”

The measure failed even though Mayor Richard Riordan and other city leaders, including Chick, campaigned for it.

Opponents said it made no sense to incur new debt at a time when Valley cityhood is on the table.

Others noted that the Valley was promised a sixth police station in 1989, when voters approved an earlier bond measure. But the station was never built.

That was one reason cited by state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), who sponsored a 1994 police bond proposal that also failed, in voicing concern about asking voters to go further into debt.

Alarcon, as a councilman, had proposed that the city find some way to open the new Valley station without bond funds before going to voters for more debt financing.

“I have some strong reservations about initiating a bond measure when the San Fernando Valley had not gotten its new station,” Alarcon said.

Supporters noted that Proposition 1 would have provided funds for a sixth Valley police station and replacement of the cramped and aging West Valley Station in Chick’s district. Despite Chick’s active support for the bond measure, 55.5% of the residents in her 3rd District voted against it.

The strongest opposition was in the northwest Valley’s 12th District, where 58% of 22,579 voters opposed the measure. It was rejected by 52.5% of the voters in the East Valley’s 2nd District.

The bond measure fell 12,292 votes short of passage citywide. In the three Valley districts voting no, 29,693 voted against the measure.

The fourth all-Valley district, the northeast Valley’s 7th District, voted 60% in favor of the measure.

In contrast, the police and fire bonds received 71.4% support in the Central City’s 1st District and 75% support in the South-Central’s 9th District.

However, only 6,641 people voted in the 9th District, compared to 14,793 who voted in Chick’s district.

“The Valley is very, very thoughtful and contemplative of how it wants to spend dollars,” Chick said. “Certainly, this is not the first time my district voted in a different way than I’d recommended.”

Jeff Brain, president of Valley VOTE, said opposition by some leaders of the group and the advance of secession appeared to play a role in the bond measure’s defeat.

“There is uncertainty. People feel this is not the appropriate time to approve bonds,” Brain said. “There was also a sense that much of the money--72%--was going downtown.”

Then there was the brush-clearance notice.

Councilman Hal Bernson said the notices of a new $13 brush-clearance fee was the reason his 12th District so strongly opposed Proposition 1.

“I’m not surprised by the vote, because half of my district received the $13 assessment flier. We got hundreds and hundreds of calls,” Bernson said. “It was the kiss of death [for Proposition 1] in my district.”

Chick introduced a motion Wednesday calling for creation of a task force to find other ways to pay for police and fire facility needs. Chick’s motion includes the use of existing buildings that are partially vacant and the sale of surplus city property.

“I’m already rolling up my sleeves and wanting to take a different look at this, because the need is real,” Chick said.

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Bonds Get Little Support in Valley

Breakdown by council district of the vote on Propsition 1, the $744-million police and fire bond measure:

(Please see microfilm for full bar chart information)