Valley Gets ‘Fairer Share,’ Riordan Says

San Fernando Valley residents would get quicker response from paramedics and firefighters under a budget proposed by Mayor Richard Riordan, but the spending plan does not include money for construction of a long-promised sixth Valley police station.

Riordan, a leading opponent of Valley secession, said his budget provides a fair deal for Valley residents.

“More and more it gives the Valley a fairer share of the resources of the city,” Riordan said at a briefing with Los Angeles Times reporters and editors.

The $2.9-billion general operating budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 takes advantage of a booming economy to avoid tax increases, and in fact builds up the city’s reserve fund while setting aside money to address liability for the Rampart police scandal.

The Valley, especially, stands to benefit from some of the new initiatives in Riordan’s budget.

The mayor’s spending plan includes $1.6 million to split paramedics, who now operate in pairs. Under the new plan, the first response unit would reach Valley emergencies in 6 1/2 minutes instead of the current eight minutes.

Under the budget to be unveiled today, $1.5 million would fund 36 firefighters and paramedics to staff new fire stations in Porter Ranch and Arleta--the only new stations scheduled to open in the city next year. The budget would increase the number of Valley streets to be repaved and sidewalks to be repaired, provides staffing for expanded libraries in Pacoima and Studio City, discounts fees for girls’ sports programs and pays for dedicated staffing of the Fire Department’s air operations unit at Van Nuys Airport.

Released while a study has begun on a proposed Valley secession from Los Angeles, Riordan’s budget also addresses two hot-button political issues in the Valley.

His spending plan would have the city absorb the cost of a brush-inspection program that had drawn pointed opposition when the city tried last year to impose new fees.

“The [brush] inspection program is in the budget, but it is completely absorbed by the city,” said Deputy Mayor Jennifer Roth, a key figure in writing the budget.

The proposal also would delay for five years any increase in the sewer service charges, and phase out a sewer franchise fee charged to the sewer program. The franchise fee has been challenged in court as an illegal tax by residents in North Hollywood.

Surrendering the brush-clearance fee and sewer franchise charge would mean the loss of nearly $13 million, but the city’s booming economy--which has meant an increase in sales and business tax revenue--allowed the mayor to make up the difference.

After years of making the Los Angeles Police Department a high budget priority, Riordan for next year is turning more attention to fire services.

The budget, Roth said, would result in “a tremendous reduction in response times” in the Valley, largely because the plan includes money to begin a pilot program that would spread paramedic resources to more ambulances and fire vehicles. The one-year test program in the Valley has drawn strong opposition from paramedics who contend it would hurt patient care by watering down the expertise of emergency caregivers.

Response times also may be affected by new fire stations opening in Arleta and the developing community of Porter Ranch. Riordan’s budget funds 18 firefighters for each station.

Providing $1.4 million for 15 dedicated staff members for the Fire Department’s air unit in Van Nuys also would reduce response times, because firefighters would not have to be pulled from other Valley fire stations to staff emergency medical flights, officials said.

Riordan said he did not draft the budget with the intent of blunting the Valley secession movement, but said he believes it reflects his policy of addressing the complaints of some Valley leaders that the area has not historically received its fair share of city resources.

“Over the last six years, it has taken a little while, but we have gotten them their fair share,” Riordan said. “In our budget we did not really have an eye on secession, but we just wanted to do what is fair for the Valley.”

The spending blueprint does not include money for construction of a long-promised sixth police station because the project design will not be completed until late 2001, Roth said. “From a scheduling perspective, the money simply wasn’t needed this year,” she said. “We absolutely were encouraging them to do it [design] as quickly as possible.”

Roth said purchasing the property, conducting environmental studies and designing the project means construction could not begin until the fall of 2001.

Past delays in the project, initially proposed as part of a 1989 police bond measure, have long frustrated Valley civic leaders, including Richard Close, head of the secession group Valley VOTE.

“We’ve been paying higher property taxes since 1989 because we were promised an additional police station,” Close said Monday. “It just shows how mismanaged the city is.”

Roth said the mayor believes money will be available in the 2001-02 fiscal year for construction of the $17-million police station.

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* FISCAL PLANS

Rampart scandal will have big effect on Mayor Riordan’s budget; county proposal boosts social programs. B11